I managed to be at home in Tahoe for an entire 22 hours before heading out again, this time in the van with Will to a climbing adventure in the eastern Sierras. With big snowy mountains in the background, we bouldered for two days over the weekend and then dipped in a natural hot spring on Sunday evening because snow is cold.

Will and I are rope climbers, primarily crack climbing and long multipitch routes. We wake up at the crack of dawn, spend all day on a cliff face, and sometimes even spend the night there. Boulderers, on the other hand, are a completely different breed. They roll up to the crag around 10am after partying (or bouldering) into the night, wear giant beanies even when it’s not cold out, and take their shirts off to get extra power (it’s a known phenomenon). Personally, I am more drawn to the grand adventure of a big day out in the mountains, but I must admit that I see the appeal of sleeping in occasionally and keeping my ears extra toasty.

The backwards hat is also known to give you more power

Thus it was that Will and I found ourselves in Bishop, California (a few hours south of Tahoe) with three actual bouldering friends and a newfound appreciation for how lovely it is to be able to sit down on a comfy pad between climbing attempts instead of hanging in a harness on the wall. It’s also better to boulder in a bigger group so you can stack all the crashpads beneath the climb and not feel quite as scared on the higher moves. Even though the falls are generally bigger in roped climbing, I still prefer getting caught by my harness and not whatever limb happens to hit the crashpad first in a bouldering fall.

The theme of the weekend was good footwork. We worked on two separate routes on Saturday, both of which required more than one heel hook. My hamstrings were pretty sore by the end of the session, which is not a thing climbers usually complain about. Sunday included a few more heel hooks and some tiny nubs that my toe sometimes stayed on and sometimes didn’t. We both had a ton of fun working on the eight or so climbs that we tried even though we didn’t get a lot of sends on the harder stuff. Will did manage to complete a very fun and crimpy problem up a steep arête (V5 for anyone that boulders), and I did my first ever V3 on some heinous crimps so that was super exciting.

While the climbing was fun, the highlight of the weekend for Will may very well have been my faceplant onto some crashpads after unintentionally slip-sliding down a slope. I’ll let the video speak for itself, because one of the bouldering bros had set up a phone to record the climbing attempts and conveniently caught this gem on camera.

Our fingers decided to be done climbing by early afternoon on Sunday, and our normal routine after any climbing day is a river or lake dip, which tend to be freezing cold even in summertime. Looking for a better alternative, we drove around on some sketchy and puddle-ridden dirt roads and found ourselves alone at one of the natural hot springs in the area with magical views of snowy mountains in the background. Five stars, I cannot recommend a hot dip highly enough as a way to cap off any adventure weekend.