Build My Own FeedBD athlete Chris Webb Parsons reports from the boulders of Bishop, California—Dispatch #2
Black Diamond athlete Chris Webb Parsons continues his comeback from shoulder surgery with more quality ascents on the boulders around Bishop, California. Below is an email and photos that Chris (who is the only person to repeat the famed 60-move Wheel Of Life boulder problem/route in Australia's Hollow Mountain Cave) sent us from his travels.
Read Chris's other report from Bishop here
This story starts in a faraway place (from Australia). Where the weekend warrior will flock, the chuffers will chuff and drink beer at the crag and the snow will fall: The Happy Boulders, Bishop, California. A few days ago I sent a few cool problems even though they were a little wet: Standing Kill Order (V11), Kill Onsight (V12) and Bubba But Buster (V11). Everything is wet in Bishop because a monster storm came through and covered everything in snow (for the Australians, snow is the white and cold stuff... hahaha). The snow is melting now and most of the boulders are wet, wet, wet.
I have not been able to try problems that I want to but I'm still having a good time. That was until my other shoulder (my good one) dislocated two days ago. Yes, you read correctly: my other shoulder blew out. I was crossing through to pocket when my foot popped off a hold, causing my shoulder to dislocate. After a few days of deciding what cliff to jump off I went to the doctor and got my shoulder checked out. I'm not going to go into the whole story because my shoulders are all I seem to talk about over the last year, but in short, it turns out my shoulder is ok. I can't believe it.
So today I went to the Sad boulders to have a climb and, of course, the boulders were wet.
We threw our pads back in the truck and punched over to another area called The Buttermilks. On arrival things looked good and the boulders looked dry. We walked up the hill in the snow, and turns out everything was wet. Well, not everything was wet but most things.
I warmed up, tested my shoulder (now shoulderS) out and they felt good. Once I was warm, I jumped on the last move (the crux) of Direction (V13) and to my surprise pretty much staticed the move although I slipped off the next hold cause it was wet and put a nasty little hole in my finger. Even though my skin was shagged I was still on a high, only yesterday I thought I might never climb again. I pulled my boots on again and managed to send The Oracle (V13). It felt hard today because the last holds where as wet as ducks nuts but I managed to keep my hands closed all the way to the finish.
I'm going to go back to San Fran for a few days now, to rest my skin but more importantly go to a weights gym and rehab my shoulders. After San Fran we will be heading either back out to Bishop or maybe down to Vegas to boulder at Red Rocks or we may even head out to Moe's Valley to see what the deal is there?
Until then amigos.......
United States / English 
