Resting...

Liesel and I have been in Bishop for a week and a half now, the climbing has been AMAZING and the community and weather have been equally wonderful. We have been on a schedule of two days on, one day off for climbing. On rest days we generally go for a run, for the rest of the week we will be going one on, one off in hopes of doing some real recovery from the beginning of our time here in Bishop.

This morning I stumbled across a blog posting from Chris Sharma that touched upon this subject, he wrote:

"It's nice to find this balance here. One of the biggest challenges living here in such a climbing mecca is that its easy to end up climbing too much. It's normal when you go on a trip and you want to climb everyday to maximize your time and get as much in, in the 3 weeks that you have. But being here longterm I often find myself so beat up from so many day and months in a row with very little rest. For me learning to not feel obligated to go climbing even though there are 50 projects waiting to be done right out my door, has been key to sustaining my motivation over a long period of time."

We have only been here for a week and a half, but I am really focused on sustaining the psyche and motivation required to achieve personally high level goals. I have not specifically bouldered this much ever, I have not purely climbed any discipline as much as I have for the past year and a half. So basically this all boils down to today we are resting... tomorrow BUTTERMILKS:)

Here are some videos from Jason Chinchen of the climbing in the Tablelands of Bishop:

http://www.deadpointmag.com/climbing-videos/watch/strength-numbers-v5

http://vimeo.com/18961597

And check out Jason's ongoing blog at

http://www.sierrasalve.com/sierra-salve-blog.html

and pick up some Sierra Salve at your local gear shop... Durangotangs can find it at Pine Needle Mountaineering and the Rock Lounge climbing gym very soon.

Now everyone motivate and have a rest day!!! from whatever your doing:)

We're in Bishop, California!

We've made it to Bishop, CA where we will be calling home base for at least the next 4 months. Along the way we stopped for a short bouldering stop in St. George, UT. On the first morning we were there we ran into Dovid, Bumby and their two house mates Elizabeth and Andrew. Dovid and Christine (Bumby) are some great friends I met out in Spain, it's always great to make unexpected encounters on the road.

Dovid made quick work of Bazooka Tooth (V10) and everyone had a great day of bouldering, mud skating and hiding from the desert sun. It was a shocking transition from 20 degree Durango to 60 degree St. George, the desert sun is STRONG!!

On Monday evening January 18th we arrived in Bishop and found the Buttermilks to be too snowy upon arrival so off to the Pit for us and a day at the Happy Boulders!!! (Not too bad a consolation from the Buttermilks:)) The Happies are a Welded Tuff climbers dream! Within an hour of climbing in the Happies we had already made friends, met climbing partners and run into old friends we didn't expect to see along the way. Local climber and business owner Jason Chinchen let us in on some of the new stuff being put up and we enjoyed another hot day in the desert sun. Liesel and I both sent our leftover projects and the highlight for me was a sunsplashed send of Karma (V6/7)... AMAZING!

-Kevin and Liesel