(Photos are forthcoming)
The drive to El Paso, Texas passed without incident. Three days on the road, including one and half to cross Texas. Western Kentucky and Tennessee were particularly pleasant to drive through, but the central part of Texas is horribly ugly, with lots of refineries and oil wells. It is also incredibly windy.
We arrived at Hueco Tanks on Tuesday morning, and headed out to sample the boulders. We began at the Warm-up Boulder on North Mountain, and it was, uh, quite warm. Hot, in fact. Hot enough to make me wish we weren’t there. After suffering for a bit, we decided to seek shade and headed up North Mountain to the Look Sharp Boulder and the Power of Silence boulder. It was actually pleasant in the shade, and the kids had no problems negotiating the slabs. We didn’t do much, but managed to sample some fine problems and stretch our road-weary bodies. Power of Silence looks even more awesome in person than it does in the photos. And despite having pretty darn good holds, it is wicked hard.
Day two brough Paul, April, and Silas, and we headed up the chains on North Mountain to warm up on the Small Potatoes blocks. Good stuff there, then we were off to Nobody Here Gets Out Alive, then over to Trac II to Babyface and D3. I managed to flash D3 (V7), and Jen came close to sending. I should have flashed Babyface (V7), but mucked up the feet. Such is life. Day three took us to the New Meadow, where we did Lobster Claws (V5). I tried to flash King Cobra (V6), managed to come off at the top and ping pong down between two boulders. Aside from cuts and bruises (and bruised motivation), I was fine. Later, we wandered up to See Spot Run (V6) and Barefoot on Sacred Ground (V12). Jen should have sent See Spot Run, though she backed off at the top (given that the boulder is roughly 30 feet tall, I don’t blame her). I worked on Barefoot with Paul (who sent it the next day) and made reasonable progress for such a hard problem.
Day four should have been a rest day, but we had a tour of the East Spur Maze, so off we hiked into the desert. I was tired, and warming-up was a chore. After seeing Better Eat Your Wheaties (V8), I made what would be a poor decision and attempted the flash. After pulling on we all hear a loud pop, and I managed to do something to my left hand ring finger, likely tweaking the pulley. Lovely, but more on that later. Jen nearly flashed Jigsaw (V5) before we headed out, which is pretty impressive given it was day four.
So, the finger. It was pretty bruised after the initial trauma, but didn’t swell terribly. I tried climbing a bit after a rest day, but the finger didn’t feel great, and I didn’t push it. The next day, I tried again, this time doing Sign of the Cross (V3)–uh, crimps?–and trying Choir Boys. After about 30 minutes total of climbing, the finger felt pretty bad, and I was ready to jump in the car and head back to Pittsburgh. To say that it is difficult to be in Hueco Tanks, surrounded by strong, motivated climbers, with an injured finger, would be a great understatement. It sucked, and I was less than pleasant to be around.
Today, however, we headed back to the East Spur Maze, and I found honest to goodness sloper problems–The Long Haul and Quetzlcotel–and worked those for awhile with decent progress. Yes, it would have been nice to send one, but simply being on the rock, without pain, doing hard moves, was good enough. We’re taking a break from our van and are staying in a motel this evening, and tomorrow is a rest day. I’m looking forward to heading out on Thursday and trying Black Mamba (V10), which could be a good long-term problem for the trip.
The boys are having a blast, climbing everything in sight. They’ve also been hiking champs, managing the slab approaches without much complaint.
The campground at Heuco is completely awesome, aside from the 6:00 PM moratorium on leaving the park. It is nearly empty, the sites are spacious and shaded, and the bathrooms are clean and heated. And it’s super-cheap–$14 a day for up to six people. Good stuff!
Posted on 20 April 2010