Rollin' Stones: Tales from the Serial Dirtbags

Since Juan last wrote, things have greatly improved, climbing-wise, in Bishop.  On Thursday, we went bouldering at the Buttermilks with Scott and Mike from Portland.  We saw a pile of rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rock and Juan insisted on getting within about 5 feet of them to get a good picture:

Juan sending the famous Iron Man Traverse (v4) at the Buttermilks

Friday, while getting groceries in town, we ran into a friend named Dan Ancog, who we'd met in Portland months ago through a friend of mine at US Outdoor Store.  We'd heard he was heading down to Potrero in the winter too, and thought we might see each other there, but it turned out he arrived there a few days after we left!  We did not expect to run into him here, however!  Dan's been on the road climbing for almost a year now but is based out of Tahoe, so Owen's River Gorge is basically his home crag and he knows it in and out.  Lucky us!  We partnered up for the weekend and he showed us around.

On Saturday we climbed in the Central Gorge, starting at the Dilithium Crystal area, where Juan found what I believe he called "the perfect route" in Enterprise (5.12b).  The route moves up big holds under a horizontal roof then up a slabby headwall above, and I tried it on TR and agreed that it was super fun.  My favorite, though, was the first pitch (11a) of a route called Towering Inferno, which crosses from the right side to the top center of El Dorado Roof in a 15-bolt-long hand crack traverse.  I'd never gotten to do a climb like that before!  It was sweet.  We finished the day off with a thin slab climb called Holocaust (10b) on the DMZ Wall.  We don't do thin slab climbs very often and Juan is not a huge fan of them, but I kind of like the balance-y movement they force you to do to keep your feet from popping off edges the width of a quarter...in any case it is good for your head!

Juan one-arm clipping Enterprise

Marie on the first pitch of Towering Inferno

We enjoyed a delicious pot of pasta with broccoli, onions, and cheese with Dan under a nearly full moon at the Piñon campground that evening, and he showed us his house on wheels - an amazingly outfitted Econoline which he designed and built completely himself (he's a trained carpenter)!  It's got a camp oven in addition to a stove, a rotating front passenger seat, a full bed, plenty of storage space, a "living room", the works.  If I can ever arrange a pad like that for myself, I would never pay rent again!  It was the birthday of Dan's friend Alison, who was there with a group of friends, so we joined them at their campfire for music, homemade desserts, and a "bacon bomb" put on by their firefighter friend as an "educational opportunity" :)

The next day we met Alison et al. out in the Upper Gorge at the Dihedrals area (sound familiar to any Smith lovers?) and Dan did something no one has successfully done for me or Juan in at least a year - got our butts on a trad climb!  He easily put up the crack/dihedral Pumpin' the Slots (5.9) and before we knew it we both led it as well!  It was hard, to say the least, after so much time away, and I for one definitely got a little nervous placing gear again.  But we both felt so good afterward, having finally done what we'd vowed to do on this trip - at least one trad climb!  And I'm sure it won't be the last.  Thanks, Dan, for the inspiration!

Dan leading the way on Pumpin' the Slots

The day continued with a lot of fun climbs, including Towel Rack (10d), a thin, slabby, face, O.R.G.asm, a fun 11a layback crack that reminded me of Smith's Panic Attack, and a long, tricky 10b called Delicate Mechanism.  Unfortunately Dan badly hurt his shoulder (exact injury as yet unknown) after clipping the last bolt on a cool climb called Slackjaw.  He rested after that and hopefully is feeling a little better by now... We really enjoyed hanging out and climbing with Dan and his friends and ended the weekend on a high note with showers, laundry, and a bag of leftover birthday cookies and brownies (they musta thought we looked thin!) back in town.

Not sure what's in store for this week or where, but stayed tuned and you'll see!

Marie




We've been in Bishop for a week and a half now and I've been noticing how easily we've adapted to van dwelling.  A couple of years ago as I was outfitting my motorcycle for a 5 week cross-country road trip, I remember thinking how I was pretty sure that by the end of the trip, the way I packed the motorcycle was going to look very different from how I packed it at the beginning of the trip.  As the adventure unfolds I began to figure out what things I needed access to more frequently, what things could afford to be stashed at the bottom etc., and so it is with the van. 

We've put together a near perfect system that lets us manage our lives from within the confines of the mini-van.  We've pretty much got each thing in its individual place and I'm pretty sure we could find most anything we want even in the dark.  There's also a rhythm to way that things are set up in the van that I find very curious.  For example, I'm pretty sure we perform with near precision, the same set of movements every time we get ready to cook.  Get out of van, open the hatch, remove dishes, wiggle out condiment container and set on top of the crash pads, and pull out stove.   Next, open right side sliding door, pull out clothes bin and set on crash-pad, pull out jack stand and place underneath platform, slide out cooler and pick out dinner.  I don't know why, but I've always found comfort in small routines like this plus once you have a place for everything, especially in such small confines, it's really easy to identify when something's gone astray.  For instance, recently we moved a water jug from the back of the platform to the side door due to a potential leak that caused us to have to stand the water jug up which made it not fit in its usual place.  When we next opened the back hatch to get ready to make lunch in the park, there was an interruption in the usual routine and I had to stop and see what was different. 

A typical breakfast of eggs over hard on a bagel with cheese for Juan, and oatmeal with nuts and banana for Marie

And so goes the other areas of our life now that we've made Bishop a temporary home.  We mostly eat lunch and sometimes dinner during the week at the same park, we sleep and I work in the same dirt road, parked the facing the same way on the same side of the road, we go the same convenience store 3 times a week for internet, and we shop and compare prices for groceries at the same two stores.  Occasionally we might sleep in a new spot, or cook dinner where we camp and it throws the routine off for a little bit but we tend to gravitate towards the same ol'.  For someone with a restless spirit who loves to move around a lot, I find it curious that I derive a certain pleasure from having a well planned routine.  A well oiled machine is what comes to mind when I think about it. 

The Bishop City Park, our usual lunch spot on rest days

The weather in Utah has not been cooperating as we would've liked, and recently we have been heavily debating whether we would like ride out another week here in Bishop, or head down to St. George and wait for the weather to get better in Ephraim so we can climb at Maple Canyon.  Oddly enough, a factor in my decision so far to stay longer in Bishop has been the effectiveness of the routine we've come to build in this town.  I pointed out that rolling out to a new area would mean a near complete reset to a part of the routine that might not be worth it if we were to stay for less than a week.  Some things, like the way we've come to arrange the van are getting to the point of being set in stone and I see very little change as we've worked out an effective system.  However figuring out the ins and outs of a new town like parking, free camping, cell reception, internet connection, and thrifty shopping seem like quite a chore to me sometimes after getting it all figured out in the current town. 

But, it's inevitable that we will move at some point.  More places to see, people to climb with, and crags to explore, which is what these rolling stones are all about.  Once the van is on the move again and we reach our next destination, it's nice to know that we're equipped and ever more experienced in the art of dirtbag van dwelling. 
-Juan