Last Day

Yesterday was my last day in Bishop. It's kind of a bummer because I just now starting to feel strong, but on the other hand it will keep me motivated to train and come back in the spring stronger.

It was hot in The Buttermilks so we decided to go to the Bardini boulders and find some shade. It was absolutely the best conditions we had seem the entire trip. The destination was "A Maze of Death", a super classy Dave Graham line. There was snow all over the top of the boulder but miraculously it was completely dry. I can't believe I waited so long to get on this thing. It is my style of climbing and it's hard! The most impressive thing about this line is there are probably four or five different ways to climb it and they all feel equally as difficult. As a route setter I am puzzled by this kind of bloc. It is so involved but no human has "set" this line. It's just there, in all its perfection. Super psyched to get back on this thing. I felt really close with just one day of climbing on it and now I know which beta will work for me.

Good bye Bishop. See you soon.

Here are some Bryan Boyko shots.

Sweeney with the straight up method

Trying the Dave Graham method. Waaaay harder!

Jesus figurine at the bottom of the maze. Halleluiah!

Oh so pretty.

Weather

A trip to Bishop would not be the same if we didn't get snowed on just a little. About four days ago a storm rolled through the mountains taking climbing in the Buttermilks out of the question for a couple days. This was kind of a bummer except I have been here in much worse conditions and know what it could be like. A couple of days in the Happies and a rest day later the milks are good once again and I now have two days left in the trip. I rapped down to put chalk on the top out of "Evolution" yesterday and tried the climb. It feels hard! Either I need some beta or much more time to climb it. Tomorrow I will try again, but if it feels out of reach I will try some other climbs to cap off the trip. I would love to try "A Maze of Death" at some point. From videos it seems that it may be my style.

Now that I'm nearing the end of my trip I have this feeling that I would like to go home, but at same time I am just now getting settled into the climbing here and I know I could accomplish so much more if I had more time. I am Already looking forward to the next trip.

Did I mention it snowed. This was only after the first night of storming. (compare this photo to the one of Mount Tom in the last post. It's bare) That night it snowed a good six inches even at the pit!

Bryan Boyko trying "The Swarm". I could do the first move, and almost the second. With great skin and better temps I could see this one going down.

Trying the crux move of "Goldfish Trombone" This is the only move I couldn't do. Although it is by far the hardest. Cole Allen and I did a right exit from the stand start which was very fun. Big moves and a wild swing to hold. OOOO MONKEY COLE!!!!

Crux pinch on "Goldfish Trombone"

Sick problem called "He Got Game". RIght exit for tall guys. Almost did it. Kinda Silly that I didn't. Oh well.

Hopefully there will be one more post before I leave. Psyched for the next couple of days.

One more thing. Boyko and I are going to make a music video. Watch out!!!!!!

BEEEEESHUUUUP

Yes it's been a long time since a post, but oh well. I'm sitting at the Looney Bean and I might as well do it now. I have been doing a ton of stuff this year, mostly related to route setting at competitions, but now I finally get some climbing time and what better place to spend it than my favorite bouldering area. BISHOP! Except for the unpredictable weather I have nothing bad to say about this place. I have been coming here in the winter for years and I still have so many gems to climb.

Xaviers Roof. First problem after our warm up. Boyko flashed like a monster. I did it in three goes. Joel Zerr should have some video up soon.

Boyko post send on Xaviers Roof.

Joel climbing the slab on the back side of The Grandpa Peabody. We both rapped down the Evolution left top out and it seems doable. Just a little scary.

This is the first time I have ever been to bishop without seeing snow in the mountains. January, no snow! I must have jinxed us though because it rained all last night and started snowing in the morning.

Sunset one night.

More photos to come next week.

Scene Duplication

In my video class another one of our assignments was to pick a scene out of a movie and recreate it to the best of our abilities. It is very tricky to find just the right clip to choose because most movies out there our course have very high budgets which means very complicated camera work and special effects. This means we had to pick something along the lines of a student budget worthy clip.

This a clip from the British zombie spoof "Shaun of the Dead"

Enjoi

Is That You?

Here's a little ditty I wrote. The story doesn't make that much sense but hopefully you enjoy the images and the uber dramatic music.

Is That You? from Bret Johnston on Vimeo.

The Pencil

I made this for my film class at Shoreline. Pretty fun.....