More Hueco Tanks

I am most of the way through my trip to Hueco Tanks, Texas. At this point I feel like it has been a good trip. Hueco is a great place to get fit, and I feel like it has helped get me into better form. The other day I took out a couple of nemesis problems for me. I sent Theater of the Absurd v10 and Barefoot on Sacred Ground v12. It felt good to put these projects to rest. Many days of effort and some good support from friends goes a long way.
This past weekend, some friends and I participated in the volunteer Hueco Clean Up Day. Various groups were guided around the mountains building trails, picking up litter and glass, and washing excess chalk off the popular problems. My buddies,David and Kenyon, and I were assigned to the Icarus Area. We cleaned chalk off the warm ups and the famous 99 Heroin Balloons. After washing off chalk, our group picked up about 6 grocery bags of broken glass litter from around the small area. It felt good to help out on a rest day and make a difference to the cleanliness of such a great area. Afterwards, volunteers gathered around the Hueco Rock Ranch where there was all you could eat burritos and Shiner Bock on tap. The party went into the night, ending, as it usually does, with a bunch of drunks by a fire all talking beta. Good times.
With about three weeks left, I definately feel the pressure to take down the other 2 problems I really want to do here. I am close on the Right Martini and on El Techo de los Tres B. Both these lines have been epic for me so far. I'm sure I have up to 6 days this year on each of them. They seem to be great training tools for getting back in good shape. Even when you don't send hard lines you still get stronger just by trying them. None the less, I'm really hoping to send these two before I leave. From here I will take a short trip to Joe's Valley, Utah. Weather will be cooler there when it starts to get too hot here.
This whole trip has been good so far. I'm psyched everyday to see what waits for me around the next corner.

                                                 Me falling on the last move of Shake and Bake v11 photo: Kenyon

                                                  A typical sunset at the Hueco Rock Ranch

                                           Theater of the Absurd v10, a nemesis for me

                                            A huge crowd assembles for the Hueco Clean Up

                              Kenyon Smith and David Outcalt clean chalk off of 99 Heroin Balloons v9

mountain beaver segments

Brad Perry got some video segments out from our favorite area of the 2011 Summer. The Mountain Beavers was found by Jarrad Wycoff last Spring. After a lot of hard work by Jarrad, Brad Perry and myself, the area turned out to be quite the South shore spot for people who didn't mind a little hiking. We estimated that a total of 70 problems were established that summer. Here are Brad's videos of some of the gems that got done.

Hueco Tanks

It's nice to be back at Hueco Tanks. This place is special indeed. It has many cons such as waiting in line, limited access, highly restricted bouldering; the one pro is that the bouldering here is unbelieveable. The area lends itself to steep, powerfull climbing. It is the perfect recipe for hard boulder problems. I've spent my first 7 days here climbing as much as I can trying to get into Hueco shape. After only a week I feel like I am getting back into the flow. Yesterday, however, I kinda started to get sick. Recently progress came to a hault as I am trying to get over this cold. I have my fingers crossed for a quick recovery but time will tell.
     As in the past year or two I wish I could fill this blog with news of super hard sends, but I'm still actually waiting to get back on the wave. I guess that's how it goes. The climbing I have been doing is fun as hell though. Most of the climbs I've done have been repeats of things that I did in years past. There have been a couple of exceptions. There is a 50 foot long overhanging traverse here called Mop Boys. I spent my first couple of days epicing on this really long problem that has about 5 tricky crux sequences. I went from having it in 10 parts to chucking laps on it for endurance. This problem is given 3 stars in Matt Wilder's Hueco guidebook. Despite many naysayers who complain about it being low, dabby and stupid, I will have to agree with the three stars. Not everything has to be deadly tall and reachy to get stars. Some things are cool based just on the challenge. I love long rock climbs and this one was bad ass. I had never done this line before and it was bad ass.
     There was another line I did the other day called Shower Cap. In previous years, I always had an epic on this one and thought that maybe it was a bit to reachy for someone 5 ft tall. It is a roof with an opening move that is full extention from an undercling with no footholds, none that I could reach anyway. I watched my buddy Matt Arnold do it rather easily using his long arms and legs. Matt assured me that I could send using his beta. Well, he was right and wrong but mostly right. I had to improvise a little for the first bit by having both hands and feet in the same zone. This seemingly silly-looking tactic payed off and I stuck the big move. Even though I hadn't been able to do a single move on the problem after an hour of work, somehow after sticking the first part I screamed my way through about 7 more moves that I hadn't done. Sometimes when you get lucky, you stay lucky I suppose.
      On a bit of a different note, I have to give a little info about a new Metolius pad I've been using called the Recon. This pad is my new favorite from Metolius. My favorite feature is the size. It is a little bit smaller than it's bigger brother the Colossus. When this pad is folded on the back it is very narrow at 22 inches wide, which is really usefull in Hueco where you have to constantly squeeze between tight corridors. I am also a big fan of how quickly it packs and unpacks. It only has one buckle that holds the tri fold together. My saddle bag of bouldering gears easily wraps around the outside. By doing this I avoid stuffing all my gear inside the pad, thus increasing the life of the foam. I've noticed that I'm always the first one to have my stuff packed up or unpacked. This saves more time for climbing, if only about 15 seconds per stop.  Basically it is one of the most unique and efficient designs I've seen in a crash pad. At a price of $249 it is not the cheapest but it is not the most expensive either. Seems like a fair deal to me. Props to Metolius for thinking outside the box and finding new ways to make crash pads better.

    I have 2 months left here in the Tanks. This should give me ample time to work out some of the classic hard lines that I've always wanted to do. In the meantime, I hope all the folks out in Tahoe continue to get their boulder on. Sounds like I picked the wrong season for a winter trip. But I will have plenty of time there soon enough.

Southern Stone is Here!!

Rockwarrior Films has just uploaded the Southern Stone video. This video features many of the best lines in the Southeast. The footage is energetic and exciting to watch. Anyone who wants to see a sample of the country's best sandstone should check it out. I got to help do some filming and climbing in this video. Ian, the brain behind RockWarrior Films, is a good friend of mine. Ian works hard traveling around and getting good footage so that he can edit climbing videos. The videos are entertaining and will get you psyched. You can help support Rockwarrior Films by going to this website www.rockwarriorfilms.com and purchasing this video for $10 via internet download. So when you're sitting around on the couch, scratching your ass on a rainy day, GET MOTIVATED ! Check out some serious action packed sending.

Southeast recap

Well my stint in the South is over. As expected I had a great time. As with most trips I met a lot of cool people and new friends. There was lots of beer, great food, and country living in the house in Mentone. Props to my parents for hooking us up with a place to stay. It was easy on this trip to remember that bouldering is all about staying psyched and enjoying yourself with good friends. As a roof climber my favorite place was Dayton, Tenn. That roof was sick. I left a problem behind too. The Crazy Craver v11 was in the bag...or so I thought. My last day on it was day 3 and the conditions were perfect. Every try got me closer and closer to the finish line. In the end I fell at the move to the jug 3 times that day and had to walk away empty handed. I was really excited about finishing this line but sometimes that's the way it goes. I took the failure pretty hard but in the end I had to say fuck it. It is what it is. I will return one day and send.
In case anyone was curious, here's my southeast ticklist:

The Snail v6

Little Rock City, TN             Castaway v7
                                 Tennessee Thong v7(flash)
                                 The Pinch v7
                                 Robbin the Toothfairy v9 (2nd try)
                                 The Wave v6


HP40, AL                         Short Long v7/8
                                 Five -0 v9
                                 Soopa Coola v6

Rocktown, GA                     Tractor Trailer v9
                                 The Dao v7

Zahnd, GA                        Prey Lika Mantis v10
                                 Harvest Moon v8

Citadel, AL                      Breadloaf Factory v10
                                 Ninja Camp v9
                                 The Snail v6
                                 Earl the Squirrel v6

Little River, AL                 The Engagement v7(flash)
                                 Diego Problem v8 (flash)
                                 Diego Problem left v8

Dayton, TN                       The Honeycomb v10
                                 River Dance v9 ( 3rd go)

Matt Arnold working a hard project in Mentone

Maybe not my best performance but whatev's . Currently I'm in Baton Rouge, LA hanging with my parents. Tomorrow we head to Austin, Texas to hang out with my brother, Glen, for the holidays. I may check out some of the Austin climbing areas if it works out but will most definately check out the Austin Rock Gym which is supposed to be the bomb. By January 5th I plan to land in Hueco Tanks. I'm excited about revisiting this area as it is one of my favorite bouldering spots in the country. This will be a great place to hang with the homies and climb. Can't wait.   

Southeast first half

                                                        Isaac on the Shield v12, Little Rock City

the fridge stocked with the bare essentials

Ian Cotter Brown on the Golden Harvest v10

Haley Waldrop quickly sends the Big Poppa v8

I've been on the road now for about 6 weeks. So far it has been as expected, awesome. The crew and I have been climbing at lots of great areas. We've gone to Little Rock City, Desoto State Park, Rocktown, Zahnd, Horse Pens 40 and the Citadel. There's only about 15 days left here for me, which is not nearly enough time. In the Southeast half of your trip can likely be taken out by rainy weather and poor conditions. In the 20 days I've been here I've had 8 climbing days. Maybe 4 with good conditions. These kind of odds make sending hard boulders really difficult. I wish I had tales of how I'm crushin' this and sending that. But I've really just been doing whatever I can. Perhaps I'm out of shape since it's the beginning of the trip, or maybe the grades here are more solid. I don't know. When you're used to climbing hard you feel a bit deflated when you've traveled so far to do your best only to find that you're bumbling around on moderates. Five years ago I would have been a mopey bitch about this. Now, I have a little less expectations for performance and more expectation for fun. So that has been the theme..fun. And there's lots of fun to be had out here in the south. As usual I wish that I had more time here so maybe I could do a hard boulder or two. But since I don't, good times will do.
      My friends and I have been mostly staying in Mentone, Alabama. This town holds the southern most ski area in the states. The Cloudmont Ski Resort in Alabama has one chairlift that gives skiers access to a single ski run that is 150 ft long...holy shit. Get Jeremy Jones down here now! I know ...not very impressive. But it's still cool to be staying in an Alabama ski town. This place has a great central location to all the best boulderfields in the south. We have even found great potential right in town that hopefully we'll have time to get to.
    I have been climbing with lots of great people on the trip too. We are hanging with Isaac who demonstrates every hard boulder he tries quickly and with style. We also got an opportunity to meet an Evolv athlete named Ronnie from Florida. Ronnie has a prosthetic leg. But that didn't stop him from crushing the Zahnd classic Harvest Moon v8. That was inspiring to see. We've also been climbing with Haley Waldrop. Despite being short she still crushes all the power lines in the south. It's always fun for me to climb with another short person that , ya know, feels my pain. The list of great people and good climbers goes on and on around here. I'm super psyched that I've got to hang out with all these people.
    On the video front I've been helping Ian Cotter-Brown of Rockwarrior Films get footage for his next video featuring the Southeast. There's been lots of sending going on an the video is piling up. I've been watching the editing process and the film is coming together really well so far. Keep your eye out for this one if you want to see some Southern classics.
     After all this planning I'm halfway through the Southeast part of my roadtrip. I have high hopes for better weather and more great times for the second half. As of the 20th I leave for New Orleans, Louisiana to visit my parents and go partying with old high school buds. From there I head down to Austin, Texas to chill with my brother. Eventually I'll land at the next big destination in Hueco Tanks, Texas. I am very excited for Hueco. I used to go there a lot but have not been in 5 or 6 years. It will be fun going back to all my old projects. Maybe they'll still kick my ass...but maybe not. In the meantime, the weather today is shit in the south. Heavy rain is forcasted for the next 2 days. Just in time for a much needed rest day. My psyche is being renewed as we speak.

                               boulders in Kansas City! yeah right.               photo: Frank Lucido



I left for the road two weeks ago. I've been taking my time so much that I'm actually still about a 15 hour drive from my first destination. It feels relaxing to just go with the flow of the trip for a bit. My first stop was Hartley Springs in June Lake. I got out of the car for about 2 hours of climbing. It was just enough time to warm up and bust out some speed sending. From there I trickled through the Happy Boulders, then went to sleep in Moe's Valley, Utah. Then, thankfully, I got talked into a mini detour to Joe's Valley. I was psyched because I hadn't been there in about 3 years. While there I hung out with some cool people. They totally converted me into a butterfinger donut addict. Thanks Food Ranch. I got to see many boulders that I hadn't seen before. I managed to do 5 v9s and a v11 but the send of the trip was definately a problem called Wills of Fire v6. I had to dig pretty deep to send that one. There is a scary move in which you have to jump to an incut gaston at the lip from a fingerlock. I hate fingerlocks. It looks like most people can just stand up static to the move at the lip. As you guessed, I can not and must jump into a barndoor swing to stick that move. It was awesome though. Probably one of the coolest walls ever.
   After that, I swung over to Carbondale, Colorado to hang out with some more cool friends. It ended up snowing just about everyday I was there. That didn't stop us from partying it up every night and taking a trip to the White House pizza joint. If in the area I recommend this pizza. A break in the weather opened an invitation for a bit more driving, so I tested the limits of my bordem tolerance and went through the state of Kansas. I must say that the police in Kansas are very suspicious of any cars that have California plates. After the gauntlet, I ended up at the next leg which is where I am now; which is Kansas City, Missouri. I've been hanging out with Frank Lucido getting the KC tour. This has included sampling some really good mid western food. One of the places we went was the famous KC BBQ place called Rosedales. All I can say is Holy Shit! It is cheap, fast, and really damn tasty. I was impressed. If I lived here I'd go everyday. Also, believe it or not, there is some bouldering right in Kansas City. We've been messing around the areas of Swope Park. The rock is limestone that seems to vary in quality. Some is bullet, some is dried mud. None the less, we've been psyched to do some climbing. From here, I think Arkansas' Horseshoe Canyon Ranch could be the next stop. I all depends on the weather. We shall see.