On our way back down we noticed lots and lots of boulder fields all around us. We pulled off on many dirt roads just exploring and checking out these boulder fields. We explored for over an hour then decided to head back to camp. We were not too excited about heading back to camp and just sitting there. At the last minute we decided to continue past camp and head for the ski town of Mammoth Lakes. We wanted to head up there to check the mountain out and look around. We drove up there and it was cold, around 40 degrees. We drove around the ski town for a while and then decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the Whiskey Creek restaurant off the main drag. We each had a beer and shared some appetizers then headed back down highway 395 to camp for some sleep.
Sunday morning we woke up early and were really looking forward to getting a full day of climbing in. The weather had cooled down significantly over the last several days. We were now looking at a daytime high of 80 degrees. We packed up the car and headed back to the central gorge where the highest concentration of lines were. We hiked down the gorge floor and headed back over to a climb called "Nirvana" (10a) that we did a couple days before. Jodi wanted to head over there because she was interested in leading it. I led it first and ran a couple of laps on it. Now it was Jodi's turn. She pulled the rope and fired it. She looked very smooth and solid all the way up. Once at the chains, I lowered her back to the ground and she was so stoked. Inspired by her lead, I decide to head just to the right and get back on "Darshan aka Ripoff" (12b) to see if I could fire it. I tied in and was off. I passed the first 11d crux with no problem. I clipped a couple more bolts until I reached a pretty good rest before the final push through the cruxy 12b section. I shook out and fired past the section I was having trouble with a couple days prior, but found myself in a situation where I had to really bare down on a right hand crimp. It really felt uncomfortable so instead of trying to push through, I took the fall and sat for sec. After the throbbing in the finger resided, I pushed through that section and finished the route. It wasn't a clean send, but it was major progress for me. My finger felt a little stronger than it did a couple of days prior, but still didn't need to take any unnecessary risks. I cleaned the route and we headed over to the "Pub Wall" again for some afternoon shade. This was quickly becoming one of our favorite crags at the gorge. It was stacked with tons of long sustained 11's. Once at the "Pub Wall" we jumped on an 8 bolt, 90' very steep jug fest called "Hammered" (11b). I ran it first go and liked it so much, I ran 4 more laps afterword. We pulled rope off of that and decided to put up a short face climb around the corner called, "Wonderbar" (10d). It was pretty short, 4 bolts, but proved to be very stout. It was also pretty technical the entire way, and really didn't let up. It wasn't our favorite climb over there, so we each ran 2 laps and moved on. To the right of the previous route was a climb called "Gary Gray" (10b) which looked really fun. It was more or less a face climb with a juggy roof finish. I led it first and then Jodi climbed it after me. This was a great route to do some laps on since it was kind of long, 7 bolts, and was super fun. Jodi ran 2 laps and was super stoked. I ran 1o laps up and down, and had a blast. After a pretty good workout we headed back to the right side of the crag for one final climb of the day. We opted for a 5 star classic 10c called "Light Within". This was a 70' sustained vertical face with some pretty small edges. I led it first and then Jodi climbed it. Jodi especially liked the climb, since it fit her style perfectly. Smallish kind of holds with some pretty delicate movement. I liked it as well and thought the climb was worthy of the 5 star rating. We each ran a couple of laps on that then called it a day. We packed up our bags and headed out of the gorge and back to the car. Back at camp we fixed the world famous pasta, salmon, and brown gravy we had earlier in the week. After dinner it was a relaxing evening sitting around the picnic table watching another episode of "The Office".
Monday morning we woke up, and since this was going to be our last day in town, we decided to treat ourselves to a good breakfast. We headed down the street to a little breakfast place we spotted a couple of days prior. We ordered our food, and when it came out, it was huge. I'm talking plate overfilling huge. We did our best to polish off the plates, but both fell short. After our breakfast we felt like we couldn't even move, let alone go climbing. We took our time getting to the gorge, allowing our food to digest along the way. We reached the parking lot and slowly started downhill. Once at the bottom, we both started feeling a little better and decided to climb. Since this was our last day, we wanted to check some other areas out, to get a good sampling of what the gorge had to offer. We headed over to an area known as "The High Tension Towers". Once over there, we noticed we had a couple of hours before the sun came over the cliff and started baking us. We first jumped on a pretty popular climb called "Brothers in Arms" (10d) for our warm-up. It was a pretty cool climb, but we were wishing we had something a little easier after such a enormous breakfast. We each ran a couple of laps on that and then decided to move on. To the left of the climb we just got off of was a climb called "Sparky Does Power Tower" (10b) which looked really fun. After reading the guide book we noticed it was a 2 pitch climb, but could be done with a full 70 meter rope. I really wanted to try and see if we could do it with a full 70. The first pitch was 4 bolts, 5.7 to sport anchors. Then it was another 10 bolts of 10b to a second set of sport anchors. 14 bolts in total for one really long, 115'-120' pitch. I led it with no troubles, and just about used every draw I had. It felt like I was climbing forever. Once at the final bolt, I looked down and asked Jodi, "How much rope do I have left until the middle marker". She replied, "You have about 6 feet". I looked up, and that was about how far I had to go until I reached the final set of anchors. I punched it to the chains, and clipped in. I looked down and asked Jodi again, "How much till the middle marker". She replied, "About a foot, give or take". I sat back into my harness and asked to lower me, and to keep a close eye on the end of the rope. I made it all the way back down to the ground with about two feet to spare. We have never used a full 70 before on a single pitch, it was kind of cool to do. After we finished those 2 climbs the sun was inches away from getting us so we packed it up, crossed the stream and headed back over to the "Pub Wall". Once at the "Pub Wall" we checked out a climb we haven't done yet which was called "Homebrew" (11d). It was 9 bolts of a gently overhanging face with a cruxy section near the top. We threw the rope down, I tied in and fired it first go. I was so happy not only with the way the finger was holding up, but with my endurance. I decided to push it a bit, and ran it 4 more times after that. I was really feeling the burn after the last lap. We pulled rope from that and moved next door to a fun climb called "Not Too Stout" (5.7) We both needed something a little chill, so we both ran some laps on that for a while. After that climb we hung out for a bit and chatted with some of the locals down there. After our break we headed slightly uphill and to the right to a climb called "Set Free" (10c). This was one of those climbs you see from the ground and you say to yourself, "I have to do that". It starts off with a little seam to an arete, back to a seam/crack, then fire through a pumpy bulge with big holds. It was about 80' in length and was ultra classic. The guide book only gave it 3 stars which we found surprising, we both thought it deserved a little more. Jodi ran a couple of laps till she was done. I ran 8 laps up and down until I was done. We were getting ready to leave, and at the last minute we decided to do one more climb. The climb was called "Hardly Wallbanger" (10c). It was the 5 star, stand out climb for the crag. It was a 90', 9 bolt, bolted crack, the guidebook called "the steepest 10c in the gorge". Every time we went over there to climb it, someone else was on it. Since it was later in the day, and nobody was on it, this was our chance. We set the rope down, I tied in and led it. The crack was full of hand jams and jugs. I was so tired that I thought a couple of times I was going to rip, but didn't. I cleaned the climb up, we packed up our bags, and headed back up to the car. We got in our car and headed into town to the grocery store for a quick sandwich, since we both were too tired to even cook. We ate back at camp around a camp fire we had started. We both sat around the fire for an hour then hit the hay, we were exhausted.
Tuesday morning we fixed a quick breakfast, packed up our things, said goodbye to Bishop, and headed toward Arizona. Our goal for the day was to drive to Flagstaff, where we would set up camp and then check out some climbing areas. We drove a couple of hours and stopped for some lunch right outside of the town of Needles. After lunch we continued on and arrived in Flagstaff around 5 pm. Our first objective was to find a gear shop and get some local beta. We found a gear shop/gym right in downtown. Parked the car and walked over there to check it out. The guy working there was super cool and gave us a ton of beta. We told him that we were looking for mostly sport climbing, but were up for whatever. He told us that there wasn't much sport around, but that there was a newer (1-2 years old) sport crag that was still being developed. Since there was no guidebook for this area, he drew us a hand sketched map of how to get there on the back of a hand sketched route guide. The locals called the area "The Peaks". We figured why not give it a shot, that was really our only option. We left the gear shop/gym and started heading back to the car. On our way back we spotted a local restaurant called "The Lumberyard" which was there local brewpub. We went in each ordered a beer and an appetizer and had a enjoyable dinner. After we ate, we got in the car and drove a couple of miles up the road until we spotted the KOA. We pulled in grabbed a camping spot, set up tent, and hit the hay.
Wednesday morning we got up, both grabbed a quick bite and headed for "The Peaks" to climb. We followed the map the guy drew for us, and after about 30 minutes, we found ourselves in the pullout for "The Peaks". We packed up our climbing equipment and headed into the woods with nothing more than a sketch leading the way. About a mile into our hike we still didn't see anything that resembled a crag, there were some nice boulders along the way, but that was about it. We continued for a couple more minutes then as we came out of a shallow gully, we noticed a cliff off to the left. We headed in that direction and sure enough it was the crag we were searching for. We did the best we could identifying the routes but quickly gave up since there was several more bolted routes then what was on the paper. We pretty much started from the left side and worked our way to the right until we were back to the trial. I would say there were about 50 routes there, and lots more potential. We climbed a couple 9's and 10's before some locals showed up and told us what each route was. That help us out a lot. After talking with them for a while we fired off a couple more 10' and 11's before calling it a day around 6pm. The climbs weren't the best quality, and were not much fun, but we still had a blast. We got kind of spoiled at Owens River Gorge I guess. We hiked back down to our car and headed back into town for some dinner. We liked the "Lumberyard" some much we decided to go back there and have another beer and split an appetizer. After an hour or so of hanging out and eating, we drove back to the KOA, and hit the sack.
Thursday morning we woke up and decided today was going to be a rest day. Over breakfast we decided that the best option for the day was to go a see the Grand Canyon, which the locals call "The Ditch". We finished breakfast and plotted our course for the Grand Canyon, which looked to be about 1-1/2 hours to the south rim. We gassed up and headed straight there. Once at the park entrance we picked up a map and continued on to the visitor center. Once at the visitor center we got out checked out some hikes and proceeded to the rim for some photos. Below is a picture of Jodi and I on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
After shooting some photos we walked back to the car and started looking for some trail heads. We really wanted to do a quick hour or two hike down into the canyon, then back up. We searched around for the trail heads, but quickly realized most of them were only accessible by bus. You had to wait for a bus to take you to the specific trail head. We both thought that was kind of lame, so we starting looking for trail heads that you didn't need to take a bus to. We found one that looked promising, so we headed down the road to the canyon village. Once there we tried to find a parking spot, and couldn't find one. What was really frustrating was the fact they were doing some major construction up there and most of the roads were closed or were one way only. It took us close to 30 minutes just to circle the village and still couldn't find a parking spot. Instead of going through that mess again, we decided to abandon the hike and just drive around and stop at overlooks and take pictures. Once out of all the chaos, we headed east till we found a lookout point. We got out and hiked the rim trail for a little while and took tons of pictures. We got back in the car and continued east until we hit another lookout point. Again we jumped out walked around and took some more photos. By now it was close to 3pm and to be honest we were getting a little tired of looking at "a hole in the ground". There really wasn't much more to see from where we were. The best way to see the canyon was to get down in there and explore, but that we would have to save for another trip. We decided to leave the Grand Canyon and head back to Flagstaff and figure out something to do. Below is a picture of the Grand Canyon from one of the many lookouts.
On our way back to Flagstaff, we were tossing around the idea of getting some climbing in, but where? It was hard for us to swallow, but we decided to head to the gym in Flagstaff and get a good evening workout in. We rolled into the gym around 5pm and started lapping it up. Their gym is much smaller then ours at home, but still had 40' walls to train on. After 3-1/2 hours of continuous climbing I turned out 50 laps, half of which were 10 or harder. Jodi stepped it up as well and cranked out 30 plus laps. After our session we talked with one of the employees there for a while and he recommended a couple places to climb in Utah, which was our next destination. We picked up a guide for the Southwestern part of Utah from him and headed out. By now it was close to 9pm and we were feeling pretty tired. We headed back to the "Lumberyard" for a brew and a quick bite, then back to camp for a good nights sleep.
Sorry not so many pictures, we have been slacking.
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