Today is our 6th day in Bishop. It will also be our 6th climbing day. We’ve spent the last five days climbing at the Buttermilks. I’ve mainly been taking it easy – climbing nothing harder than V9. A few classics have been sent by our crew. Yesterday we sessioned Checkerboard, which is the Buttermilks only 4 star problem. There were flash sends of Jedi Mind Tricks and some promising attempts on the Buttermilker and Spectre. We did the hike to the Druid stones a few days ago and we’ve yet to go to the Happy Boulders, but that’ll probably happen tomorrow. Sean and I tried The Swarm, which looks so doable, but is crazy hard. I’ll post a few unedited pics here just to show y’all how much fun we’re having!

I’m actually getting excited for this upcoming trip to Bishop. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a roadtrip. I usually fly to Hueco this time of year and rent a car, but there’s something special about driving for thousands of kilometers to climb. I’ve done the drive to Bishop 4 other times. Normally we go down the I-5 to Sacramento, then bust east towards Lake Tahoe. But a friend suggested we cut east earlier at Mt. Shasta. The route through Susanville is less kilometers, but also less time on the speedy interstate. What do you guys think?

Google Maps says: 1764km, 20 hours 26 minutes

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Google Maps says: 1889 km, 20 hours 6 minutes

During my 20 minute journey to work this morning I noticed Olympic Volunteers in blue jackets loitering around key public transit areas. I suppose the tourists are starting to arrive in our city eager to take in the many attractions. I just hope they leave with a positive impression – I want them telling their friends and family back home how awesome Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler are!

Speaking of the Olympics, I figure I should put a plug in for a small website I built back in November. It’s a map of Olympic venues – venues2010.com. Do me a favour, click some of the ads! I didn’t put a lot of effort into the site, but it helps earn a little bit of spending money.

There’s just over a week until opening ceremonies here in Vancouver, but even though I really want to join the party, I’m getting the hell out! After some arm-twisting, I’ve decided to join a huge crew of friends for a trip to Bishop – a mecca for huge granite boulders. Sean McColl and myself are driving down together and I think pro-climber Will Stanhope is joining us on the way home. There are a number of other Canadians meeting us in Bishop including the cute couple Vikki Weldon and Ryan Olson. So many good friends and talented climbers. I’m actually more excited to just be roadtripping with these peeps than sending projects. I’m also looking forward to snapping lots of pics. It should be easy to get some mag-worthy photos!

Spring and Summer are just around the corner. I’m excited for a few Leavenworth adventures and definitely multiple trips to Squamish. In September I’ll be going to Edinburgh, Scotland – the host of the 2010 Youth World Championships. I was recently selected to be a coach for the Canadian youth climbing team. It’ll be the 4th World Championships I’ve coached so I hope my past experience will help our young athletes do well. There are lots of changes to the team structure this year. In 3 words: no parents allowed. I’m looking forward to the challenge of supervising 24 kids!

This is the first time I’ve had a chance to write since Sarah, JJ, Sean and I departed on our two week roadtrip on March 11th. For those of you that don’t know, the plan is as follows: Go to the Tour de Bloc comp in Nanaimo on Saturday (The comp in Nanaimo was a success. Sean placed 1st, I came second and Sarah placed 1st!), fly to Vegas on Sunday, climb in Vegas for one day, drive to Joe’s Valley and climb until we’re bored, then drive to Bishop. From Bishop we drive to Vegas again and fly to Calgary where the three of us will compete in Boulder Regionals.

So now we’re in Bishop. It’s super hot here. Something like 26 degrees in the Happy Boulders. We drove 8 hours yesterday from Joe’s. It was  along drive, I got one $67 speeding ticket, which is pretty good considering I did most of the drive at 90mph.  Joe’s Valley was pretty cool, but I was a little disapointed. I kind of expected more. The part that took away from it’s appeal was the fact that the boulders are so spread out. You had to drive between clusters of boulders and there weren’t that many classics in any given area. We sent some cool problems though. Check out our summary below:

In Red Rocks (the Craft Boulders) Jamie, Sean and JJ sent Monkey Bar, V9 (Jamie flashed).

Jamie, Sean and JJ sent Worm Turns, V11.

Jamie, Sean and JJ sent some unamed V9 (Jamie flashed, Sarah came close!).

JJ sent The Scrawny and the Brawny, V10 (Sean and I couldn’t do it, so crimpy!)

Jamie and Sean flashed Finger Hut, V10 (JJ sent 3rd try).

Sarah sent SPAM – the V5 version.

Today was our first session in Bishop. We checked out the Happy Boulders first and basically just climbed around. It was so hot out there. We’re all feeling a little sun burnt. We then grabbed some lunch and drove up to the Buttermilks. We tooled around on a few problems. Sarah got on the Cave Problem, a steep V6 and she flashed! She’s climbing super well. She has her eye on a few other 6s and 7s in the Buttermilks. We just wanted to chill so we decided to drive up to the Pollen Grains to check out the problems up there. We got on Jedi Mind Tricks, a high ball V4. We have some sweet videos of it that I hope to post soon. Sean got on first and missed a crucial hold, making his variation something like V6 – very sketchy. JJ and I climbed it normally. We drove back down to the main area and waited for the sun to leave us alone. Sean wanted to try the Mandala, V12. The last time he was on it he was 13. Since then a hold broke making it pretty solid V12. After his 4th or 5th try, he sent! Good work Sean.

We grabbed some burittos at the local mexican restaurant and now we’re chilling in the coffee shop. I hope to get some photos posted soon. I have to upgrade my photo viewing section first though, I might not get it working until I get home.