Trip Report:  Roadtrip to the Women’s Climbing Festival in Bishop, California

Weekend of March 3-5

I headed out of Reno on Thursday to meet up with my HS buddy Steph and her friend Lindsay in South Lake Tahoe!  After enjoying some coffee and lunch at a cafe, we walked the beach and docks to enjoy the super calm waters.  We then began our trek south towards Bishop during the sunset.  We cooked up some dinner on the stove in Walker, and slept in the cars in Walker Canyon.

The next morning, we drove up to Bridgeport for a soak in Travertine Hot Springs, enjoying the view pool and the main travertine pools.  After thoroughly relaxing, we made a quick stop at Mono Lake, where we again had super calm waters and AMAZING reflections of the tufas.  Hungry, we continued to Bishop and filled up on food before hitting up some bouldering in the Happies.  Steph and Lindsay headed off to the festival while I ate dinner and caught up on some reading.   That night my coworkers Genevieve and Brittany met up with me and we headed up to the Tablelands to camp.

Saturday morning, Genevieve, Brittany and I enjoyed a slow morning, making coffee, eating muffins and eventually packing up our bags to hit Owens River Gorge.  We got to the Gorge floor around 11am, and it was packed with clinics and groups attending the women’s fest.  We still found a couple climbs to do; I was able to onsight 2 routes (something I’ve needed work on), Brittany led her first outdoor route and it was Genevieve’s first time on ropes in over a year.  We were only able to do 3 climbs in total, but we considered it a success!  We hiked out of the Gorge in time for sunset, then headed into town for some well earned pizza and cider.

Waking up on Sunday, we were met with no view.  Clouds had swept in over night and the temperatures had dropped.  Not sure of what the weather was going to be like, we headed into town for some coffee and gear shopping.  We met up with Steph and Lindsay and decided that we would brave the crappy weather and climb at the Sads.  Upon unloading the cars and getting the crash pads ready, Koa (Brittany’s pup), decided he should roll in some cow poop... creating a smelly fiasco.  We hiked up to the Sads in the light snowy rain stuff and found some V0s we were comfortable cruising up and down, since we were nervous about topping out in the wet weather.  After about 2 hours, we headed out, as the weather started turning for the worse.  We parted ways with Lindsay and Steph, and decided to take the Nevada route back to Reno to avoid the chain controls and road closures on 395.