Bishop Sessions

Sunrise over the snowy Sierra from the Volcanic Tableland outside Bishop

Urban OW project-bring long sleeves, pants.

Between Black Sheep and the Mountain Light Gallery, get some!

Joel, Neil, Joshua, Patrick exploring the Happy Boulders

Joel

Patrick

Josh sends the classic Ironman Traverse at the Buttermilks

Waiting out some snow flurries

Last weeks storm has left the peaks white above the desert of Califorina, so the man van headed to Bishop for some of the best bouldering anywhere. This is a winter haven for climbers where one can crimp and smear the technical granite of the Buttermilk country or pull down on the steep ab-wrecking jugs of the Volcanic Tablelands. Choose your own adventure! With the shoulder still on the mend, I'm focused on taking photos with my new Canon S95, the world's best point and shoot. Stay tuned for more Yosemite action as Joel hooks up with zazen stone master Greg Collins, Wyoming's most prolific new router. Greg has been crushing longer than we've been alive and is still as psyched as ever.

Styke is high!

Joel on the lamb

Finishing the Oz.

Whorl Mtn. background

Atop the Oz.

Dave's magnificent mushroom

Authentic Argentine cordero!

Logan kicks off the Burning Lamb festivities

Meat for all!!

Burning Lamb

Uniting with Team CO, everyone into the man van!

To the HULK!

The mini-dyno on Sunspot Dihedral

Looking down on thin RP's, starting the big dihedral

Finger locks forever!

The "Sunspot" pitch

Joining Positive Vibrations

Splittertonville, CA

Pat Pharo on Positive Vibes

Pat on the Hulk summit ridge

The 5.10 roof pitch on Tradewinds

Red pants+smile=send

Joel following the 5.11 thin bit on Tradewinds

In awe of J-Fink leading high on Tradewinds

Hackin the sack on a restful day

Josh clippin bolts at Tioga Cliff

Pat leading at Tioga

Lots to report on here, Planet Kauffman has reunited for Autumn, currently residing in Cali. The bad news first: I dislocated my left shoulder doing the infamous sideways falling dyno on Pitch 4 of Tradewinds, a sustained 5.11 route at The Incredible Hulk. Until that point, Joel, Josh Finkelstein and I had been crushing and having a blast. "Its not IF you get injured, but how you recover" Willy Stanhope. I have nearly full range of motion but can still feel the stretch on my bicep tendon; on the DL until further notice.

Back to the start, Joel and I met up for the season and proceeded to Tuolumne to get our granite crack on! We made a fun link of On The Lamb, Oz, and Hobbit Book, combining three domes and topping out on the highest in Tuolumne with killer thunderstorm views! A few days of cragging and we had a splitter weather report for The Incredible Hulk, an astonishing hunk of white Sierra granite tucked away at 11,000 feet on the border of Yosemite. Somewhere along the way we ended up at Burning Lamb, a Tahoe-based party celebrating the coming winter and good friends. The event was located in the sagebrush flats near Bridgeport and featured fully authentic Argentine cordero (lamb) raised in the foothills. A family of Argentine sheep herders slow-cooked the meat over open coals and we swore we in the southern hemisphere again. Festivities lasted long into the night around a raging bonfire.

Perfectly on que, our friends Josh Finkelstein and Pat Pharo rolled onto the scene and provided merriment and extra psych; we all piled into the Sprinter and headed off to the HULK!

Joel and I needed redemption after bailing off The Sunspot Dihedral last fall, and we got it! This route climbs an immaculate corner with never-ending finger locks and steep exposure, what more can you want? We met Pat and Josh on the ridge and rappelled in the fading sunlight, fully stoked on some of the best climbing ever...

After a rest day, our three-man team headed up the Tradewinds route, one that I've been scoping for a few years now. Less traveled than the classic Hulk routes, this one is slightly less sustained but has some great climbing. After the shoulder-ripping dyno, we discussed finishing the last 2 pitches but decided bailing was the thing to do. On cue, the weather deteriorated and we left the alpine zone to do some much needed soaking, in the hot springs of the Sierra Eastside.

The crew climbed the Rostrum yesterday, and a biblical storm seems to be descending upon the Sierra, so back to the Eastside for now. Stay tuned and stay styked!

Hair Raiser Buttress

The centerpiece of Granite Basin climbing
Hair Raiser Buttress climbs the left side on 400 ft of slab

Starting off the ground

Cord following excellent slab, pitch 1

Right before the shitstorm engulfed us, so close!

The Eye of Sauron dwells over Mammoth Mountain

Well the field season has been cut short by persistent cold, wet weather throughout the Sierra. I went to explore Granite Basin, a large batholith of (yep) granite east of Mono Lake. Our mission was Hair Raiser Buttress, a classic 70's slab route established ground-up by Vern Clevenger; the route has since sprouted a few more bolts to ease the devastating cheese-grater fall potential. This still ain't no sport climb; I definitely had to check my head a few times while contemplating my skins textural resemblance to a block of fine white cheddar. Cord and I had been watching the thunderheads building and dropping out around us, and nearly 300 feet up it started to sprinkle, just as I finished leading. There was no mercy for Cord as he climbed the wet slab in a shivering, drenching deluge. Then we bailed! But we're going back real soon to finish this east-side gem...

The Pine Creek Freak

Pine Creek Canyon, California

Maxwell Joseph onsights "Phenomenon"

Sarah Land on the Phe na na na

Shadow Ayala works his new route 'The High Lonesome'

Its a 5.12+ on the Ministry Wall, 60 meters!!!!!

On days off from froggin' I've been sampling some of the Sierra Eastside's finest granite in Pine Creek Canyon. Home to the infamous Pratt's Crack, an intimidating 40meter wide crack first climbed by Chuck Pratt way before camalots were concieved, year 1968!! Tucked away in this shady narrow side canyon, the climbing is spectacular. I've dreamed of climbing all the 5.11 sport routes here in a day, long pitches of technical footwork and scheelite patina pulling, a 10-15 pitch linkup! Crack climbing here also brings a smile to the wayward adventurer; Sheila, a beautiful dihedral is apparently the first 5.10 established on the Eastside in '71.

There is no end to the granite in Pine Creek; development has reignited all over the canyon, with new multi-pitch and sport climbs being opened regularly. They call Bishop local Ty Devore "Mr. Pine Creek', as sparked the recent new-routing torch. Maybe I can earn my own nickname, spurred by my intense psyche for this mind-blowing little spot...

Yosemite Valley Shots

View from The Sentinel

Me leading on the Chouinard-Herbert

Following one of the 5.11 pitches

Finishing the crux pitch, after the Afro-Cuban Flakes

Sunrise illuminates the Cathedral group, from the West Face of El Capitan

Runnin from the sun!

The wacky traverse pitch

Ridiculously fun moderate terrain way up

Matt givin Thanks on El Cap's biggest ledge

....and praises!

As the bro mentioned earlier, I was living in Yosemite Valley this Spring volunteering on the NPS Peregrine Falcon monitoring project. It was incredible to observe these creatures as they incubated their eggs, caught food for the young chicks, and eventually the little dudes took flight! It looks like the Rostrum is one of the most successful nests in the park, go figure!

It was a super-wet and generally cool spring in California, which meant great cragging temps when it was dry. In June, I started climbing a few of the longer routes. The West Face of El Cap was my favorite route of the season, which I climbed with a young send-bot, Matt Wells from Bzoeman. Hard, technical cruxes down low, with fun knobby jug-hauling towards the top of the climb. A few days later, we suited up for the Sentinel's Chouinard-Herbert, another classic! The Afro-Cuban Flakes make up the hardest part of the route, where you pull over tough roof with tons of air under your feet! Hooking up with Taylor, a Valley fixture, we climbed the Astro-man, getting redemption from an earlier attempt being rained off AFTER the harding slot. Sorry no photos!(harding slot again)((its an extremely tight squeeze chimney)).

It seemed as if the snow in the high Sierra would never melt, and I finally made it to the Eastside and started work on July 7. Another season catching frogs is underway!