We have been making our way to Bishop for the last week or so by way of the coastal highway 1 and 101. Sleeping, climbing, and just hanging out on beaches along the way, the way a road trip is suppose to be. First night was in Ventura, we were lost for lack of sleep and in our quest to find a place to sleep we encountered a yellow vested night guard patrolling in his golf kart. He rolled up and asked what was up, he then told us we could sleep there for the night if we left early in the morning. In the morning we made the final push to Mogli does place in Brentwood, but not without stopping at a vineyard to go to a wine tasting. Ya we went to a wine tasting, five bucks each got us (Mogli and I) each more then a couple glasses of nice wine that we could never afford, it was awesome. After that Ian took over the wheel and we dropped the camper cleaned the van a bit and hit the road again for more beach fun. Castle Rock was the first stop, it was all wet, which was a major bummer because the climbing there is very unique the rock is sandstone like no other I’ve seen all green and mossy, it would have been a great day of pebble wrestling but… we didn’t want to break any(more) rock. Moving on, we made our way to Sand Point and Fort Ross, both about 2 hours north of San Fran on Hwy 1. Sand Point was sandstone as well but it had been in the sun for a day and was climbable. We found one problem on this really sloppy arête that was pretty fun. Fort Ross is an old Russian fort (or so I’m told) with boulders right on a black sand beach with one amazing 5 star anywhere boulder, but it was soaking wet from the rain and high winter tide. From there we hit a place called Goat Rock, another interesting area one of the oldest bouldering areas in NoCal with black and white rock with patches as smooth as obsidian in some places. We climbed there for quite a while, meet some locals out top roping, they were very jealous of our life style and psyched that we made a stop at their local pile. After that we decided that it was Bishop time! after multiple quarters and hours in a laundry mat. Many thanks to Mogli’s parents for letting us keep our camper at their place and feeding us while we were there. BISHOP!

Bouldering @ Salt Point





Mogli at Salt point

Ian bouldering at Goat Rock

Moving On

On the road

We no longer reside in Hueco. We left in the afternoon on the I.C.R. what day of March, after Ian worked on his project Terre de Skin which he “almost” did, I say almost because it consists of five or so moves with the first being the hardest. A scrunched explosive very low percentage stab to a minuscule left hand crimp, on top of all that other hard stuff you must also grab it perfectly, on one try he snagged and held it for what seemed like he was going to send it, but the move is, really hard. After that it was time to save the skin for bishop, so we packed up and left for the next place. That my have sounded pretty exiting an’all (and it was) but, in our last days we had lotsa fun playing pocket tanks, ping-pong, golf, and foosball. Yes, golf, tee off and putt in golf, but its all on dirt no grass. Very fitting for a golf course at Hueco Tanks, not something you’d expect either. Enough Hueco for this season. From there we made our way to Joshua Tree. Holed up, I forgot we have a new travel partner, Matty went to another completion to hopefully win some funding, Mogli one of the first to settle in Hueco this season also wanted to go to bishop, so we said he could help with our gas bill for sure. On our way to J-tree we stayed at a friend’s house in Phoenix to cut the driving up a bit. Thank you Gustavo and wife. When we got to J-tree it was very exiting, in the rangers station we learned two thing one, we didn’t have to pay thanks to Mogli, his extractive recycling efforts during his stay in Yosemite earned him free national park entrance coupons, yes that was awesome. And two, we entered the park at the south entrance, the nice lady at the counter told us all the climbing was in the northern part of the park, she did not tell us that it was 34 miles. So when we made it to the climbable region we were way psyched. Everything played out pretty perfectly after that. The weather was nice the first half day we were there, but the day after, which was the day we would have climbed, it was windy, we hiked around Hidden Valley climbed some boulders, well... if it wasn’t windy we would have climbed more, anyways Joshua tree is a beautiful area which we will defiantly return too. Maybe next time we won’t have to pay the ten dollar camping fee in quarters either, I’d like to see someone eles try fit that envelope in that little slot.

(I.C.R= i cant remember)


10 dollars in quarters

Joshua Tree

Honey wishing we would pull over

Camping in J-Tree

The last send in Hueco, Ian on the Arch Bishop

Requesting a fly by

[Down in Flames] photo: Matty Hong

So much has happened since last time i don't know where to start. Lets see... the original crew is back, both Ian and Matty are down here again so I'm no longer by myself in the camper. Since they've been back we stated crushing again. First off we went to East Mnt. were I sent "Jamoca", one of my projects that had flaunted my best efforts before. Its this roof with a few big moves to the lip then a traverse with a jump at the end, sweet. Next both Ian and Matty sent an awesome line called "Down in Flames" at the Aircraft Carrier, a very impressive 20+ move indero roof climb with the crux at the end (of course). They sent nearly back to back making the sixth and seventh accent of a beautiful line. As awesome as it is one thing about the "D.I.F." is the landing, multiple pits need to be filled with crash pads to make the landing safe/comfortable, so lots of pads are needed, meaning everyone needs to carry at least two pads. Which isn't that bad but the "Carrier" is located on the top of the mountain. So you have to hike multiple pads strapped to your back up a semi intense slab. I think most people would call us crazy, but we love it and now we are all in great shape as well, an added benefit. Also at the Carrier a man named Dino chalked up a possible line a few weeks ago on the right side of the boulder where the landing starts out flat then rolls down to a pretty steep slope. So multiple pads would be needed for this climb as well. We had 13 pads (carried up by six people in one trip by the way) to make the landing for Down in Flames. So one of the fellows with us, Neil, decided that we had enough foam to make the lading for that one safe as well. We built the landing and he tried it a few times, got to the lip and then Ian tried it a few times, got to the lip and pulled over for the first accent of what he called "Tomcat" v4+. Another fine addition to Hueco.


[Tomcat] and the padded landing


Neil Kocurek working TC




Ian on [Down in Flames] (both of the above)

Ian on the "FA" of [Tomcat] photo by Matty Hong

[Tomcat] photo: Matty Hong

Cooper on [Down in Flames] photo: Matty Hong

Hueco trip is coming to an end and we are gearing up to climb In Bishop for the rest of the month. We had a good day of climbing and both Matty and I sent Down in Flames 6th and 7th ascent. We are psyched and tomorrow might be are last day here. Matty and I both have projects and are ready to send. If we send We leave If we don't then we might still leave. Today also we got film of this first ascent we put up (Tom Cat) it was really cool and kinda high off the ground. Bishop

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