Is Bishop World Class? Niccolò Ceria Says Don’t Believe The Hype
In January, Italian boulderer Niccolò Ceria, traveled to western America to sample some world-renowned climbing around Red Rocks, Nevada and Bishop, California for six weeks. During his time in the U.S, Ceria made repeats of some classic hard lines including Paul Robinson’s Meadowlark Lemon (V14/15). However, his trip to Bishop fell short of his expectations.
By Niccolò Ceria
Bishop had been on my mind for a long time. I had built up what Bishop climbing would be like in my imagination, especially after the enormous attention that it got from Big Up Production’s Dosage and other videos.
In the morning light the Bishop landscape looked like a moonscape and all the boulders were so close together. My expectations for this place had been building for years and I hurried from one classic problem to another: From Mandala (V12) to Buttermilker (V13), from Evilution Direct (V11) to Saigon (V6) and so on. At first, everything looked great and amazing but after a few minutes of climbing I discovered how sharp the rock was, with low quality and painful holds.

GIANTS Bishop (CA) from niky_ceria on Vimeo.