We woke up on our 4th day, to ominous grey skies. As we've already seen from the previous days where we were in temperatures in the 30s one day to 80s another, it was not too much of a surprise. It was time to pack up camp before the winds and rain started.
Definitely was a disappointment thinking our climbing trip was ending early. Roger was contemplating leaving since forecast called for mainly high winds up to 50mph, and some rain. However, we know forecasts can't ever be trusted. There was slight rain in the campground valley area, but it stopped and a faint rainbow appeared. Good sign.
We took the morning off and went for breakfast at the popular Erick Schat's Bakery. If you are ever in Bishop, this place is made to ruin your diet with high amounts of carb and sugar consumption! Geez!
After eating all that, we decided at least to hike in to the boulders to at least burn off some of those carbs. The clouds had parted and sunshine was starting to beam through. If the winds were intolerable, we could turn around and come back down. Matt had successfully completed Monkey Hang the day before, and I thought I had a shot if the opportunity to climb it came up again.
Heading to the trail head once again...
The winds were pretty brutal up at the boulders. Sand every where which made it hard to see at times. Note for next trip, we need to bring clear goggles. We mainly hung out at Slowdance Cave area where I worked.. and kept failing on Monkey Hang. In the late afternoon, we spent time at the Son of Cladius Rufus, V5**, a project for Roger.
Kids worked in their bakery/restaurant early in the day, but spent the afternoon enjoying the winds. Gotta love their creativity and ability to have fun in all sorts of weather.
Kids playing and Roger working the extremely difficult mantle move to get over the ledge.
It was an early departure from the boulders that day... only so much whipping winds and sand-in-your-eyes that we could handle. We called it an early night and hoped for our last chances the next day.
On our last day, we went... you guessed it.. back to the Happy Boulders for our final attempts at completing our projects. The kids were tired now. They used to be the first ones blazing the way up the trail, now they were lagging behind. Liam kept stumbling over his feet. The skin on my hands were shredded with dried blood here and there. Muscles were sore, and nice bruises had formed. This was our last chance to conquer.
We started off on Monkey Hang, and I just COULD. NOT. DO. IT! Sigh. So we moved on to Cladius Rufus. Ryan got it!
Ryan on Son of Claudius Rufus, V5**
Roger worked and worked it. Got all the moves figured out, but couldn't link it all together. Both him and I were resigned to conquer our climbs next time.
As light was dimming and temperatures started to drop, we made our way to leave Happy Boulders, passing by Monkey Hang one... last.. time. I was tired and already accepted that would not complete Monkey Hang on this trip.. but I gave it one more try. As Roger put it with the chill temp kicking in... "this was sending conditions". He was right.
Connie on Monkey Hang, V3**
SUCCESS!!!!!
Perfect ending. I can't THANK enough Ryan - for helping to figure out the beta that worked for me and spotting my falls over and over and over again.. Roger - for taking videos and/or spotting me over and over and over again... and for both of them that kept encouraging me to "try again" or "work out the beta" even after I said "That's it. I'm done!"
Glorious dusk view as we were leaving the Happy Boulders for the last time... and with a faint showing of the crescent moon.
Bye Bye Eastern Sierras! We miss you already!
Our group photo at the end of the trip (missing Matt, he had to leave a couple days earlier).
And on our drive back home, on a beautiful, clear, sunny day, we had a good view of Mount Whitney.
The End... for now.
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