Bishop 2017

We love this place. Bishop, California: land of snow-peaked Sierra mountains, rich-smelling desert sage, local donuts, baked breads, cheesy bagels and frozen yogurt. And beautiful, beautiful boulders.
 

We drove four long days from Mexico to California, to spend the first 10 days of March in Bishop. We were rushing to make it in time for the 2^nd Annual Flash Foxy Women’s Climbing Festival. We met Shelma Jun, founder of Flash Foxy, last season. After volunteering in the successful, inaugural year we knew we had to make it back for round two. The event this year was a blast yet again, with more than two hundred women descending upon the small mountain town. Thinking you may want to attend next year? Click here for a quick recap that captures the vibe of the festival.

▴STΛTIC owner @tayylor_j @kimstagraham.mcg & @melsolvesproblems volunteering at the2nd @heyflashfoxy Festival #happyclimbing #heyflashfoxy

A post shared by ▴STΛTIC (@staticclimbing) on Mar 3, 2017 at 8:02pm PST

THANK YOU to all the beautiful ladies who came out to #bishop this weekend for the 2nd #womensclimbingfestival! Your energy and psych was so incredibly inspriring! Excited to also announce that we raised over $2000 for the @accessfund through our raffle and over 100 ladies at our stewardship projects yesterday. Look for more photos in the coming weeks! 📸 @etteloc #flashfoxy #climblikeagirl #outdoorwomen

A post shared by Flash Foxy << badass girlcrew (@heyflashfoxy) on Mar 6, 2017 at 3:16pm PST

We traveled to Bishop with Chris, and met up with several friends including Paul and Janelle, Lea and Katie, and Rich and Senja, in addition to many new and old friends in town.

Lea and Katie - girls trip!

Some goofballs we hang out with :p

In climbing, we immediately felt the burn in our bodies that comes from a lack of power when one returns to bouldering following a hiatus, but that burn was a welcome change. 

Hard moves are harrrrrrrrd

By the end of our seven climbing days we were putting down classics and wishlist items. It was a fantastic short stint, and we (as always) can’t wait for our next visit.

Kim cranking over the bulge on Erotic Terrorist (V6)

Graham finessing his way up Hands-Off Slab (V0)

Graham = captain of the toe hooks on Captain Hook (V5)

Katie cranking moves over a sea of pads on Mr Happy (V5)

Kim tests some precarious heel hook beta on The Clapper (V6)

Graham climbing up from the depths on his send of Los Locos (V7)

Photo shoot of a photo shoot? Making moves on Paper Crane (V8)

Now we are off to Utah for the next two and a half months for a mixture of sport climbing, bouldering, trad climbing, and desert towers!

Six weeks of Bishop fun

Bishop is hands down one of our very favourite rock climbing destinations. The quaint town, diverse and affordable camping, amazing human beings, incredible scenery, and a plethora of world class bouldering make it hard to beat. 

The Buttermilks after a snow

Last year we did two short(ish) stints in Bishop, and we loved it enough to plan six weeks there this winter. Six weeks is a great amount of time to spend in one area because you can really start to get intimate with it. We sampled classics and worked hard projects without feeling rushed, and we had ample time to forge real friendships.

There are two quintessential things that really make a trip: (1) the people, and (2) the rock climbing. We enjoyed this trip to Bishop with some pretty stellar humans, new friends and old, all of whom really made our time there spectacular. We started out the trip with our good friends Yannick, Kirsten, Dan, and Patrick (and puppy Jackson!). 

Kirsten conquering her fear of spooky slab aretes!

Dan keeping his cool on the highball top-out of "Bowling Pin" (V4)

Team sending! Graham and Yannick on "High Plains Drifter" (V7)

Patrick warming up - Puppy Jackson with the spot

We met up with friends from last year, Mel and Danny, Bishop’s iconic badass climbing couple. Mel and Danny introduced us to many wonderful new friends, like Tammy, Taylor (inspiring female entrepreneur: owner of Static Climbing), Forrest, Charlie, and Joe - to name a few.

Melanie and Danny, touring us around some Pollen Grains highballs

We became good friends with Shelma Jun (founder of Flash Foxy) who was in town to put on the inaugural Women’s Climbing Festival. Shelma is one motivated lady – an inspirational mover and shaker for women in climbing. Over the two weeks surrounding the festival we met many other wonderful people who are passionate about improving the climbing community for everyone. Check out the thought-provoking words of Georgie Abel or the by-climbers for-climbers media content over at Moja Gear.  Kim wrote a short online piece covering the festival for Gripped Magazine, here.

Taylor, Jobi, Shelma, Kim, Evelyn, Becca, Natalie, Taylor and Julie - a few of the awesome ladies together for the Woman's Climbing Festival

Shelma and Evelyn working "Go Granny Go" (V5) in the Milks

Great friends!

Shortly before leaving, Bonar and Lea arrived in town, and we were lucky to spend a couple days with them before taking off.

Lea demonstrating her slab skills

Climbing-wise, it was super cool to come back to Bishop stronger than the year before. Graham climbed several double-digit classics including “Stained Glass” (V10), “Zen Flute” (V10), and “Xavier’s Roof” (V11). Kim sent her first V8s, “Gastonia” and “Junior’s Achievement”, as well as her first V9, “Gastonia Sit”. We also both ticked a bunch beautiful classics that we’d had our eyes on from the year before, like “Seven Spanish Angels” (V6), “High Plains Drifter” (V7), “Robinson’s Rubber Tester” (V0), and “Green Hornet” (V4).

Graham on his send of "Xavier's Roof" (V11)

The "Zen Flute" (V10) dyno

Kim on her send of "Gastonia" (V8/9)

Graham working "Robinson's Rubber Tester" (V0) - so hard!

Kim demonstrating the "static" beta on "Seven Spanish Angels" (V6)

Graham on his send of "Get Carter" (V7)

Kim working moves on her project, "Cindy Swank" (V7).... next time!

Graham climbing the slabby highball classic, "John Bachar Memorial Problem" (V1)

Kim on the send of her project, "Jug Start to Acid Wash Right" (V7)

Graham on his send of "Green Hornet" (V4)

Kim on her send of "Strength in Numbers" (V5). Photo credit: Daniel Winsor

Graham sampling moves on "Less Poetry Please" (V8)

Kim working "Go Granny Ho" (V7). Photo credit: David Le

Graham on the send of his project, "Brian's Project" (V8)

We were sad to say good bye to Bishop, but we are excited for a shift to sport climbing. It’s been three months since we’ve tied into a rope, so we’re anticipating a bit of work to build back our endurance, but we’re stoked to test the power we’ve built on the limestone climbing of the St George area in Utah. 

Unknown climber on the "Southwest Arete" (5.9)

Climbing makes us happy <3

Four weeks go by…

We’ve been desert hopping our way through Arizona, Nevada and California, and have just rolled back on in to Las Vegas.

Desert toes

We left Arizona on January 17^th and headed north west to Red Rocks just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Over two and a half weeks we had quite a few rain days – and rain on sandstone means no climbing for 48 hours. Fortunately, we had met back up with Sam and Steph (our friends from Bishop) and met some awesome new friends as well: Ruth, Chris, Jared, and Rosco! We established a small climbing commune on some BLM land and had plenty of fun together, climbing and otherwise…

Our climbing commune

Our climbing community

I hardly climbed in Red Rocks as my finger was still feeling pretty bad, but I eyed up some lines to add to my wish list when we return. Graham snagged a few awesome sends and spent some time working his wish list item, Monster Skank (5.13b). Unfortunately though, my slowly healing finger was too good to be true for us, as Graham injured his pinky finger A2 pulley on our third day there. He’s been on the road to recovery for nearly 4 weeks now…

Graham flashes New Wave Hookers (5.12c)

Finishing up the final moves on Monster Skank (5.13b) - hoping for a send next time!!

On February 4^th we headed back to Bishop, California. We spent a day in Death Valley National Park on the way through…

Graham tests his balance on the salt crystals in Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level)

Mmmmmmmm tasty

Dune Master #1!

Dune Master #2!

We reunited with Steph, Sam, Ruth, Chris, and Jared in Bishop, and many other new and old friends. We were also so lucky to get to spend time with Yannick, Emrys, Alison and Cory as well as a bunch of other crushers from Victoria and Vancouver!

The injured fingers turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we used them as an opportunity to climb many three-starred problems and explore areas more thoroughly without focusing on projects. On Sam’s birthday we all hiked up to the Druid Stones – a heinously steep approach to a stunningly beautiful area. 

The Druid Stones

Graham and I did a “big day” in the Happies one day, where we cumulatively climbed 101 problems in a single session. WOW this is exhausting, even at V0 and V1!

Despite the finger injuries, we also both finished our 10 days in Bishop with new personal bests. Graham sent Return Jedi (V10) in just two goes – his quickest send at that grade yet! I also sent my first ever V6, The French Connection – a beautiful, balancy climb that doesn’t require a left ring finger crimp! Woohooo!

Graham sends Return Jedi (V10)

Kim sends The French Connection (V6)

And of course another highlight has been … PUPPY CUDDLES TIME!