Hueco Climbing Day 2

The forecast for today looked perfect, yet the sun began behind a haze that thickened into clouds. The temps were quite cold, but we put in a full day of climbing, and got up some problems. We started the day back at my project from Day 1, "Pumped Full of Semen." I hoped to send it quickly, but had trouble getting warmed up. It took about six good tries before I got it. It's a tough one for me to rate. I got it with less work than most V8s, but my sequence has a two move combo on it that feels more extreme than any other moves I can remember. It's very hard on the right shoulder. I'll call it soft V9. Ashley had hard time warming up as well. We went to the New Meadow, and had trouble working out a problem called Speed Bump. Then we did Lobster Claw, a three star V5.

At this point my skin was gone, but Ashley was still into climbing. We went to Bloody Flapper which is probably the hardest V4 in the park. Ashley tried this on two other trips without success, but today she put it all together. She climbed into the start holds from the ground, took a crazy swing at the crux, and almost kicked me, but didn't. It was a good day, and we're looking forward to more sun on Monday. Thanks go to Jordan for taking the following sequence of Bloody Flapper for us.

Hueco Day 1

The weather forecast wasn't good for today. High wind warnings, dust storm advisory, and temps in the 40s. The wind was supposed to really kick up around 11, so we got an early start at 8:30. We went to the top of North Mountain, and tried to get out of the breeze. Ashley did great on a variety of problems with obscene names. After climbing "Daily Dick Dose" V7 she got "Roger in the Bath" V7 and "Pumped Full of Semen" V9. I did "Daily Dick Dose" as well, and got all the moves on the V9. I'll probably get "it" on Saturday. I decided not to type that one again by name. Then the wind got bad. We headed home early. We didn't get many photos today, but we'll get more when the weather is better.

In other news: The Mushroom Boulder is now closed due to erosion/archaeological disturbance concerns. It has two V8 projects I worked on last year, and was hoping to do this year. I'm disappointed that I may never be able to do them.

True Love and Romance.

A couple weeks ago, Justin did a blog post urging women to buy their man an Organic Bouldering Pad for Christmas. Even better is being married to a woman who wants a Big Organic Bouldering Pad for Christmas. This is the beautiful pad Josh put together for us. I asked for a Vedauwoo color scheme, and it turned out really nice. The foam feels great. I've jumped on it from the couch a few times, and it is very firm, but it absorbs energy without any bounce back feeling. The continuous top sheet hinge works perfectly as well. We will both feel more comfortable on high Hueco problems with this pad below us.

Sean Drolet Dyno Video

Monday in the gym at Miramont, I watched Sean do an incredible double double dyno where his momentum from one dyno went straight into the second one. It looked very cool, and I wanted to get it on video, so last night I had my camera with me. Sean performed the double double dyno again, and did some others. Check it out.

Another Day Required.

I felt good and had a lot of confidence that I would climb Full Tendonitis Traverse V7 today. It didn't quite happen. I wore myself out trying to do it one way, and then discovered some new beta that makes the crux a bit easier. If I had worked that part out at the beginning of the day I probably would have finished it. I'll need one more day. Ashley started off climbing well, but fell off of Full Tendonitis. She hit the front of her shin really hard, and scraped it up. That ended her session.
We weren't the only climbers from Ft. Collins in the Black Hole. Shaun (sp?) and Josh made their first trip to Morrison today. Here are a couple photos of Shaun working Air Jordan V5.

Hueco on my mind.

In Zen, you try to keep your mind on the present. Eventually you realize there is no escaping from the present. Today I'm here in the present, looking forward to our Christmas break Hueco trip. Sunny days, desert sky, numerous projects less than a month away. Childlike anticipation. Just got to keep working till it's here.