Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Southern Stone is Here!!



Rockwarrior Films has just uploaded the Southern Stone video. This video features many of the best lines in the Southeast. The footage is energetic and exciting to watch. Anyone who wants to see a sample of the country's best sandstone should check it out. I got to help do some filming and climbing in this video. Ian, the brain behind RockWarrior Films, is a good friend of mine. Ian works hard traveling around and getting good footage so that he can edit climbing videos. The videos are entertaining and will get you psyched. You can help support Rockwarrior Films by going to this website www.rockwarriorfilms.com and purchasing this video for $10 via internet download. So when you're sitting around on the couch, scratching your ass on a rainy day, GET MOTIVATED ! Check out some serious action packed sending.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Southeast recap

Well my stint in the South is over. As expected I had a great time. As with most trips I met a lot of cool people and new friends. There was lots of beer, great food, and country living in the house in Mentone. Props to my parents for hooking us up with a place to stay. It was easy on this trip to remember that bouldering is all about staying psyched and enjoying yourself with good friends. As a roof climber my favorite place was Dayton, Tenn. That roof was sick. I left a problem behind too. The Crazy Craver v11 was in the bag...or so I thought. My last day on it was day 3 and the conditions were perfect. Every try got me closer and closer to the finish line. In the end I fell at the move to the jug 3 times that day and had to walk away empty handed. I was really excited about finishing this line but sometimes that's the way it goes. I took the failure pretty hard but in the end I had to say fuck it. It is what it is. I will return one day and send.
In case anyone was curious, here's my southeast ticklist:
The Snail v6
Little Rock City, TN             Castaway v7
                                 Tennessee Thong v7(flash)
                                 The Pinch v7
                                 Robbin the Toothfairy v9 (2nd try)
                                 The Wave v6


HP40, AL                         Short Long v7/8
                                 Five -0 v9
                                 Soopa Coola v6

Rocktown, GA                     Tractor Trailer v9
                                 The Dao v7

Zahnd, GA                        Prey Lika Mantis v10
                                 Harvest Moon v8

Citadel, AL                      Breadloaf Factory v10
                                 Ninja Camp v9
                                 The Snail v6
                                 Earl the Squirrel v6

Little River, AL                 The Engagement v7(flash)
                                 Diego Problem v8 (flash)
                                 Diego Problem left v8

Dayton, TN                       The Honeycomb v10
                                 River Dance v9 ( 3rd go)
Matt Arnold working a hard project in Mentone
Maybe not my best performance but whatev's . Currently I'm in Baton Rouge, LA hanging with my parents. Tomorrow we head to Austin, Texas to hang out with my brother, Glen, for the holidays. I may check out some of the Austin climbing areas if it works out but will most definately check out the Austin Rock Gym which is supposed to be the bomb. By January 5th I plan to land in Hueco Tanks. I'm excited about revisiting this area as it is one of my favorite bouldering spots in the country. This will be a great place to hang with the homies and climb. Can't wait.   

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Southeast first half

                                                        Isaac on the Shield v12, Little Rock City
the fridge stocked with the bare essentials


Ian Cotter Brown on the Golden Harvest v10
Haley Waldrop quickly sends the Big Poppa v8


I've been on the road now for about 6 weeks. So far it has been as expected, awesome. The crew and I have been climbing at lots of great areas. We've gone to Little Rock City, Desoto State Park, Rocktown, Zahnd, Horse Pens 40 and the Citadel. There's only about 15 days left here for me, which is not nearly enough time. In the Southeast half of your trip can likely be taken out by rainy weather and poor conditions. In the 20 days I've been here I've had 8 climbing days. Maybe 4 with good conditions. These kind of odds make sending hard boulders really difficult. I wish I had tales of how I'm crushin' this and sending that. But I've really just been doing whatever I can. Perhaps I'm out of shape since it's the beginning of the trip, or maybe the grades here are more solid. I don't know. When you're used to climbing hard you feel a bit deflated when you've traveled so far to do your best only to find that you're bumbling around on moderates. Five years ago I would have been a mopey bitch about this. Now, I have a little less expectations for performance and more expectation for fun. So that has been the theme..fun. And there's lots of fun to be had out here in the south. As usual I wish that I had more time here so maybe I could do a hard boulder or two. But since I don't, good times will do.
      My friends and I have been mostly staying in Mentone, Alabama. This town holds the southern most ski area in the states. The Cloudmont Ski Resort in Alabama has one chairlift that gives skiers access to a single ski run that is 150 ft long...holy shit. Get Jeremy Jones down here now! I know ...not very impressive. But it's still cool to be staying in an Alabama ski town. This place has a great central location to all the best boulderfields in the south. We have even found great potential right in town that hopefully we'll have time to get to.
    I have been climbing with lots of great people on the trip too. We are hanging with Isaac who demonstrates every hard boulder he tries quickly and with style. We also got an opportunity to meet an Evolv athlete named Ronnie from Florida. Ronnie has a prosthetic leg. But that didn't stop him from crushing the Zahnd classic Harvest Moon v8. That was inspiring to see. We've also been climbing with Haley Waldrop. Despite being short she still crushes all the power lines in the south. It's always fun for me to climb with another short person that , ya know, feels my pain. The list of great people and good climbers goes on and on around here. I'm super psyched that I've got to hang out with all these people.
    On the video front I've been helping Ian Cotter-Brown of Rockwarrior Films get footage for his next video featuring the Southeast. There's been lots of sending going on an the video is piling up. I've been watching the editing process and the film is coming together really well so far. Keep your eye out for this one if you want to see some Southern classics.
     After all this planning I'm halfway through the Southeast part of my roadtrip. I have high hopes for better weather and more great times for the second half. As of the 20th I leave for New Orleans, Louisiana to visit my parents and go partying with old high school buds. From there I head down to Austin, Texas to chill with my brother. Eventually I'll land at the next big destination in Hueco Tanks, Texas. I am very excited for Hueco. I used to go there a lot but have not been in 5 or 6 years. It will be fun going back to all my old projects. Maybe they'll still kick my ass...but maybe not. In the meantime, the weather today is shit in the south. Heavy rain is forcasted for the next 2 days. Just in time for a much needed rest day. My psyche is being renewed as we speak.

Friday, November 11, 2011

                               boulders in Kansas City! yeah right.               photo: Frank Lucido



I left for the road two weeks ago. I've been taking my time so much that I'm actually still about a 15 hour drive from my first destination. It feels relaxing to just go with the flow of the trip for a bit. My first stop was Hartley Springs in June Lake. I got out of the car for about 2 hours of climbing. It was just enough time to warm up and bust out some speed sending. From there I trickled through the Happy Boulders, then went to sleep in Moe's Valley, Utah. Then, thankfully, I got talked into a mini detour to Joe's Valley. I was psyched because I hadn't been there in about 3 years. While there I hung out with some cool people. They totally converted me into a butterfinger donut addict. Thanks Food Ranch. I got to see many boulders that I hadn't seen before. I managed to do 5 v9s and a v11 but the send of the trip was definately a problem called Wills of Fire v6. I had to dig pretty deep to send that one. There is a scary move in which you have to jump to an incut gaston at the lip from a fingerlock. I hate fingerlocks. It looks like most people can just stand up static to the move at the lip. As you guessed, I can not and must jump into a barndoor swing to stick that move. It was awesome though. Probably one of the coolest walls ever.
   After that, I swung over to Carbondale, Colorado to hang out with some more cool friends. It ended up snowing just about everyday I was there. That didn't stop us from partying it up every night and taking a trip to the White House pizza joint. If in the area I recommend this pizza. A break in the weather opened an invitation for a bit more driving, so I tested the limits of my bordem tolerance and went through the state of Kansas. I must say that the police in Kansas are very suspicious of any cars that have California plates. After the gauntlet, I ended up at the next leg which is where I am now; which is Kansas City, Missouri. I've been hanging out with Frank Lucido getting the KC tour. This has included sampling some really good mid western food. One of the places we went was the famous KC BBQ place called Rosedales. All I can say is Holy Shit! It is cheap, fast, and really damn tasty. I was impressed. If I lived here I'd go everyday. Also, believe it or not, there is some bouldering right in Kansas City. We've been messing around the areas of Swope Park. The rock is limestone that seems to vary in quality. Some is bullet, some is dried mud. None the less, we've been psyched to do some climbing. From here, I think Arkansas' Horseshoe Canyon Ranch could be the next stop. I all depends on the weather. We shall see.



Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tahoe Classics vid

Before I peace out I had to share this teaser from Alton Richardson. This is another video to keep your eye out for.

Monday, October 24, 2011

On the Road Again

I leave tomorrow for the road after being a working man for a while. I'm psyched to be back to full time rock climbing. I spent my last 10 days here really busy trying to get the last bit of bouldering in here at home. Between that, packing and planning it's not yet started to feel like vacation. I'm headed through the country in my truck and stopping along the way to see old friends. My first stop is the southeast. I'm psyched to do some bouldering at Horse Pens 40. It is the place where I learned to boulder when I was 18. I just remember being a gumby beginner and going there in the dead of summer to flail on slopers at 95 degrees. Even now I think its cool because back then I could care less about getting good temps. I couldn't stop myself from going on a 12 hour round trip in the car to pull off the ground on some of the coolest sandstone ever. It will be neat to go there again after many years and see if I've acquired any new skills from my time here in California. We'll see.
I also hope to check out Dayton since I love long roof climbing. That one looks really cool. All the boulders in the Chattanooga area look really awesome as well. I plan to be there from November through January. From there Arkansas and then Hueco Tanks for a while. Hueco is another area that I've been ready to revisit. I spent time there during 4 seasons in a row but haven't been back for about 6 years now. Hopefully it will feel as fun as it used to parking outside the gate for 6 hours because I'm too lazy to get reservations. From there...well I figure I'll see where the trip takes me. I definately have South Africa in mind for next summer. Time will tell.
I'll spend the last day packing, organizing and saying good bye to my peeps. I want to recaps some things that went down but I don't have time to type it all gracefully. So the short version CLIF notes of what went down in the past two weeks is as follows:
No more work. Photos. Video. Phone calls. Texts. Seishuku Samarai v10 ! yee haw. Sushi after climbing. Return of Frank Lucido. Packing. Cleaning. More photos. Mountain Beaver 4 day backpack trip. Awesome dinners. First ascents. New Boulders. More First Ascents. Motta Tiempo v6 (half lowball, half scary). Hiking pads. Hiking more pads. Dry firing off the top of river project. Sweaty tips. Packing. D Sky. More photos. More packing. Procrastinating. Road trip jitters. Packing. Emailing. Blogging....

Monday, October 3, 2011

A new project goes down

The crew and I have been doing a lot of work here in Tahoe. The new boulders being found are producing many must do classics. You have to be willing to hike far and steep to get to them but they are very worthy. Most of the problems have been working out to be v5. All of them are turning out to be really quality.
This weekend was a last hurahh for me as I start a new job this week. I went to the upper area at the Mountain Beavers to try my hand at my latest long term epic. The problem sit starts under a steep prow. There are no easy moves on it. Right away you launch into powerfull compression climbing. You just keep slapping fat glassy slopers with the right, while opposing on small crimpy sidepulls with the left. After negociating the steep prow you get to a top out crux that forces you to move right over a peculiar landing. The finishing moves are powerfull and insecure and lead to a technical top out. I spent 9 days figuring this beast out. On day 9 I managed to finally scream my way up this new climb. I called it Dark Passenger. This new climb was quickly repeated by Eric Sanchez. It was impressive to watch Eric make this problem look very easy. It took him about an hour total to send. Eric and I had a discussion on the possible grade of this thing. As usual, there is no right answer to this question, only a best guess. We decided that this thing is probably v11/12, so we went with v11. Either way, it is a very worthy endeaver and is possibly the hardest line at the area so far.
The next day I headed to the middle zone to try Jarrad Wycoff's mega line Integrity Low. I thought that I'd never see the day when I could do a problem that was as reachy as this one. It was one of those dry windy days though and shit worked out. I managed to do this thing, which I believe is the 4th ascent. I am a big fan of compression climbing. This climb is one of the best in its style that I've ever done. It is beautiful, proud, and very hard. For me, this problem was probably solid v11/12, but I am short and am at a major disadvantage on the giant spans, so I feel v10 is a good rounded out grade for this climb. That being said, it is one of the best boulder problems in South Lake Tahoe. After that I went down to the river roof and finished the left side project next to Primitive Fire. We named it Refried Rasberry v8. A very cool roof that I recommend trying when it's colder.
On the video front, I've been working with Brad Perry to help get the new Mountain Beavers movie out. We've been going out getting lots of footage of the classic there. The video will basically be an entertaining take on the full experience of developing this new area. The filming pretty much started at day one back in early May and has continued through the booming of this new zone. Brad has been doing a great job on the editing of this video. I've included his teaser of the video so you can check it out.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tuolumne Meadows trip

I just returned from a week long trip to Tuolumne Meadows. While I was there I visited and climbed with my friend Matt Arnold. Matt has been doing lots of bouldering developement in the Yosemite, Tuolumne, and Bishop areas over the past years. I hung out with Matt at the High Sierra camp that he works at. I got to meet many cool people and eat lots of great food. One of the main boulders there is called the Battletanks. There was an awesome roof on great rock that I became obsessed with. I climbed there 6 days in a row. While there I repeated a few of Matt's problems including Big Guns v9, Belly of the Beast v11, and Heavy Artilery v9. I also established two new lines out the roof, the Hand Grenade v8 and The Art of War v12. The  Art of War starts at Heavy Artilery and climbs out that line past the crux, but then takes a rightward path which doubles the size of the roof climb. From there a few easy but pumpy moves lead to a 2nd crux to match on a slopey gaston/undercling. After fighting to stay in control for a while to establish on this undercling you find yourself at the start of another v9 problem called Big Guns. It then finishes out the climb with compression moves. This link up is one of my favorite long roof climbs. I felt lucky to actually get this one before I had to return home. In between I got to go look around at a few other areas in Tuolumne that also looked really awesome. That place has a lot of great bouldering potential. I look forward to revisiting one day.
      On another note, I hope all are psyched for Meyers Climbing Festival this Saturday September 17. Registration starts at 9am at the parking lot by Divided Sky. Check the website for the comp at http://www.tahoebouldering.com/. The festival should be really fun. If anyone's wondering, I will not be competing. Most of the areas are my backyard zones. Some of the hard problems are really familiar to me and I felt it would be better if I helped instead. I'll be millin' around at the comp with Brad Perry and company. I'll be taking pictures, heckling people, and drinking heavily. This is the first comp/festival for climbers in Meyers/south lake tahoe area. It would be rad to see lots of people participate so as to make this a yearly event.
    In this entry I've included a couple of short videos from the trip. I would have made them a bit more fancy, but I have a cheap computer at the moment and this is all that it could muster at one time.

Belly of the Beast from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.


The Art of War from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Far Country

I've been doing lots of climbing lately.There's too much to blog about all of it. But since I have some time.... This weekend I went to visit an area established by Frank Lucido and Jarrad Wycoff called The Far Country. From what I can tell it's called that because even though it looks close on a map it seems to take a while to get there. This area is an impressive looking talus field that could hold a lot of hidden potential. I went there to try a Steve Francis line I've heard about for years now called Over the Hills and Far Away. It was every bit as cool as I'd heard. It is a steep line on great rock with rad holds...a typical classic. It was great to go out there with my friends and just explore and boulder. In addition we put up a few lines that were in a sort of underworld below the talus. Jarrad put up a cool problem that reminded me of bouldering at the sads in Bishop. Even in the hottest part of the day this place offered underground shade with a cool steady breeze blowing through the whole time. Very decent for summer weather.
Another upside was that I was psyched that my car did not get stuck when I drove downhill on a gnarly rutted out part of the road. However, when Sunday came the S 10 cruised out without a hitch. It is the weekday now, and I'm back at work. Soon work will end again for me and I'll be fully dedicated to climbing again. Until that day comes I have to stay motivated. Speaking of motivated, here is video from my trip to the Far Country that will hopefully get you psyched when you're feeling lazy.

Monday, August 15, 2011

PCI video



Here is a video about the PCI. This new organization is going to make professional climbing possible. At the same time it will help benefit sponsors and climbing companies and give back to the climbing community.

Thursday, August 4, 2011



Here is a quick video of Jarrad Wycoff and Brad Perry getting some laps in on some great South Lake Tahoe moderates. I'm off to Toulumne Meadows to hook up with Matt Arnold and see some awesome stuff he's been doing in the park.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Summertime

                                                        Swiss Chocolate v5, photo Jason Hogan
                                                      Smoothe Boy Slim v9, photo Brad Perry
                                                     my new home
                                                        chillin' by the fire


August is here once again. The temps have been warm and the mosquitoes have been plentiful. As usual there have been massive developements all over Tahoe. Sugar Pine continues to keep producing dope line, North Shore has turned up a great area near Boreal that is supposed to be really good too. I have been stuck in massive work mode. Typical full time work can be draining on the motivation and the body. Thus, I've not had too many opportunities for travel lately. It's all a sacrafice for my next road trip in November. I plan to tour the U.s. for 5 months and then head back to South Africa.
    In the meantime I've been trying to stay in shape during the week with quick training sessions after work. In one of these sessions at the Toltek boulder I did the 3 classics and then sent the Golden Eagle project. Then almost did the Flying Silver project( climbing Flyan Mayan into Silver Bullet). I've also been doing some lines at Jarrad's area. We've been getting lots of footage of the new problems. I'm working on a video edit that showcases the classic FA's done at this place. Being that I don't have much time to venture too far from my house, this area has become my new favorite. Special thanks goes to Jarrad for wondering in the middle of nowhere and finding some new stuff.  In the meantime, I've finished a short edit of Jarrad Wycoff and Brad Perry doing some random mega classics at different South Lake Tahoe areas. The video will be uploaded soon.
    Despite the long hours of work I've been putting in, it is awesome that I still get to climb when I can. Staying fit is all about staying psyched. I'm staying psyched!

Friday, July 8, 2011

a few pics

                                                 Mike Njoten on Sacred Heart
                                                      David O getting freaky
                                                            4 th of July @ Stateline
                                               The Tahoe Fireworks Show

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Is the Rain finally Over?

Here in Tahoe it has been cold but a bit rainy for the last 3 weeks. I've been spending most of my time training indoors, going on adventurous hikes in the rain, and working my ass of to earn my finances for the next roadtrip. For me personally it has been a pretty uneventful month. However, others have been going out and making it happen despite the rain. I have heard of new bouldering developments at zones such as Doyle, South Bliss, and the Ronin. Bliss especially has been seeing lots of attention this month from the Gardnerville/West Shore climbers. I have not yet been but I've heard good things. From what I hear these new zones are definitely worth checking out.
I'm spending most of my time training at the High Altitude Fitness center. Frequent visits to this place do great things for your bouldering power and endurance. So, due to the amount of heavy rain, I'm using this as an opportunity to prepare for my season climbing goals. High on the list is the direct sit start project into Smooth Boy Slim at Burnside; the full Freak Show link up at the Freaks;and Charlie Barret's stellar roof The End of the Road at Hartley Springs; More currently,I sent Noah Kaufman's awesome gymnastic classic Avoid the Wart at the Beavers. This is an amazing line. A first mellow move to a decent sidepull leads to a big jump move/deadpoint to a sloper that has to be stuck with the serious accuracy and commitment. This line is especially hard if you're short like me. I welcomed my disadvantage on this line as sticking the move felt equivalent to moving an object with my mind. I was very stoked. In addition, I recently repeated my lines Welcome to the Future and Freak Show. Repeating these lines felt like doing them the first time. I am stoked to stay in shape to try my three main projects near the fall when the weather becomes prime. I'm sure I'll get a bit distracted by the great new stuff that is sure to turn up this year as well.
I have been continuing to get footage around here. I'm planning to do a longer video part by the end of the summer here documenting the new developments in South Lake Tahoe this season. I'm sure the great classics are going to reveal themselves pretty soon. I will most likely do a few short segments throughout the season and eventually put out the longer video some time in fall.
For those of you interested in some current local news, here are some bullet points worth mentioning for early season.

* David Outcalt sent Secret Weapon at the Ronin after putting in an estimated 10+ days of effort. Great job to David on his vast progression this year.

* Dave Hatchett and Noah Kaufman are hard at work on a comprehensive Tahoe bouldering guide. The guide will feature tahoe's best, previously undocumented areas such as Barb Wire, Hate Handles, Sugar Pine, South Bliss, The Ronin, Erratica, Camoflage Forest, Lake Audraine, The Beavers, Prison Hill , Job's Peak and probably many many more.

* A Meyer's Climber Festival/ bouldering comp may be in the works for Sept.

Yes sir, another exciting year for Tahoe bouldering. Now that the rain appears to have taken a break, maybe I can actually start to work my way back into the rocks. I think I'll start tomorrow.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

It has begun

In between training and working 40 hrs a week, I managed to get out and do a little filming with some friends. Luckily I was able to capture some really cool sends on video. For those of you wondering, the season in Tahoe is on. We've broken in most of the early season area and this weekend we are headed to the higher country. Kirkwood saw a lot of snow this season. On Saturday we are headed up to Erratica to find out just how much. Tarps, snowshoes, shovels, crash pads, and hot drinks will be in our arsenal for this bouldering weekend. I am excited as usual. I have some new projects that are high on the list for this season and I can't wait to try them. But anyways the season is ON!!! So get psyched. And if you're not perhaps this will get you on your feet.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Video by Jason Hogan

My friend Jason Hogan posted this rad video of me climbing in Tahoe. The footage is from last winter and has some problems from Erratica and Pie Shop Area. It is a really great edit with good problems. Enjoy.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Bishop: Great Times

Bishop!!!! Despite the fact that the conditions here are all over the board, I've been extremely focused on having a blast. This trip the partying seems to be just as enjoyable as the climbing. I've been going to a lot of different areas. Zack and I even went alpine style on the hottest day. We climbed and shoveled out the Hartley Springs area. I was really impressed with the climbing here. It was fully quality over quantity. The problems were really fun and not very sharp. I'm looking forward to going here a few more times. I am really excited to try Charlie Barrett's line called The End of the Road. This climb is exactly the perfect problems I look for. I have yet to try it but it has already sucked me in. I can't wait. Other than that, I've been doing lots of moderates and trying lots of things that don't fit me very well. I did do a cool 2nd ascent of another brilliant Matt Arnold problem in the Tablelands. A hard roof called Glass Slipper v10. I had to fight for this one. My beta is kind of wacked because of my lack of reach but it was fun anyways. Great rock and steep. Other than climbing, I've been really excited about filming and taking pictures. I got footage of Thomasina Pidgeon doing the FFA of Beautiful Gecko v12 which was awesome to witness. When I return to the civilized world I'll probably do an edit of this. One interesting rest day, we awoke to find that it was cold, raining hard, and very windy. We were hudled under a small overhang trying to stay warm and dry. Then Matt found this crazy cave above our site that had a dwelling like set up for a fire. We then turned misery into bliss. The cave was a warm, dry sanctuary on one of the worst days for camping I've seen. We spent seven hours warm, listening to music, and getting completely blitzed. It was perhaps the coolest rest day I've ever had in Bishop. The experience of being out here and constantly hanging out with cool people is unforgettable. I'm really going to enjoy these last two weeks here on the road. Then I'll return home for some work. It will be nice to spend a full season in Tahoe once again. The rock climbing never stops there. And, I'm sure this year will be no different. Thomasina on Beautiful Gecko v12
Shadow on the FA of THX 1138 v7
Nick and Matt staying warm in our "dwelling"

Friday, March 18, 2011

Buttermilks 10:30 pm
Eduardo and Charlie on Ironman Traverse


I've been here in Bishop climbing for about a week now. I've done some really good new things here in the Tableland. In some of the lesser known areas mega developement is being done. I've been climbing a lot of these new things and they are awesome. I did the 2nd ascents of James Thick Pie v11 and Subzero v11. James Thick Pie came easier because of my height but the other one was quite a feat. Relentless upside down climbing from one crux to another. I feels good to start getting back in shape a little. It is so fun to be here again for a while to climb in these cool areas with all of my friends. There are a lot of problems that I still want to try here. My trip here continues for 3 weeks. I plan on trying a lot of problems. It would be nice to do them all. But we'll see.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I just got back from my trip to Moe's Valley, Utah. Once again, it was nice to travel somewhere and meet new people. The area is really cool. The rock can be a bit sandy but the climbing style is ultimately fun. In the past 40 days I've had a lot of great times with my friends. There were definately lots of laughs. Despite having decent conditions and ample rest days, I did not send anything really hard. It's all good though. I feel my experience kick in on shut-downs like this. Sometimes that's the way it goes. Failure can often times give me the extra motivation I need to train harder. After trying a project for multiple days I developed a slight tweak in my finger. Definately not a bad injury but just enough to warrant a week or so of rest and cross training. I am back in Tahoe for some snowboarding, some working, and recovery. After that I plan to take some more time to go back to Bishop and possibly a return to Utah to give my project another go. Here's my ticklist from my trip:
Bishop
March of the Pigs v11 (2nd ascent)
Nine Inch Nails v9 (FA)
Snakebite v6
Solaris v8
Space Queen v6

Moe's Valley
The Fin v7
Unnamed v8 ( really good line around from linder's roof)
Unknown v8/9 (faces device ignitor)
The Beast v8
Gription v9
Bazooka Tooth v10
Show of Hands v11
Linder's Roof v9 (repeat)

Here's a video by Ian Cotter-Brown which has some of our Moe's Valley trip