For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to change things up and head out West to the small town of Bishop, CA for a solid week of climbing. Upon arriving, the events that followed made us think we were cursed by the Gods and should just go drive the trailer off a cliff and give up on camping forever.

First off, when we arrived at the camp site and tried to set up the camper, we had to pull so hard on the canvas to snap it to the base of the trailer (because it was so cold) that Tom ripped off a button which left a hole for cold air to come through. THEN, we found out that we needed an adapter for our 15 amp plug to fit into the 30 amp reciever to get electricity. Tom drove out to 5 different stores but couldn’t find one. So that night, we had no electricity but were able to stay fairly warm with 4 blankets on top of us all huddled together in the queen size bed. Then the next day, while rain was pouring down and our potential climbing days looked bleak, the groundskeeper came to our rescue by giving us an adapter that someone had left there previously! With power finally coursing through the trailer, we turned on our electric blankets, lights, heaters, microwave and music and started getting psyched!

The first two days, we were able to get out to the boulders in the late afternoon after the weather broke and climb until around 4 pm when the sun fell behind the big mountains and the temp dropped too low for us to feel comfortable keeping Henry out there. We took a rest day on Tuesday and  were able to scrounge up some swimwear to go to the Keough Hot Springs about 10 minutes away from our site where we all soaked in a 104 degree pool. It was HEAVEN. Then we climbed from 10 in the morning till sunset for the remaining 4 days. For the insiders, here are the highlights:

The Hulk (V6) – T Almost Stuck the Right Cross 🙁
Action Figure (V6) – M Almost Nailed the Pocket….Next Time…
Anti-Hero (V5) – M & T Send Fest!!
Gleaner (V6) – M Big-Time Send!
The Clapper (V6) – T Big-Time Send!
Every Color You Are (V6) – M & T Almost Got the Last Throw….It’s Going Down Next Time Baby!
Ketron Classic (V4) – M & T Piece of Cake!!
Sucker Punch (V4) – M Nice Technical Send…V4 My Ass!!
Serengeti (V5) – T Final Hour Send!

It was a great trip and Henry did so well. He had a lot of fun throwing rocks around and flirting with the pretty climbing girls we met. It ended up taking us around 14 hours to get home because of traffic and after getting home really late last night, we are glad to be back. Hopefully we can make another trip out there in the next year to address some unfinished business with a couple of the boulders.  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Maria getting her first big send of the trip: Anti-Hero (V5).  You can hear Henry adding his motivational words in the background!!!

Maria’s 2nd big send of the trip: Gleaner (V6).

Henry playing around while Daddy climbs:

We spontaneously decided to get up to Flag one more weekend this year to try and send our hard projects.  Tommy was succesful in sending Anorexic on his second attempt the first day. The second day we weren’t able to get out to our other project, Carnivore, because of the crowds at the boulders. Oh well…maybe next year.

Our next big trip is coming up this Friday when we head up to Bishop, CA to climb around on the plethora of boulders up there for about a week. Thank God we’ll be able to plug the trailer in and get some HEAT so we don’t freeze to death like we almost did last weekend!!

Went to Flagstaff again this weekend in hopes of getting on some hard climbs. We almost didn’t make it after being attacked by a massive rain storm on Friday. Cars were floating underneath the bridge up to our campsite and we later heard that some crazy guy was kayaking down the street because the water was so deep! It rained most of Saturday and then by divine intervention, my uncle called us and said we should probably come stay at his house that night so we wouldn’t drown from the approaching super cell. We were able to take warm showers, eat some great meals and have some wonderful company. We went back out again today and I was able to tick off “Anorexic” but unfortunately Tommy hurt his hand 3 moves from the top. No worries, though. With a little rest and some Target brand caramel-cashew trail mix, he’ll be back to 100% in no time.