Bishop

Been Bouldering in Bishop now on and off for a month, absolutly loving it. With Dave George and Ben at the moment.
Done some wicked problems such as Checkerboard V8, High Plains drifter V7, Green Wall Center V6.
Happies and the Sads have hosted us a few times as well, MollyV5, Strengh in Numbers V5, Rio's Crack V6 stand out at the Sads, Action Figure V6 and Rave V7 still have some of our skin on them at the happies.

Perhaps the best problem here tho has to be Seven Spanish Angles V6, a true gem or a line.

It Snowed about an inch or two one night and atho we couldnt feel our feet the rock was sticky as.

Action Figure V6*** Happies

Ben on the Clapper V6*** at the Happies

Rio's Crack V6*** Sad Boulders

5.9 Arete on Grandma

Get Carter V7** Get Carter Boulder (should be *** really cool)

High Plains Drifter V7*** Buttermilks (ultra classic)

Bowlingpin V4*** Buttermilks

Rob on Green Wall Center V6*** Buttermilks

Rob on Fly Boy Arete V5**

Heavenly Path V1*** Happy Boulders

The Shield

Happy to be at the top of the Shield after lots of hard work and swearing

Last morning, it was very cold and without therma rests was an uncomfortable night

Chickenhead ledge: At that point the headwall is below you and you can almost taste the top.

Me cleaning the pitch above the triple cracks

Neil Crushing the Groove pitch. Proud send bro.

Just got down from climbing the Zodiac the day before yesterday, it was amazing, took 2 1/2 days which was much faster than we expected. Fixed first 4 pitches had a rest day then got up at 4am and jugged up our fixed lines. that day we climbed 5 pitches to below the nipple pitch. the climbing was never that hard a bit tricky in places.
Neil had the black tower pitch which could prove to be nasty if you took a fall as you would land on the tower and then roll off if.

The hauling was hard as well as the bag weighed about 50 kilos. That night was swett set the porta ledge up and chilled out listening to music and taking in the amazing views.

The next morning took forever to get sorted out then i set off on the Nipple pitch which was amazing lots of inverted cam hook moves in a row, as it said in the topo "wild" and it was.

All went well from there we spent another nyt on peanut ledge and toped out in the afternoon the next day, a bear was at the top to greet me which was nice.

we where very very smelly.

We did the Zodiac in the hope that it would give us and idea of what the Shield would be like, in a sense it was a training climb. Altho we knew it would be a step up in Aid we where confindent we could climb it.

Neil cleaning the Nipple pitch.

At the Top. Just after i was greeted by a bear.

Yosemite update

All is good in the valley, did 10 days after on Washington Collum wich took 3 days and that was going nice and slow just taking it easy. 13 pitches in all c3 or A2 but with a pitch of A3 portaledge was great. the hauling on the last few pitches was a nightmare anf the bag out stuck a few time.

Above Chilling on the ledge after a hard day, and Neil cleaning the first pitch.

The walk down was epic as well cos we didn't really eat enough on the whole climb so where totally knacked for the walk down.

Second pitch, we went up the first 2 pitches of the Prow to avoid the often wet first 2 pitches of 10 days after.

Yosemite Prep.........well kind of

1 week till me and Neil head off to the US and Yosemite. Over the last few months i have been tracking down emailing people about getting gear we need or possible sponsorship/free stuff.

It has been a bit of a nightmare to say the least....but finally we have everything we need, even if we dont know how to use it all. The only thing to worry about now is what the airport is going to say when we turn up with 50 kilos of stuff each..ummmm.




Its kind of hard to prepare for big wall climbing in the lakes, especially as neither of us have done any "real" aid climbing before.
The Nose on El Cap really wont have prepared us that much for what we are about to try and do.


Big walling.............well it really aint much fun, that is until your at the top or just before you go to sleep.
Ropes get knoted, haul bags get stuck, knees get cut, hands get swollen, the sun beats down on you, minds wander normally towards water . Sitting in your harness for hours on end, or sweating and bricking it if you are leading.




All this said, when we stood at the bottom of the Nose and looked up at 3200 feet of golden granite it seemed an impossible goal to climb this route, there was so much uncertainty..so much unknown, so many what if's.
Yet we made it..........and the feeling of getting to the top after so much hardship was amazing like nothing i have ever felt before...............And thats why we go back....so maybe..... just maybe we can be allowed to climb El Cap again......and again


Trying to set up the portaledge no easy task.













Me and keith enjoyed a San Miguel on the ledge. Should be many a night spent on this bad boy in the weeks to come.

Thanks Si for coming through and getting this for us. Leg-end.

Bridge Swing Fun

A few months ago Me, Rob and Mike went and found a suitable bridge and riged up a little bridge swing, oh so much fun.
We threw a bag off first........it looked ok so i went for it, after i jugged back up to see mike still laughing at the face i had made on the way down, maybe i was a bit scared. Rob was up.
He jumped........having never used accenders before pritty much hand over handed his way back up the whole rope.
I then jumped twice more by the last jump the rope had lost so much stretch that it began to hurt a bit, plus the people in the nearby house had noticed us.....maybe it was time to leave.





Rob Jumping




Me on my last jump (sorry about the sideways nature)

Rain

Why?