Bouldering in Bishop, California
I was breathing hard and my palms were sweating. I moved my hands and feet across the rock the way the muscles in my body remembered, and I didn’t dare look down. I told myself that I had to make it … and when I finally reached the top, a huge wave of relief washed over me … And that, my dear friends, was the story of how I climbed my first V0 highball. .
There was no grace, there was no finesse, and I’m sure I could have climbed (what is considered the easiest bouldering grade in climbing) with a little more grace, but Mrs. Never-Doing-a-Highball finally did. his first. highball.
Location: Bishop, California
Coordinates: 37.3635 ° N, 118.3951 ° W
Elevation: 4200ft
Climbing type: Boulder, Sport, Trad
Geology: volcanic tuff, monzonite quartz
Known For: Premier Highball Boulder
High season: November-April
Star Rating (out of 5): 5 *
It had been 4 months into our relationship when David and I took our first week-long road trip together. I, for one, thought it was a relationship survival test disguised as a climbing trip, but what better way to know if your boyfriend is the one for you than to be locked together in a metal box on wheels for 20 hours. ? Fortunately, the relationship came to life and, 20 long hours later, we arrived in the land of skin-breaking highballs.
The current city of Bishop is quite large, and the residents and visitors consist not only of climbers, but also other outdoor enthusiasts. The locals are lucky to have the popular bakery known as Erick Schat’s Bakkerÿ famous for its original Sheepherder Bread®. For us, their Chili Cheese Bread was a great way to refuel our bodies after a tough climbing session, although I’m sure many high-performance athletes would disagree …
For $ 2 a night, we stayed at “The Pit” campground. Our lodging unit was David’s green Honda Element, commonly known as the “Hulk.” The rear of the SUV cleverly became our sleeping space, cushioning the hard plastic floor with a tattered, sad-looking Madrock crash pad.
During the week we were there, we had a simple routine. I called it, the “Valley People’s Routine” … (for no apparent reason other than it sounded pretty incredible). Days always began with the sweet light of nature’s alarm clock, the sun. After having an easy breakfast of yogurt and cereal, we would clean up, pack the emergency pads, and head straight into town for our first stop. We needed our daily caffeine boost and our “favorite” was Looney Bean, a coffee shop just off the main road. There, we would update ourselves on our social media sites and write home to let our family and friends still be alive.
After our morning duties, we go out to play!
There were three main rock areas that David was most familiar with:
1) The Buttermilks (his favorite)
2) Happy boulders
3) The Sad Boulders (my favorite)
On our first day, we went to Happy’s. It was quite cloudy that afternoon, but conditions were good. Warmer days made climbing difficult due to less friction; the colder days were favorable. The Happy’s was where I climbed my first highball. I wasn’t entirely interested at first, but when you’re in highball land, you have to climb a highball …
After our first day of prep for next week, we head back to town and grab some essentials, namely food and toothbrushes. Our meals weren’t too fancy, but they sure outperformed many other campers’ meals. (That happens quite often when your boyfriend is an amazing chef, even with the most limited resources.)
On the consecutive days, we were going up mainly to the Milks. This climbing spot is possibly the best known, if not the most popular, area of Bishop. It is home to some of the toughest routes in the world, such as Mandala V12 and Evilution V11 on the milks.
A unique feature of the Milks includes the highballs, which can reach up to 5 stories high at the top. While highball climbs are the ones I keep shy of, it is impressive and inspiring to see other climbers boost their mental game.
During our entire stay, we had two days off. One was spent in a natural hot spring in a slightly secret place (in which I will only reveal the whereabouts in exchange for their favorite secret place … or “the Google”); the other rest day we spent in a secluded stretch of bushes and weeds where we sunbathed, played games and drank beers. We also had a game of “plucking body hair with tweezers”, but it got old really fast.
Some nights we had big bonfires and invited our neighbors for a beer. One particular night, I brought out my ukulele and our neighbor Yve brought his mandolin. Together, we step over the dancing flame and into the night. It is quite wild but clear how a place can unite so many people from different avenues.
Bishop has undoubtedly been one of my favorite climbing yards. It is a land where the desert plains are covered with sand-colored boulders that look like colossal eggs; where the view from the top is strikingly different but immensely magical nonetheless. Bishop, we’ll see each other again one day.