woensdag 23 maart 2011

Wonderfull Time in the Buttermilks!

Picture above: Steve Marcil
Again, over and over again, I have so much new stuff to tell you! I’ll start again where I ended my last post! Last Friday the Red Rock Rendez-vous started in Red Rock. I stayed there one day and then left at Saturday to Bishop, California, because of the windy weather in Red Rock. I arrived in Bishop late at night and had another rest day because of the rainy weather. Really disappointing. But last two days we could climb really well!

I went to the Red Rock Rendez-Vous where I met the sales-rep’s of Five Ten and Petzl. All really friendly people. Five Ten could put me on their athletes list so I could enter the Rendez-Vous for free! Thanks for that Five Ten. The Rendez-Vous is a famous event here for beginner climbers. A lot of brands come to this event to represent their brand, they all take some athletes whit them. During the whole weekend the beginner climbers can get lessons in different climbing disciplines from pro athletes! The different disciplines are sportclimbing, trad and bouldering. They learn the beginners different techniques like how to place cams and nuts in trad climbing, how to climb a crack and way more. I think this is one of the nicest events for the development of the climbing sports! At night there is a lot of free beer and some party’s ands slide shows!

Saturday morning I woke up at the Rendez-Vous with a lot of wind, I was normally going for a climb at Mt Potasi but it was way too windy up there! So I decided to leave to Bishop! I felt like leaving so I did that same day! I said goodbye to the friend I made over there and left. Mike and Tom where already in Bishop and I was joining them again! Before Leaving Red Rock I met some really nice climbers at the Rendez-Vous. I have some good contacts now for Indian Creek! I’m looking forward to it.
Five Ten just made a new crack climbing shoe. It’s called the Supermocc. It is a better version of the Moccasims. It has soft rubber on the top of the toe for jamming it into small cracks. I’m going to test those shoes in Indian Creek! I’m psyched!

The drive to Bishop was 6 hours! My car drives really well now so I could drive like another car, no more trucks that pass me like the flying devil! It also uses les gas after they had put a new air filter and more new stuff in the engine.
So the drive was nice, I drunk some coffee in my King Mobile, ate some cookies, listened to some good music and I arrived at the boulder Mecca before I could imagine! The last 2 hours of the drive where going through the mountains, it was already dark and unfortunately I was running out of gas! Quite an adventure! I still had my extra gas bottle next to me but I didn’t want to stop in the middle of nowhere without one single human being and fill up my gas tank of the car in the dark. I was so happy the last 10 miles before the next gas station were downhill, so I didn’t need to touch the gas pedal anymore!


Next day we woke up with a shitload of rain so we spent our day in ‘The Black Sheep’, the local climber’s coffee shop! Because we (Mike, Tom and I) were bored really fast we went to the buttermilks for a walk. We drove with my car when we suddenly saw tons of snow on the road, I tried to go through it but my Van(hee) master didn’t want to. We stopped where the car was stuck and made a nice but short walk through the snow. I concluded: The buttermilks are awesome! After the walk I drove the whole dirt road backwards!


The next day the weather was better. I woke up in my van (aka pimp mobile) with my backdoors open and the sun in my stupid face. This was also the first time I really saw how beautiful the environment was! We camped near the Sad boulders in nature! This felt so amazing! After sleeping in parking lots for three weeks this felt like sleeping in my little heaven! The three nights we slept there I slept really well and have much more energy as last weeks.
Picture right: Steve Marcil



So the first climbing days we climbed in the Sad boulders (also called the table lands). I didn’t like it so much. It looked like a bad Hueco Tanks. Yesterday the weather was good so we could go to the Buttermilks! This is the area where Bishop is famous for. It is a beautiful place between big snowy mountains! I loved it! This is the best place I’ve already been to in the states! Just look at the pictures! I can’t describe it! Waah, I’m so excited when I’m writing this now!


I tried Evolution, a V10 on the biggest boulder I’ve ever seen! The V10 problem stops at the lip and then you need to drop off. The V11 problem goes up the whole boulder! I might try the V 11 version!

This place is wonderful, it’s just so mind blowing!

Now it is bad weather again and we are taking a rest day! Drinking coffee and we might go to some Hot Springs in the mountains!

Right Picture: Steve Marcil

More pictures on Tom and Mike's Blog!



Me, on top of a 5.9! The right side of the boulder, on the left side is the scary downclimb.


This is how I woke up with that supid face in the sun!


Where is the Chevy Van?


Schoolbusboys burning their bacon because they like it!

3 comments:

Wauw, looks like paradise! x

Schat, gij doet het daar fantastisch gewoon. Ziet er gewoon "het leven uit". Ik vind u "muscled man" move gewoon echt u brandmerk. Heerlijk! (terwijl ik dit schrijf is er buiten een hond zo zielig aant janken dak er medelijden mee krijg ;) )

Houd u goed.

The Buttermilks is inderdaad echt een paradijs!
Ha Florian! Inderdaad, het liefst zou ik willen dat dit soort of leven nooit eindigt! Misschien is dat ook mogelijk, misschien ook niet. Dat ben ik momenteel nog aan het uitzoeken. Ik volg momenteel je blog volop. Ziet er allemaal echt goed uit! Ben blij dat we dezelfde mentaliteit hebben! :)

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