Mountain View Motel Bishop

With Tensions running high and not much climbing getting done, the group decided to dismantle on nov 1st. It was a good time, we all took some great memories from it but we all had other things in our minds by the end so we each went our way. Apples drove ...

After 3 weeks with the kids we are heading back home. Our 1st stop was Yosemite National Park. We only had about 5 hrs to take it in but what we saw was breathtaking. The granite rocks are mostly flat and straight up. We were able to see Glacier Point, Bridal Veil, El Capitan and Tunnel View. As we were leaving the Park via the Tioga Pass we got a great view at Olmstead Point of clouds resting in the Miountains.
Next stop....Las Vegas,baby.

... sure!) While Mt. Whitney isn't as spectacular as Mt. Rainier back home in terms of its sheer mass or setting, Mt. Whitney certainly wins in terms of its quality of granite. Most summits of peaks are topped with choss, but the type of choss you see on Whitney's summit is large, perfect granite boulders the size of cars. The pure ...

Even the announcers said this could be the best Mule Days ever!  They thought so because it is a rare thing to have the Budweiser Clydesdales, the Priefert Percherons and the historic 20-mule team all attend the show in the same year.  But that is fitting because it was the 40th Anniversary of the Bishop Mule Days after all ...

... figured we had a couple of climbs in us and so we headed down to the China Wall in the gorge. I led one route, Tim led another and then we were waffling as to whether we should leave or not. Tim said he would lead on more route and so we jumped on what we thought was a 5.8. After a lot of struggling, cursing and falling, Tim made it up to to the top of the climb, only to come down and have some other climbers ...

... is more of a US small town than the Alaskan small town..more big trucks, lots of Mexican restaurants - actually a peliphera of restaurants and hotels in general as it is touristy and easily reached by car..and the weather is bomber all year around!! There is a lot of stuff to do around here as well -not only the bouldering that is worldclass but also the sport climbing areas as well as several nearby trad ...

... driven it many, many times. The highlight is usually the Joshua Trees, which I particularly like. This time, however, we did manage to fit in something new. On the way up we've always passed Manzanar, one of the Japanese internment camps from World War II. This trip was the first time that Paul, Emily, and I have been by since they've completed the museum on the site, so ...

... nightmare of one way streets and none-signage. Also, we had a slight gas problem, in that we'd driven a fair few hundred miles to get to the park and had just under half a tank of gas left. The last gas station we passed showed gas for nearly $4 a gallon, now that's steep and Lee refused point blank to fill up. He said he'd rather push the car than pay those prices. So shuttle it was for us. We were able to walk to Yosemite falls from the Visitors ...

... Lake for a swim or rather a float, its a huge salt lake. It was great fun floatin about in the water without ever havin to swim (bit of a strange sensation at first but you def get used to it). Just some things that I would like to warn ya about incase you ever make it that way yourself. (1) don,t put your face in the water not only does the salt sting like crazy it tastes absolutely disgusting (2) this is some of the coldest water I have ever been in, it is absolutely FREEZING but ...

... for first aid supplies on it's way to rescue that poor guy we passed. He had made it to the simmit but had bad Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Some of us helped the chopper crew load supplies, including a Gamov bag. This is a cylindrical bag maybe 7 or 8 feet long. Once the sick person is placed inside, it's pressurized to simulate a lower altitude. I had previously only seen them used on mountains of Everest proportions. Luckily, there happened to be two rangers on the summit ...