When we woke up this morning the flyer of the tent was all icy and the ground was frozen. Luckily we had made the thermos bottles last night to keep us warm because they did. Anyway, it was still kind of cold and chilly as we got up. And we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast again, in the Reds Meadows resort which was only a couple of miles away. It is, by the way, also a pack station for mule trips, in case you were interested in that kind of traveling ... The pancakes this time were just as filling as those we had in Tioga Pass, although the Mulehouse Café wasn't quite as cozy and friendly. We ran into a guy fixing his backpack who said he'd hiked down there all the way from Yosemite. He had been walking for sixteen days.
When we got up of the valley the morning views were so nice that we thought that merited a stop at the Minaret viewpoint. The views were awsome. We spotted a forest fire across the valley. But C sees a forest fire each time he takes a view from a viewpoint ... at least in summer, during fire season. The first thing on the agenda now was to check out some climbing spots. We thus went through Mammoth again, then took a loop around the Mammoth Lakes that took us up to Horseshoe Lake. 
Horseshoe Lake is another strange place, kind of eerie. There is a large area just off the lake where all the vegetation is just bare and dead. The reason for this is carbon dioxide poisoning, as it happens Mammoth Mountain is releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide out of its South flank, near Horseshoe Lake. (Mammoth mountain seems indeed to be an active volcano, and it had a minor eruption about 600 years ago.) The concentration of carbon dioxide in the ground three reaches over 50%. Thus camping is prohibited since 1995 and even picnics on the ground are disrecommended, to prevent asphyxiation. It is estimated that the total discharge of carbon dioxide gas at Horseshoe Lake range from 50-150 tons per day. About 170 acres (0.688 km²) of trees have died. The beach at the lake is still strangely beautiful, maybe exactly because of the contrast, the stark colors and the strikingly bare trees. 
But all this was not the focus of our tour of Mammoth Lakes. Our mission was to find a climbing spot. It's crawling with good climbing spots in the Mammoth area, but we had spotted a place that seemed to have some good top ropes. It was just off the Horseshoe Lake in fact, about ten minutes walk. C put up a rope and I put on my shoes (the ones I got at R.E.I. not so long ago, and look: first time I tried them on a wall). The climb seemed very accessible and I got on it, got over the first hurdle but then just got completely stuck. I tried several things but nothing seemed to be working and I got somewhat annoyed. 
The granite seemed in fact very different from the granite I had climbed in Joshua Tree last year. Even if the surface looked rugged, it was extremely slippery up close. My shoes were hurting my toes a lot. I probably got them too small when I bought them. What didn't help was that the air was still very cold. While in the sun it was bearable, but as soon as the sun left the wall my limbs and fingers started getting a little stiff. So, even if I otherwise like the wall and liked the setting, I eventually gave up on it. I belayed C then, as he tackled it (and it wasn't frankly easy for him either) and he went up, checked out another approach as well, but then sort of had had it too, with the cold. 
So, we walked back, ate a little lunch, then took the direction of highway 395 again. It is a marvelous drive: the rugged Sierra granite mountains on one side and the colorful volcanic mountain ranges that enclose Death Valley on the other side. I think you call this whole area Owens Valley. Just after Bishop, we came to Keough's Hot Springs. There is a number of hot springs in the Eastern Sierras, so it seemed natural that we try to find a place to soak in, just like we do up home when we travel. In Keough's Hot Springs they have a pool with a hot pot. We had to check that out!
The bath and the showers were good after all the road dust. After the bath we continued our drive through Big Pine and Independence before we came to Lone Pine. Lone Pine is famous for its annual film festival that pictures westerns from the golden age of the '20s and the '30s, many of which were shot in the surroundings. Just up off Lone Pine is the Whitney Portal, from where hikers usually climb Mount Whitney (elev. 14,495 feet, or 4.419 m), called "the highest mountain in the contigueous 48 states". 
Below Mount Whitney and the Sierras are Alabama Hills. Somewhat like the Joshua Tree park, Alabama Hills are a wonderland of golden granite boulders of odd formations. Maybe we would get some climbing done here! As it was getting late we scouted for a place to camp and ended up in the National Forest Services campground that lies sort of hidden in a lush, old riverbed, with splendid views of Mount Whitney, the plains of Owens Lake, the Sierras to the west, the Inyo Mountains to the east and between them Alabama Hills. Actually, this must be one of the most pittoresque campgrounds we have come upon. We trotted up to a hilltop with our aperitif to watch the sunset, and it was awsome. (For some impressive full circle views of this area, take a look at
this site)
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