Three Matts take a trip to Big Bear, CA

by: Matt Talley

We got up about 7:30 Saturday morning and broke out our kitchens for breakfast. OCM had a huge two burner green Coleman camping stove (like your dad's when you went camping as a kid). On it he fried up this spinach leaf/scrambled egg and sausage combination that looked and tasted excellent! I stole the recipe from him and have made it almost weekly since. LM is a vegetarian and had oatmeal and fruit. He was using a MSR PocketRocket to boil his water. I had seen and used one before and agreed with him that it was a rocking little stove. After setting up my MSR WhisperHeavy International, I had oatmeal, fruit and blueberry cereal. I had decided to go with a steel cup-only mess kit after seeing its benefits while on a trip to Wyoming. OCM scoffed as he heated up his eggs in an iron skillet, but LM could see the virtues of the tiny light mess kit. I could see that spark of "light is right" flickering in his eyes.

After breakfast we took a short walk to one of the promising looking walls. LM was the only one with a guidebook and it was sparse as far as route information went. We just walked until we found bolts and after sizing the route up some, we would hop on. The first two routes turned out to be fun little 5.9s that all three of us led. While LM was climbing I eyed a third route that I was sure was a 5.8 and decided to give it a go. The other two looked at me a little funny. I clipped the first and peeled of the route about two feet afterwards. OCM held my fall and I didn’t smack the ground so I tried the route again from the ground up. Just after clipping the second bolt, I blew a fist sized hold off the route and cut a deep 1/4" flapper into the tip of my left middle finger. Fuck! I put some Neosporin on the cut, covered it with a Band-Aid, and wrapped my whole finger thickly with athletic tape. There was no way I was going to be put of commission on the first day of a three-day trip. I later learned that the "5.8" was a 5.11c/d that is now a 5.12 with the missing hold. I was having a high gravity weekend. I must have pulled off four holds that weekend and neither of the other two Matts had even so much of a pebble break off on them.

We made the easy walk back to camp for lunch. OCM napped for an hour or so after eating, LM read part of a Dean Koontz book. I wrote in my climbing journal and added some more tape to my injured social finger. We climbed three or four routes after lunch and Bonnie barked at every dog and climber that came up the trail or near our camp. OCM was none too pleased with the barking. At the bottom of one route, I showed LM how to tie a dog muzzle and hobble out of a two foot sling. Bonnie stopped barking and running up on people and OCM was happier, but I think that LM might have thought it upset Bonnie too much. While it did piss her off, she stopped barking and it wasn't hurting anything but her canine pride.

On three of the routes we climbed that day, I climbed adjacent routes and set up photo anchors. Everyone always has shots of them climbing from the ground, but after awhile you want picture of something other than your ass for people to see. I got some really great shots of LM clipping bolts and of OCM grunting through a lead. OCM lead one stellar 5.10+ that took balls. It had a little roof and a featureless bulge that he negotiated with flair.

About 4:00 we wrapped up the climbing and headed back to camp. LM has been bitten by the slack-lining bug and brought his rig to set one up. So, as soon as we dropped the gear we were setting up the slack line. After setting it up a couple of different places we decided so string the thing between the tree next to my tent and a large boulder. LM is OK at walking the webbing, but OCM and I would have no part of it. I can just sit on thing with my feet off the ground for a few seconds before I tumble over backwards. If I try to stand or walk I either get sling-shot off into nearby bushes, landing flat on my back after doing a Wile E. Coyotesq flip or my man-parts are assaulted in a hurtful and pride injuring fashion. I think that LM was a little bummed about not having playmates for his toy, but his disappointment didn't make OCM or I either one put any serious commitment into walking the slack line.

Our camp setup was great; Tall pines here and there to shade the whole thing, enough flat ground to set four tents up comfortably, a stepped boulder that served as our kitchen and a huge boulder with a slightly concaved flat side that a fire pit had been built against. It was tumbled down and consecutive camping groups had used the thing for a trash-burning pit. We cleaned it up a little bit and gathered some wood for a nice little fire that night. OCM had bought two steaks (he stored them, his juice and milk in a cooler in the truck) on the trip up and pan-fried one of them with a topping of baked beans. I had a crappy dehydrated meatless Indian (dot not feather) dish and LM steamed what seemed like a bushel of veggies to chow on. After dinner we sat around telling stories and staring at the fire. The second morning was the same as the first except Bonnie started barking at the ass-crack of dawn. OCM was not amused… We got on the routes about 9:00 and got three in before it was lunch/nap time. Around 2:00 we climbed another couple of good routes and broke climbing off early to boulder a bit. Bouldering is not my thing. It is something that I do only when I’m nursing an injury or if I can’t find someone to climb with. Besides, I suck at it. I humored LM and OCM for an hour or so and then decided to clean out the fire pit and rebuild the thing. OCM couldn’t stand it for long, he had to help and finally LM got into it. We tore the whole thing down, cleaned out all the crap and searched all around the area for the right stones. We spent maybe two hours working on that fire pit, but let me tell you that that thing will survive until the next ice age as long it is not kicked down or run over. We had a great big fire that night to celebrate our accomplishment. The thing burned from 8:00pm until long past 1:00am. I know that because OCM argued with Bonnie until around 12:30 until he fell into a deep snoring sleep.

We got up the last day and partially packed camp before heading off into the rocks. the three of us got on three sport routes that morning and had fun confusing the hell out of a little kid from another group with our names and who was who. While doing so, we learned from one of his parents that a new guidebook for the area was out and that it could be found in the Visitors Center in Big Bear. The last route we got on was a 5.7 trad crack that we all led. LM and OCM don’t set much trad pro, so it was as much a learning experience as it was a climbing one for them.