Pine Creek Canyon

I met up with Dave again for a nice weekend of climbing near Bishop. Dave is a very psyched Med student who is doing rotations in Bakersfield. I had met up with him a few weeks earlier for some climbing in Kernville, we got along well, so decided to venture onto some larger climbs.

We originally planned to go into the Needles, but the road was still closed, so we ended up going to Pine Creek Canyon, an area I have yet to explore.

Sierra Eastside - always lovely.

 We drove up to Bishop Friday night, and found ourselves a nice BLM site to camp at Horton creek

Camping

 On our first day we went into PSOM slab, which has a collection of moderate multi-pitch routes. 

PSOM slab

 First up was PBR street gang, a 5 pitch 5.9. Dave was psyched, so he led the whole think. The climb was mostly easy with a short very fun 5.9 section. Good times!

Dave through the crux

 We were the first at the crag that morning, but once we were a few pitches up lots of people arrived. The combination of well protected climbing, multi-pitch and lots of moderates certainly brought out the crowds! Luckily we avoided the shit show, and were rapping down by the time the shit show was moving up. 

The PSOM shit-show

We took a short break, and then started up my objective for the day, The John Fisher Memorial route, a 7 pitch 5.10c.  It was my turn for the lead, and I led the entire 700 foot route. It was very nice, every pitch as 5.10 and the crux was an excellent finger crack. Very fun, and very well protected, so not very stressful.

Me on the sharp end

 

Hi Dave!

 We topped out around 5 PM, savored the views of the canyon, and then started the 7 rappels back to the ground.

View from up on the PSOM slab

 The next day we went to the even more busy Pratt's Crack area. This is the main event for Pine Creek Canyon, and I can see why, the climbing there is world class.

Pratt's Crack is the giant crack splitting the dihedral

Dave was dying to climb Pratt's Crack, a 165' off-width. So he grabbed the # Merlin cam and had at it!

#8!

 Dave pushed the #8 up the whole way, did a great job. Its a committing and full body climb. Good work Dave!

Dave fighting his way up Pratt's crack

 Afterwards I took caught some air on some sport climbs on the Moustache wall, and then we had to begin the long drive back to the Western slopes. Great weekend, I'm looking forward to climbing again with Dave, and climbing at Pine creek again some time!