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.

Last weekend I went to Smith Rocks with Sarah. We left Vancouver at about 9pm and made it to the campground by 4:30am. Somewhere past Seattle, we had some guy behind us with his high beams on. We were in the HOV lane and stuck there by cars in front and beside us. We were laughing about how dumb this guy was and Sarah gave him the finger, but kind of as a joke; she didn’t think he saw us. Finally we’re able to pass the car in front and buddy with his bright lights follows. I’m like, let’s lose the bastard. We weave past some other cars, but we’re still tailed. The guy then goes to pass us. We look over to see a whole family waving and making faces at us. It was weird man. Little 10 year olds sticking their tongues out at us. I guess daddy is teaching them the proper way to rage on the road. They get in front of us and slow down. So Sarah tosses on her high beams and again we get the kids in the back looking back at us with their thumbs in their ears and tongues out. Haha, it was hilarious. I’m sure the dad was fuming on the inside. I mean wouldn’t you be if some freaking Canadians in front of you gave you the finger? It doesn’t matter that you were beaming them with your brights because you’re an American, you’re number one. The little charade eventually ended when buddy let us pass him because he had to exit. But oh man, we definitely had the last laugh. Dumb asses…

We started our first day late, but made it to the crag by 11ish. It was probably 20 degrees out and Sarah was in pants. “Where the hell are your shorts?” I ask. “I didn’t bring any, you said it was going to be cold,” she says. Hehe, yeah I guess I said that, but I also showed her the weather report that forecasted a few hot days. Luckily she had some capris – they worked out just fine. We did the tour and climbed a bunch of easy things. We were pretty tired from the late night and the drive.

On day two we had the same great weather. We set out to find some projects. I showed Sarah Heinous Cling and Crack Babies. She preferred the latter because it was shorter. I wanted to work White Wedding again. Sarah figured out the moves for her project quickly. I already had the beta for mine. I tried it last year so I just had to refamiliarize. This time I felt a lot better on the route. I made it through the first crux no problem. I just had to get past the second crux. Last year I wasn’t strong enough to pull the mono move so I was trying to dead-point to a decent sloping edge. But this time it seemed doable, so I settled on that sequence for redpoint. We finished our working session at around 5, but still wanted to climb. I said, “Let’s climb the Monkey!” Last year, Mike, JJ, Sean, and I did a late afternoon ascent in under two hours, round trip. Sarah and I pulled it off in 2.5 hours. The slowest part was hiking down Misery Ridge in the dark – we didn’t have headlamps. We also got caught up behind another party of 3. Supposedly they had been on the route for 6 hours. They made up for it by letting us rappel off their ropes.

Day three was all about redpointing. We warmed up and heading into the Cocaine Gully. Sarah ticked off her route second try. It was my turn over in Agro Gully. My first burn was pretty good. I made it to the mono and fell while trying to establish on the sloping pinch. It also started to rain while I was resting between cruxes. I rested and went for a second go. This time I made it past the mono move to the sloping pinch and then to the decent left hand edge. There was one more move in this crux sequence to go – a deadpoint to a good right hand three finger pocket. I set up, pull…and…power out. I tagged the hold, but couldn’t stick. I wasn’t too disappointed though, I made my high point and I still had one more day. We cooled off on some easy routes on the Morning Glory wall and headed back to camp.

I was psyched to get on my route again, but on our last day it pissed rain. We woke up with a puddle in our vestibule. We packed the car and drove to Bend to visit the crew at Metolius and then made our way home. The drive was uneventful and went by pretty fast. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t come across any road raging families to give us a laugh.