flapper

Dave's horrible flapper (the picture doesn't do it justice)


Two days ago we had the priveledge of going out on a guided tour to East Mountain with the most accomplished female rock climber in the world. It was Lynn Hill's first tour so it was only two hours long but it was fun none the less. She is so small it is hard to imagine all of the amazing climbs she has done.
Nic sent Mojo, V10 and Jim worked out the moves on Slashface, V14. I chatted with Lynn (that was the only reason I went on the tour) and climbed on stuff way to hard for me. My friend Elise came with me and we got our picture taken with her. I hope we didn't weird her out.
After the tour Elise and I ate lunch in front of Free Willy, V10, and then got psyched to do the danish slot. The danish slot is a veritcal slot about the size of me, that starts about 7 ft. off the ground. You have bad feet below you, and no good hand holds above you. The first time I tried it I was laughing too hard and I couldn't get through. It is so narrow that you have to relax and breathe out to get through the tight spot. If you take a deep breath or laugh you feel like you might pass out. Elise got stuck because I kept making her laugh, and I made it through on my second try. Jim did it with ease.
Elise and I then became the lamest it people in Hueco by sitting in Jim's van and watching Dosage Vol. III. Realizing that over half of the people in the video are currently at Hueco climbing, we got out of the van and hiked up to a problem called Loaded With Power, V10 (Elise's idea). We didn't have much business working on it but it was still fun. We decided that if anyone walked by we would pretend not to be working on it. Then Jason Kehl came up and offered to let us use his crash pad. We joked around until the park closed and came nowhere close to doing the problem.

Yesterday, Brian, Jamie, Angie and I warmed up at the warm up boulders and then the boys decided they wanted to work on Diaphenous. We walked over there to find Dave Graham alone, and super psyched to do his project called Terremer, V16. We offered our pads and chalk and watched Dave warm up on Diaphenous once before giving his first burn. On his first try he got through the link up between the sit start and the stand start which was absolutely amazing. He said something along the lines of, "if you had seen me working on this before you would be so proud of me." We had, and we were. Angie, Layla (his girlfriend), and I sat in the sun and talked about boulder problems we want to do while the boys worked on Diaphenous and Dave ran around trying to find a breeze for his "constantly sweating hands". Dave did another burn and his hand literally slipped off of this insane crimp after the crux once again.
He took another rest and gave his final go of the day, which ended up being his last. He moved through the crux section without a problem and we all thought he was going to do it, when he came flying off screaming, "what did I do?! Oh my god my finger!" A crimp that he uses for his left hand has a sharp little spike on it and it ended up ripping off his entire tip!!! It was the most disgusting, ridiculous flapper any of us had ever seen. It was absolutely heart breaking. He used about a half a gallon of water and a half a box of kleenex to stop it from bleeding. No one knew what to say, and Layla took him down to the car to bandage it up. It was like he ripped off the entire callus on his fingertip . It was so thick I don't even think he could have cut it with a nail clipper. It was so sad. To climb as your profession and then have something like that happen to you, is more than a bummer. It is heartbreaking.

Brian and I went up to Adjust Your Attitude which I continue to struggle with. We called it quits early and went to the mercado for dinner supplies and made pasta on the tailgate of the truck. We each drank a glass of Carlo Rossi with our pasta and listened to classical music on NPR. We have been going to bed at about 8:30 or 9 everynight. I like this schedule. Today it is raining which makes a fine rest day.