This past Tuesday was a holiday for Ben, so he took Monday off, too, and we headed to the Eastern Sierra for a four day adventure. We took off on Friday afternoon and, after finding Red Rock Canyon full of people, decided to camp in the wilderness somewhere. We ended up in a dry wash off of 178 towards Isabella, next to a fence separating us from BLM land. It was a really pretty spot with a sweeping view of the valley below. Very cold night, but my new sleeping bag is something else!
On Saturday morning we proceeded towards the Eureka Valley Dunes, where we hung out until the afternoon. The dunes were gorgeous, but there were tons of people there, including a school bus full of teenagers. We continued on the South Eureka Valley Rd past the dunes, hoping to find a backcountry spot to camp in overnight, but there were spots in the road that were really fine sand, and the forecast called for rain overnight, so I was loathe to be caught on the other end of those. We headed back on Big Pine Rd, and stopped to climb on some boulders on the right of the road, on the first uphill section after the valley. We top-roped one route and then found a spot to camp off a dirt road nearby. There was an abandoned gravel sorting and loading type place nearby that we explored in the moonlight, and then we crashed. It rained and there was quite a bit of wind and lots of lightning overnight, and we woke up to snow on the surrounding mountains. We were just below the snow-line ourselves, and the views of un-snowed Eureka valley and snowy surrounding mountains were amazing! What a way to wake up! We gave the tent some time to dry out and headed out.
Back in Big Pine we decided to head up to the Glacier Lodge, which I'd never been to before. From there we hiked the South Big Pine Creek trail for a few miles, until the snow got too deep in the switchbacks towards the first lake and we had to give up, Ben being in his approach shoes and me in pants that didn't go down around my ankles, even though I was wearing backpacking boots. My Lowa backpacking boots need to be replaced, by the way. They're really uncomfortable. We then headed up to Bishop and checked out the Pit Campground that climbers usually get stuffed into. It was awful, so we headed up to the Pinion Site and camped in the Pinions. Dinner in Bishop and then a tour of the hot springs between Tom's place and Mammoth. Eventually we ended up in Wild Willy's, which was fantastic.
Monday and Tuesday were spent climbing the Upper Owen's River Gorge. We tried going down the Trinity rappel, but the approach to the rappel station was a pain in the ass, so we backed up and walked down the approach a little to the North. First Ben led Crotalulsley challenged, which I seconded, and then Step right up, which I also led and really enjoyed, despite the mind-game in one particular transition from the face to the arete. Ben then led Cinderella and It's the gaaazzz, both of which I seconded. I then led P.D. time, which had a couple long moves, and Ben toproped Pet trackers off the same anchor. Dinner in Bishop, at the wonderful The Petite Pantry, and then a further tour of the hot springs. This time we lucked out and the dude who'd been hanging out at the tub was leaving just as we got there, so we had it all to ourselves. It was a brilliant clear night with a near full moon and the view of snowy Mammoth mountain was unbearably gorgeous.
The next day we'd planned to try to do Flailsafe, which the guide calls a 'trad adventure'. Ben had scored an additional #4, and a #5 cam the night before at Wilson's. We got to the base of the thing, which was next to the river, with literally five square feet of space to work with. There was an initial off-width section to get to the top of a boulder, and the real route would start after that. So we got up it, all prepped with pro and two ropes, only to decide that the real route had a few sections that would be a little too run out, given two #4s and one #5. So we wrapped a giant boulder and rapped back down. We'll have to revisit this in the future, I'm sure, and I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to it. It looked really hard. We then got on Nice jugs, Hole in the wall and C-4 yourself. I abandoned the second, because it looked like a pain in the ass to get into the hole, but had a really fun time with the initial slab on the latter. Of course I fell off the roof section, but it was fun falling. The drive back down 395 at dusk was incredibly beautiful. Then dinner at the High Sierra cafe and back in SB by 10:30.
