cheese enchiladas

Brian on Schwerer Gustov, V11


After my day of climbing with the girls I took a rest day in the cold and rain while Brian and Nic climbed. Brian warmed up for an hour and then went to work on Power of Silence. He didn't have much luck and decided to hike up to the New Meadow area to climb Schwerer Gustov, V11. Jim, Nic and I made lunch in the van and hiked up to meet Brian. By the time we got there he had worked out all of the moves and scraped off all of the skin on his right knuckles. He was a bleeding mess and Jim thought of the brilliant idea of taping the rock where his knuckles kept hitting. It worked, mostly mentally, and Brian sent his first V11!!! It was awesome. Nic then pulled another V9 called shower cap out of his ass with a blood curdling scream. It was hilarious. They both did King Cobra and we called it a day because it was freezing cold and raining.
I made it though the day by thinking of the guacamole tacos and margaritas at El Rancho Escondido ( the hidden ranch).

Yesterday we all climbed. We had to warm up in the Martini cave with everyone else at Hueco because it was raining. I ran a few laps on Baby Martini, and then went to Big Nose Millie to meet up with Layla. She showed up along with her boyfriend Dave Graham and Brett Lowell and Chris Sharma followed shorty after. We all climbed on Big Nose Millie and none of us did the last move. The boys played around on Bleeding Brothers, V12 as a warm up. Layla and I gave up on the ass dragger roof and went over to Chris' Arete, V7/8 (We asked Chris if he's even ever climbed on it and he doesn't even know where it is) funny. I did it on my first try and then Jim flashed it right after me. As soon as Nic sat down in front of the first hold a ranger who no longer works at the park by the name of Alex gave us an incredibly condescending lecture about how we were climbing within 5o feet of rock art. If this were the rule then there would be no climbing at Hueco. No matter where you are it seems that you are next to some kind of graffitti over 50 years old. Layla got cocky and said something along the lines of...oh so if i was to write on the rock right now in 50 years it would be badass but I can't because I would end up in the El Paso jail. We politely packed up and hiked up to Adjust Your Attitude, V8, which Jim of course pissed all over it and flashed. Nic also pulled this one out of his ass with a heinous scream. I don't know how he does it and neither does he.
After we had enough of that we scrambled down to Ghetto Simulator,V2, which is so f'ing cool. It is an overhanging 20 ft climb with huge jugs and huecos all the way up. If you get scared, like me, you can step back onto this convenient slab. Brian did it twice while Jim and Andy Raether did it in there tennies. Layla screamed at the very top and did scary move to top it out. I got pumped and stepped off onto the slab. I found it to be more scary than See Spot Run personally. Afterwards we hiked over to terre mer, V16 or something, and watched Dave do a burn on it. Holy crap the holds are so small and sharp. It is crazy to watch someone climb on it.

Today I have plans to go to Juarez with Nic and the people the own the coffee shop we live at on our rest days. We are going to go to the mercado and bargain for stuff. It will be fun.

Tomorrow we have hot plans to go on a tour to Slashface and Mojo with Lynn Hill as our guide. I am so psyched. She is my hero.