Fall Highball with John Long, November 19

The Fall Highball event organized by the American Alpine Club is once again coming to Bishop with famed stonemaster, climbing pioneer, and raconteur extraordinaire John Long coming to speak at the Mill Creek Station on Saturday night, 7pm. This will be a show worth seeing.

The event is coordinated to coincide with the Access Fund's Adopt-a-crag day, and so, in partnership with the Inyo National Forest and the group Friends of the Inyo, there will also be a Buttermilk clean-up on Saturday morning beginning with a free light breakfast at 8:30am at the parking lot just before the Peabodies.

Please join the folks out there to help keep the area clean and beautiful. Thanks!

See the American Alpine Club website for more details.

Note: Mill Creek Station, a great venue for talks and shows, is about 9 miles from Schat's bakery going toward Mammoth, on the right side of the road. Designated drivers are recommended.

Buttermilk Pit Toilet--Comments Needed

Andrew Schurr of the group Friends of the Inyo wrote to me recently about a proposal from the Forest Service to construct one or two permanent pit toilets with wheelchair accessible paths adjacent to the Buttermilk boulders.

The proposal mentions two locations: 1) the parking/turn-around at the Birthday Boulders, and 2) the gravel pit just before the Peabody Boulders on the right hand side of Buttermilk Road. This latter is an old borrow pit that has become a large parking pullout at the base of an old disused 4-wheel-drive track a hundred yards or so before the Peabody Boulders.

The Forest Service proposal states an intent to build a toilet at the Birthday Boulders either at the end of the summer or early fall this year, and then to build a second one at the gravel pit also known as the "borrow pit" only if needed.

I would prefer not to see a permanent structure placed at the Birthday Boulders as it would be ugly and present other problems. So choosing the borrow pit location as the first, and ideally, the only option would seem like a better approach to me. Here’s why:

Visual problems:

Birthday Boulders Site: Visual impacts would be a disaster here. A permanent toilet would be an eyesore. This area is high on a plain and, as viewed from the boulders, any toilet structure will stand out against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This area is famed for its beauty. Why ruin it?

Borrow Pit Site: This would not ruin the view from the boulders. From nearly all perspectives this location will be unobtrusive. Even a large toilet block here could be made to blend in against the hillside and have little impact.

Camping problems:

Birthday Boulders Site: We really must do what we can to REDUCE camping in and around the Birthday Boulders and the Birthday Boulders parking spots. A toilet placed here would undoubtedly increase camping at this location. This fragile area is not suited as a permanent campsite with all the accompanying erosion and visual impacts of tents, cars, campers, networks of paths etc. I would like to encourage people to camp away from the boulders.

Borrow Pit Site: Increased camping here will have less of an impact as the area is less visible and is already impacted from previous use.

Access problems:

Birthday Boulders Site: This is a site nearly exclusively used by climbers. It is at the end of a spur, off of a small side road that diverges from the only regularly used access road to the Buttermilk area. Climbers specifically choose this place to park for its proximity to the boulders, and on busy days all the parking in this vicinity is taken up by climbers. Few if any other users choose to take this spur road and so this climber-specific location may lessen the value of the toilet for all other groups as well as present a parking problem.

Borrow Pit Site: This site is occasionally used as a parking spot by climbers, but is rarely if ever filled with climbers’ cars. The nearby road is wide and easily accessible by all users of the Buttermilk area. This site is conveniently located beside the only regularly used approach road to the area, taken by virtually everyone.

Winter Access Problems

Birthday Boulders Site: During the winter this site is often inaccessible due to snow, sometimes for weeks.

Borrow Pit Site: Even while the upper area is blocked by snow, the lower site and lower bouldering areas remain in use and nearly always accessible.

Usefulness Problems:

Birthday Boulders Site: Even for many climbers, this site will require a special trip to reach. The site is off of a side road, and along a spur. People approaching the Buttermilks in the morning and intending to climb at any of the lower locations first reached, which is a large proportion of all climbers, could be discouraged from making a special trip to use the facilities. Adding to the discouragement could be a cluster of cars trying to get into and out of this already-crowded turn-around. The roads there are narrow and will get stretched as cars attempt to park and/or pass each other.

Borrow Pit Site: As stated above the location is beside everyone’s approach so there’s no reason not to use it for anyone needing to ”go” as they arrive at the area. The Buttermilk Road is wide at this point and stopping would be relatively easy.

The comment period for this proposal is 30 days and nearly up. In fact those wishing to express their opinion on this only have until July 15 to do so. Please submit comments to Lesley Yen, White Mountain Ranger District, 798 N. Main Street, Bishop, CA 93514; fax 760-873-2563; phone 760-873-2524; email lyen@fs.fed.us. There is a link to proposed actions here. I believe I have expressed the proposal accurately but if you wish to see the two-page pdf from the Forest Service please drop a line to Lesley or me (email at right) and ask for it.

Having spoken to Lesley recently I know that the Forest Service is genuinely interested in people’s opinions and may reconsider the proposal accordingly. If you can drop a line or call Lesley to politely express your thoughts on this, that would be great.

Transporter Room Another Repeat -- from Zack Parke

Just received this note from an inspired Zack Parke of Santa Cruz. Read on as he explains.

"About a month ago I came across this video on Black Diamonds' website of Kevin Jorgeson in the Buttermilks. In it, among other sweet lines, Kevin does what could be only the second ever ascent of the Transporter Room on the Grandpa Peabody boulder.

After watching that video I got pretty psyched about doing this climb, now that I know where it goes and some of the beta. I'd planned a trip out to the Buttermilks for last week, and made it a point to check out Transporter Room. On Thursday after I warmed up and surprised myself by wrapping up a couple of previously frustrating projects, I convinced my friends to bring pads down and check out the line. It looked good so I went for it, and got up on the first go.

The bottom was pretty straightforward, and includes the physical crux, a left hand cross. The top was a little weird as I didn't quite know exactly where on the slab to climb, so I kind of mini epic-ed for 15 minutes deciding which holds to use. Not too hard but definitely the mental crux for me.

Respect to Kevin for reviving this old line. Without his video I wouldn't even have been thinking about the climb.

Hopefully it will get more traffic!

Wish I was still there; everything's turning a beautiful green!
Cheers!
Zack Parke"

This ascent is all the more impressive as Zack (25) has been climbing only about four years, mostly in Yosemite, but has been mixing things up with a fair amount of bouldering. Zack climbed the line without any prior inspection or TR, but after looking at the video from Kevin Jorgeson's ascent, which turned out not to be the second after all (see comments below). As well as working as a bike messenger, Zack makes custom sewn gear for climbers including chalk bags, pads, packs and wall gear. UPDATE: Please see the very sad news in comment #4. Here are a few images from Zack's ascent:

Zack Parke, Transporter Room. Photo: Kevin Smith

Zack Parke, Transporter Room. Photo: Kevin Smith

Zack Parke, Transporter Room. Photo: Kristel Dorighi

Isaac Caldiero completes Joe's project!

Longtime friend of Bishop Bouldering, Isaac Caldiero, has completed his guidebook to Joe's Valley, Utah. He's done an awesome job of the guide, updating all the known info, and finally getting the word out on a slew of development there from the last few years. More info at the Joe's Valley Guidebook website.

Fingerprints FA by Andrew Stevens

It's great to see that even though I might not be climbing much right now, life still goes on as usual out at the Buttermilks!

In early April, local Bishop RN and ER manager Andrew Stevens even added a sweet new line to "The North Boulder," which might better be described as the "East Side Story Boulder," after the proud highball by that name on its south face (see page 236 in the guide 2nd ed). Andrew's likely first ascent climbs a prow-like line on the boulder's northwest corner.

Buttermilks FA, Fingerprints from Andrew Stevens on Vimeo.

As I've been out of action recently, I haven't been able to check out the line yet, though I do know the boulder pretty well and the patina there is second to none -- it is perfect. I remember climbing on the slab and the undercut wall, but don't think I did the problem Andrew found here. Obviously some degree of vision is needed! This problem is in the v8 range, he says and he highly recommends it.

Walk out from the Birthday Boulder parking past the Fly Boy Boulder to find this. The problem will stay in the shade for half the day, but watch out for snakes as it's getting kinda warm out there. Should have posted this earlier, sorry!

Dan Mills, Sad Boulders Project (v11?)

Dan Mills has reported an ascent of a long-standing project at the Sad Boulders, suggesting v11. I say project.... At least I don't know of anyone who has climbed it--but if someone knows different, I hope they'll post a comment. It is an obvious line on a giant block facing south and the first really big boulder just off the path, a couple hundred yards up from the lower parking on Chalk Bluff Road. It's a proud line, in fact, and may have gone unclimbed this long due to its orientation (it faces the sun and heats up even on cool days), and also, of course, it is pretty hard.



Here's another angle added later (see comments):

Direct North (v14), Guillaume Glairon-Mondet

I recently learned that French climber Guillaume Glairon-Mondet made an ascent of the desperate new line Direct North (v14) on the Grandma Peabody Boulder's steep side. The line is an obvious extension to Direction, and takes on this photogenic wall of immaculate yellow-streaked rock by its hardest sequence, stacking the excellent highball Magnetic North (v8/9?) onto the testpiece Direction (v13).

Starting in the underclings, first Direction is itself a v13 sit-start to the original "one-move-wonder" Thunderbird (a tough v11 utilizing a tiny right crimp) and leads to some full-pad crimps above and right of the finish of Center Direct. After gaining the crimps, and taking a shake, perhaps, the line moves up and right following Magnetic North which has a longish span to another small right crimp followed by a tough and nervy heel-hook lock-off to gain good jugs that lead to the lip.

Guillaume, who also climbed The Mandala Sit Start (via the left sequence, v13/14), and grabbed a possible fourth or so ascent of Iron Resolution (v13) in Joshua Tree, before heading back to France, said that Direct North was the hardest ascent of his trip. Though he flashed the upper section (Magnetic North), he found the move from the heel hook extremely hard when reached from the start, taking a fall there on one of his attempts. He also described the crux move (on Thunderbird) as "really HARD!!"

Guillaume described the line as "the most logical of the whole boulder," by which perhaps he means the most compelling, or most impressive, I'm not sure. Given the rock quality, this is certainly one of the most perfect hard lines in the Buttermilk area--the holds are bullet hard, and the climbing is sustained and amazing.

See an earlier report for this line.