Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Life is Good

Sorry friends and family that i have not blogged yet, I'm just sort of lazy and it always seems that theres something else to be done. But here's a little rehash of our lives since we've left.

We left last Wednesday and stayed over night in a grocery store parking lot in Santa Fe on the way to Hueco Tanks, TX. After a late start Thursday morning (it's ridiculously hard to get up when its around 30 degrees in the bus and you're covered in blankets) we hit the road and got into the Hueco Rock Ranch at about 7 pm that night.

Since then we've been climbing all the time. Our fingers are tore up and our bodies the same. Today we're taking our second rest day and it is much deserved, last night I was waking up all night from the soreness of just bending my fingers or turning my back the slightest bit. As Tom blogged earlier we spent our first few days just sending problems we'd been unable to get last year and it feels great to know you've gotten stronger.

Yesterday we went to east mountain which was our first time on one of the guided access only mountains. We went on a free volunteer tour with our guide Rick Oliver, who turned out to be sort of a prick, as well as a german couple and a dutch guy. We worked on two really hard but really cool problems call Ultramega v8 and Three Days Dead v6.

Three Days Dead v6

Tom on Three Days Dead

Axel and Enzo


Working Ultramega v8


Saturday, January 22, 2011

Hueco

We left Wednesday afternoon from Littleton and stayed the night in an Albertsons parking lot in Santa Fe, NM.  After what seemed like an eternity of driving we got to the Rock Ranch at Hueco Tanks on Thursday night.  The rig drove super well besides the amount of gas it seemed to guzzle.  Juno seems happy being out in the desert although she is at the bottom of the pecking order with the other camp dogs.  The alpha female is a pit bull who lives a few sites down.  Luckily for Juno she stays away from our site much more than the other dogs.






The Rock Ranch is the camp ground that caters to the climbers in Hueco and is where Mike and I are planning on staying for at least the first week.  We are paying $6 a night which includes a shower, a barn with ping-pong and wi-fi and a good place to hang out, as well as easier access into the park.  We got a reservation for Friday and had an awesome day of climbing on North Mountain (the only unguided mountain).  Last year I spent several days working a problem called Babyface and had to leave without sending it.  After some warm-up's we went to Babyface and I finally got a send on our first day back!  Mike also made a ton of progress on the problem and will probably head back to work it again this coming week!  Today he sent "Sign of the Cross" which is a super highball classic in Hueco, and is a problem he wasn't able to send last year.  It feels great starting off the climbing portion of the trip on such a high note.  Unfortunately with how tall these boulders are, spotting each other is more important than shooting photos so the pictures are sparse, but with more people we will be able to get some shots.

Drive towards North Mountain


"Babyface" up the arete

West Mountain from "Babyface"

Mike working "Babyface"

From our bus we are able to watch a beautiful sunset every night around 6 and wake up at sunrise.  Luckily the Kayla's mom hooked us up with some great food which we have been living off of the last few days instead of the massive amounts of canned tuna and hot-sauce we would be eating otherwise.

We were lucky enough to get some reservations for the other mountains which neither of us have been to.  Our first day with a guide is Tuesday and we are hoping to get out to the East Spur which is the most condensed.  Until then we will keep going to North Mountain and taking days off.  Generally we are hoping to spend one day climbing super hard, 1 day climbing moderates, and one day off.  It seems like we have been spending a ton of money on initial costs and we are trying to stay away from anything that requires money for the next week.



The Rock Ranch provides wi-fi (it only works occasionally) so we should be able to update the blog fairly often!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Prepping

Mike arrived in Littleton last week, and we have spent the last few days hanging out with friends and family, as well as working on the bus.  Kayla threw a surprise going away party for Mike and I last night which was a ton of fun!  Thanks Kayla!!!  We also received our crash pads and Goal Zero solar panel equipment in the mail this week.  




We just finished our beds today and we should we sleeping really well on our memory foam mattresses!!  After looking at our different bedding options it turned out the cheapest option was to buy a queen size memory foam mattress which we cut in half with kitchen knives.  Although it may sound sketchy, it went really well and I think we may be the only people sleeping this luxuriously in a bus (Juno might get a bed out of the scraps).  

We are planning on leaving Wednesday morning and driving to Hueco Tanks, Texas as long as we can get ahold of a passenger seat with a seat belt by that time.  Hueco Tanks is just north of Juarez Mexico and is home to some of the best bouldering in the US.  With a warm dry climate this park is a primary winter climbing destination.  Although the climbing is almost endless, the restrictions are high due to the preservation of historical and natural resources in the park.  4 "mountains" make up Hueco and climbers are only allowed on North Mountain without a guide.  Only 70 people are allowed in North Mountain at a time and reservations are usually made well in advance.  We were able to get reservations for much of February however we will no doubt be spending some time in the line of people waiting to get into the park without reservations.  We will spend most of our time on North Mountain but we hope to make it out to the other mountains a few times.  



Juno also got fixed this week so no worrying about unwanted desert puppies.


It is exciting that this trip is right around the corner but it is definitely bitter sweet leaving my friends family and girlfriend as this is the first time I have ever left my home for a long period of time.  We are both looking forward to climbing all over the country!!  We should be making a post next week from Hueco!  

-T