The second week is when thing would be getting dicey.   Leo would be up here from L.A., and we’d need to look for a place, move in, get settled, find furniture, go food shopping and all these motions that come with relocation.

My optimism that we’d find a place within a day was being too optimistic, apparently.  While there are plenty of 1BR or studio apartments that I could probably slide into within hours of looking (and not having someone else that needs to approve the location), the selection of 2BR apartments were more slim.  We looked at a few places, some of them nice, some of them not so nice.

But we DID find a place we were happy with, and we moved in that night, and aside from having no furniture at all, its going great!

As timing would have it, there were two friends of mine from San Francisco that came down to climb for four days.  I tagged along with them most of those days and on the last day of climbing, I brought along my camera.

The approach hike to Happys. The day was one of the most gorgeous I can remember, being just perfectly warm, but not too hot.

Being completely shut down by Seregenti on their first day out to the Happys, Matt and Carolyn returned with a vengeance and renewed confidence after a few proud sends over at the ‘milks.   Their perservance paid off and they both fired off amazing sends to cap off the morning.

Fresh off success on Seregenti, we all walked up to the southern ridge of the Happys and gazed upon the nearly featureless wall of Mr. Witty. None of us had tried it before and we had no beta to work from, but there wasn’t much to figure out.  There were maybe five useful holds on the whole wall and we were pretty sure all of them would come into play somehow.

Leo led the charge by solving the reach for the little sidepull that would prove crucial for the setup to the good double-finger pocket.  Working off that beta, I retraced Leo’s steps and moved on to the last set of pockets, which by themselves didn’t inspire much faith, but it was just good enough for me to carefully setup my feet – and then after a silent little prayer to myself, I exploded off the pockets and nailed the slap to the top perfectly!  A quick mantle later, I was standing proud over the Happy’s, feeling just RIGHTEOUS over my new tick.  Rawr!

Leo all sorted out on the sidepull and pocket.  The move to the two bad pockets lies above him, and if he could hang on long enough, the throw to the top!  But that day wasn’t meant to be for Leo, sadly…  but there’ll be all winter for a chance to stand up and deliver, no doubt.

After a long day of climbing, we were all feeling a bit knackered and burnt, so we all wrapped up the day with a easy hike up Slight Inducement, a lone boulder found at the near-end of the valley.

And with all good things coming to an end, Matt and Carolyn had to head back home to San Francisco.  We bid them farewell and firmly insisted they come back again soon.

Come back again soon y’all!

It was with no small amount of trepidation and excitement that I headed back out east to Bishop with friends for the Thanksgiving week.  This would be a one-way trip.   My friends would be going back to the Bay Area after the holiday while I’d remain behind.

We were greeted with some really great weather.  It was sunny and warm, almost hot during the days.  The nights were not too cold and there was plenty of climbing to go around.

Gabe immediately got to work on projecting Seregenti at the Happys.

There were many many other climbers in Bishop over the week with the same idea as well.  Seregenti saw a steady stream of climbers looking to make their mark on the area’s V5 testpiece.

Thanksgiving was composed of various pre-made meals from the local Vons.  Sliced turkey breast, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and quick-fried vegetables.  I ate enough for three men that night.  Urp.

Cozying up to the roaring campfire while passing around the bottle of Grey Goose, naturally.

Camp Sweet Camp.  Enjoying the last bits of the fast fading daylight at the Pleasant Valley Pit Camp.

I originally sent Sucker Punch a few years ago, I’d found out recently that the major starting hold on Sucker Punch had broken off within the last month, and the problem had become a bit harder.

So I headed back to the valley to scope out the problem, and after two days of trying out different beta, I finally repeated it for the ages!

On the next morning, after a hearty lunch, and farewells, my friends headed back to the Bay Area.  I watched them pull onto Main Street and head towards the highway and I thought to myself, “Here I am… again!”