sandstone

Joe's Valley Bouldering by Ray Phung

Several months ago, my friend Chris approached me at the climbing gym, psyche-level at an all-time high. "Dude, we need to recreate the Bishop magic, and I need you there!"  Of course, I give a verbal, purposely half-committed, "Sure, that sounds fun! I could get down."  I mean, Bishop was a lot of fun.  And I love climbing.  But October was several months away, and I am a chronic non-planner.  "How about Joe's Valley?" Chris continues, confirming that, with my half-ass commitment, there would be at least three of us going.  Little did I know this was just the start of amassing an entire crew of Portlanders to head out to the Utah desert.  I am not sure how a random group of 15 people all got off of work the same random week in October.  With different jobs and life activities, I thought it would be impossible to reunite everyone.   I believe this shows how the sense of adventure ties all of us together.

Read More