Bishop Bouldering

About the book

This book represent three years in the making - and that doesn’t count our original editions of Bishop Bouldering and Bishop Bouldering Select. We’re so glad to have this finally available. Bishop, CA, may be the best bouldering destination in the world. It’s certainly one of the most famous, with world-class problems from friendly romps to standard-setting testpieces. Sealing the deal are many bonuses: a wide variety of rock, magnificent scenery, consistently sunny weather, cheap camping, hot springs, and convenient amenities in a fun and lively town. This comprehensive guidebook is fully updated and corrected, a step up from all previous editions, featuring new problems, new schematics, and spectacular aerial imagery, covering over 2200 problems.

$1 from every book sold goes to support the Bishop Area Climbers’ Coalition.

Areas included

• The Buttermilks

• Happy and Sad boulders

• Druid Stones

• Rock Creek

• Sherwin Plateau

About the author

In 2002, a 21-year-old James Lucas escaped the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Catskills of New York where he grew up, and headed for the granite of the California Sierra. The technical rocks west of Bishop called to him, and so began an obsessive climber’s life amongst the boulders. Each winter for two decades, James lived in the Bishop area — his Saturn station wagon, in an apartment on Clark Street, in his van at the Pit, at the California Hostel, or with Inyo County friends. Somewhere in those 20 years of bouldering in the Buttermilks, he found love and lost it. He climbed and got injured. But the tall granite boulders, the lunar Tablelands petroglyphs, and the community of the East Side provided a solace like no other. After moving to Boulder, Colorado, to work as an editor at Climbing magazine, James returned to Bishop seasonally.  

He is now working as a freelance outdoor and wedding photographer, and as a psyched climber is still battling through the classics of the Bishop area. James is also co-author of the self-published Yosemite Bouldering guidebook.