Patricia Bowl 2008
Karén, Peter
July 5, 2008

On Saturday, we went to Patricia Bowl, which turned out to be another amazing alpine crag close to Mammoth.

We first climbed "Boi-oi-oi-ing!" (5.10a), one of the best crack climbs I've done. Imagine a vertical wall with a hand sized crack running up for 100 meters... with enough features to make it interesting. I must admit I was quite intimidated before even starting. Me and Karén told ourselves it's good training for Mithral Dihedral which we both want to do at some point. Karén led the first pitch which has a weird roof where there is a loose block which is well wedged, but still unnerving. Afterward, sustained goodness (2-3" crack) leads to a bolt belay. I soon joined, sucking in the exposure, and looked up the next pitch... I couldn't believe how steep and clean it looked - what was I getting myself into? This pitch goes for about 50 meters and it's simply incredible, the first 40 meters are very steep with few places to rest - I kept being worried about having enough pieces for it, being not so confident and unwilling to run it out. Admittedly I had to rest a few times, and after pulling around a weird loose flake (that looked like it was ready to chop someone's head off, were it to fall off), the angle eased off a bit. A nice 15ft section of 5.9 crack from there led to a bolt belay on a great ledge, which I was very happy to see. The exposure and views were unbeatable! After chilling around, we rappelled down without doing the third pitch (which was 5.9, looked dirty and only had 1 star).

Afterwards we went to "First Cliff - Right Tower" and Karén led "I Had a Dream 5.10b" - a nice single pitch climb which felt pretty hard, and we toproped "What'sherface 5.10d", which pwned us even more as expected. Overall, we got what we wanted and we felt like we deserved the Japanese feast that night.

  Nice view of Bear Creek Spire on the approach - the sun/shade line is the North Ridge (5.8) Karén's shades and socks were on fire that day  
  Nice view of Bear Creek Spire on the approach - the sun/shade line is the North Ridge (5.8) Karén's shades and socks were on fire that day

  The first climbs, which we didn't do Traversing around to the opposite end of the crag  
  The first climbs, which we didn't do Traversing around to the opposite end of the crag

  Looking up some unknown climbs The only other climbers we saw, on Patricia Lake Grack Approaching Boi-io-io-ing  
  Looking up some unknown climbs The only other climbers we saw, on Patricia Lake Grack Approaching Boi-io-io-ing

  The cracks left of the middle arete are our climb Line showing the climb Karén with the first pitch  
  The cracks left of the middle arete are our climb Line showing the climb Karén with the first pitch

  About to do some of the first strenuous moves on the first pitch Looking down at the bergschrund ;)  
  About to do some of the first strenuous moves on the first pitch Looking down at the bergschrund ;)

  Jamming good A hero shot of Karén  
  Jamming good A hero shot of Karén

  stylin' higher up Me posing with the loong second pitch above me (notice the weird loose flake sticking out, that's only 2/3 the way) The shame shot: hanging :(  
  stylin' higher up Me posing with the loong second pitch above me (notice the weird loose flake sticking out, that's only 2/3 the way) The shame shot: hanging :(

  Enjoying the jams higher up Looking down the sheer face from the second belay We just did that?!  
  Enjoying the jams higher up Looking down the sheer face from the second belay We just did that?!

  100 meters straight down! Time to get down...  
  100 meters straight down! Time to get down...

  Looking down on rappel Our next objective Patricia lake  
  Looking down on rappel Our next objective Patricia lake

  Bear Creep Spire sunset as we hike out  
  Bear Creep Spire sunset as we hike out

Previous Page