vodka red bull

The rock rodeo party at the ranch on saturday night was a lot of fun! There was a huge fire, a stage with a band, a barn with kegs, and tons of hilarious dancing and drunk people. I met Layla and Elise in front of the house and they were well on their way to having fun. Red bull set up a makeshift bar outside and they were giving away free drinks all night.

Notable events of the night include:
1) Elise and Layla arm wrestling this creepy dude from Arkansas and losing horribly
2) Danielle dancing with many guys and me pulling her away from many guys and stearing her towards the cute ones (Jason Kehl)
3) Layla and Dave realizing that they needed eachother to lean on for the simple activity of standing up
4) Getting cacti needles in our hands while peeing in the desert
5) Joel deciding it might be a good idea to lay down and sleep next to the bonfire
6) Jamie and Dan somehow got on stage with Dan on lead vocals and Jamie on guitar. They quickly realized that it didn't matter what it sounded like, everyone continued to dance with enthusiasm especially Matt Wilder the winner of the rock rodeo.
7) I bet Rob Rice (owner of the rock ranch) $1 to jump across the fire (15 ft wide and long) and putting all reason aside he walked across it and demanded his dollar which I didn't actually have because...who does that!?!?
8) The delicious pancake breakfast the next morning sponsored by climbing magazine
9) I wish I could count the number of times I heard this exact sentence the next morning, "I can't drink vodka or red bull for the next year!"
10) also, Brian went to bed at about 9:30 p.m.


The next day we went climbing and Brian sent the Governator, a very hard V10. I am so proud of him. I met up with Elise and Layla and we went to Adjust Your Attitude, V8 which I fell off the top out twice! I am an idiot. However, the next time I go there I will be able to do it because I have much confidence now. I had never linked it up before and I did it twice yesterday. Awesome. Layle also linked up the crux section and fell off the top out after giving me so much shit for it. Elise layed on her crashpad all day and did nothing but roll cigarettes and eat my wheat thins.

It was a good day.

beautiful rainy sky

our first tour

Yesterday we went out on our first official tour. Thanks to Matt T-schol we finally got to experience the more wonderful parts of Hueco. Our group consisted of me, Brian, Danielle, Joel, Jamie, Angie, Dan (Vealchop), Shannon, and of course Matt. First we went to the Gunks area in East Spur Maze. East spur is so awesome, filled with many classics, and so much rock! In the first 15 minutes I sent New Religion, V7 and Angie did Alf in a Blender a.k.a Hunger Artist, V6 (sandbagged). Jamie Emerson worked on Full Monty while Brian and Joel ran down to Chupacabra. Dan of course was filming and Matt was saving himself for Scream, a four star V11. Brian gave about 4 or 5 burns of falling on the last fricken hold of Chupacabra Right, V11. He has it worked out now so he will send it right away when we go back. Jamie sent Chupacabra Left, V10 and Joel fell off the last move.
We packed up and hiked over to the Scream on West Mountain. The boys all worked on it and no one sent because the conditions were horrible. It rained all night the night before and it was foggy all morning. Then when the fog lifted it was like summer in Minnesota....humid. All of the holds felt wet and greasy. The Scream is in a hole that sees no sunshine so it remained damp all day. Angie and Shannon flashed Animal Acts, V5, and I fell off the topout and gave up for the day. Danielle worked out all the moves and felt tired like me.
Next we hiked up to the mooonshine roof on east mountain. It is a four star V4 that gave all of us trouble at the end of the day. I think everyone ended up doing the V5 version except Danielle and I. I felt like falling asleep on my crashpad.
Another dinner at El Rancho Escondido proved to provide nasty strong margaritas, gooey greasy food, and shit talking. We went back to the barn and watched Jason Kehl give a slideshow about his climbing trips.
This morning we were all rudely awoken at 7:13 by the Red Bull van of hell. Loud music and a megaphone type thing announced to all of us that the 13th annual Rock Rodeo is today and blahh blahhh blahhh shut the f%#$ up! It was sooooo annoying! They drove around the campground until everyone was up and yelling at them to shut up, and then they just parked and played bad music until about 9:30....but they were giving out free Red Bull.
Tonight there is going to be two ginormous fires, Red Bull and vodka of course, 4 kegs, free stuff from sponsors, drunken debauchery, and Brian and I driving down the road to sleep.

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.

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.

today...

El Paso with Juarez in the distance
Jim Merli flashing King Cobra

Brian on his rest day!

Nic almost kicking Layla on King Cobra


We woke up in the middle of the night last night to about a 20 degree temperature drop and 100mph winds. The truck was literally rocking. Nic's tent (actually Chris Craft's tent) by some miracle did not blow over. With a morning wind chill of 37 degrees it was really hard to get motivated. We all went to the warm up boulders where I found my girl climbing friends Layla and Elise. Nic went off and sent Choir Boys on his second try of the day! I warmed up with the girls while Brian took a rest day, and froze his butt off all day.
Elise, Layla and I decided to go to Dirty Martini, V9, and we couldn't even do the first move. We then hiked down to Chris' arete, V8. Elise fell off of the topout on her first try and Layla sent it on her second try and said she was going to downrate it. I struggled because my whole body is still sooo sore from friggen slot climbing. I fell off the topout a few times and gave up. My hands were numb because of the cold. We went and looked at Free Willy, V10, which the girls wanted to try but it wasn't in the sun so we gave up and attempted Bloody Flapper, V4. None of us could do it once a again so we continued to talk shit to eachother and laugh the entire day away. All we needed was a trashy magazine and a space heater and we would have been set. Layla talked us into walking up the chains to attempt King Cobra, V6. Once again none of us could do the first move and Jim flashed it. We blamed it on our abs being sore from laughing so much.
It was one of the most enjoyable days thus far because the company was unbelievable. It is great that three girls from around the world can come together and bond while climbing on rocks.
Nic also sent Fern Roof, V10...finally, and he also did King Cobra. It was a good clean up day for Nic. We lost Vealchop to cooler people because Chuck, Andy, and Justin showed up today.
Camping in the cold is never fun. At least I have my wonderful warm boyfriend to cuddle up in the topper with!
p.s. don't see the movie Firewall. I want those two hours of my life back.

Adventures in Hueco

Vealchop Warming up
Elise on Adjust Your Attitude, V8



Since Eric got 28 views on flickr, here he is again




Panorama from Mopboys, North Mtn









Elise on Better Eat Your Wheaties, V8. HOT!











Feb. 14
We got a late start because we had a delicious greasy breakfast at Denny's in El Paso and then got into the park right before they were going to give our reservations away at noon. Brian and I hiked up the chains to NHGOA and warmed up a bit and baked in the sun. We met up with Joel and Rich and headed over to the south side of North Mountain to the Governator and the Predator. Joel and Brian attempted both but found no luck. Rich (from Canada, Squamish area) was taking an easy day because he drank too much in Juarez the day before. He worked on Mcbain, V8, with me and we found it to be impossilbe (later we found out about a magical toe-heel cam). We sweated over to Adjust Your Attitude, V8, which is SO much fun. The moves are amazing. You get a double toe hook and then go up to an undercling which is so powerful to get out of. Brian sent it of course. The boys went to work on a problem called Dope Fiend, V9, and I went down to the truck for reinforcement of liquids and layed on Danielle's crash pad in the parking lot where we talked about girly stuff until the sun went behind the mountain and the boys came hiking down the mountain.

Yesterday was full of adventure and laughter. The morning was filled with tense feelings from everyone for no apparent reason and we decided to split up and do our own things. Brian, Eric and Jim went to do Stanage on Holiday, V8. Nic and I hiked up the chains to try Baby Face, V7. I don't think I will ever be able to do that problem. It is so frickin hard for me. Nic wasn't having much luck either. We called it quits pretty quick and went over to check out Dope Fiend, V9, which Nic did in less than an hour. I worked out all of the moves, i guess it is pretty easy for a 9.
The dopest Norwegian in the world, Raiden, came walking up the hill to do See Spot Run, V6 (20 ft. tall). I worked it with her and on my first attempt I bailed from 3/4 of the way up. I was scared. She tried it a few times, then I got back on it and did it on my second try. It was SO AWESOME! Oh I enjoyed it so much. Then Raiden did it on her next try as well!
I walked back over by Nic to see him dropping off of the end of Fern Roof, V10. He was psyched. I asked him why he just dropped off the end instead of topping it out, and he said that was the way you are suppose to do it. To make a long story short it turned into an epic battle of climbing rules and Nic will be hiking up the mountain tomorrow to redo it and top it out. He lost the battle. So much for being true to thine self.
Nic and I hiked down to the Martini Cave to find Brian and Eric. Eric was working on Man With an Iron on His Hip, V7. Oh he came so close! Brian flashed Dirty Martini, V9, and also did Man With an Iron on His Hip, as well as Stanage on Holiday, V8. Jim did Baby Martini, V6, for his first time, and with style I might add. We also got to watch Matt Wilder's first success at Right Martini,V12. It was so cool to see someone put it together in real life. He then waited a half hour and did Left Martini, V10. Dude is strong.
Brian decided to hike up the chains to clean up Stegasuar so we all followed him. Vealchop, who provided me with hours of non-stop laughing yesterday lured me into an epic adventure of slot climbing. Slot climbing occurs when you squirm through small holes underneath rocks. It was the most fun I have had yet. It started out with us crawling through the Stegasaur cave to find the Gymnasium area. Then he decided to run around and find even smaller and longer slots to squeeze through. We found some crazy rooms and corridors. Then we went head first into this tiny slot and found the ulitimate slot of all slots. We rated it S6 hands first, S9 feet first, and it is now called the Vealchop Slot because he got the first squirm through it both hands and feet first. I always made him go first, because I figured if he could fit then I could for sure fit. He got so excited when we saw another slot that by the time I caught up to him his body was already half way through it and he was making jokes about being stuck and getting his hand stuck in a cactus. Oh Vealchop.... we bonded in a special slot climbing way.
Once again I hiked down the mountain early because I ran out of water (my big water jug got kicked off of a 15 ft. drop and cracked in half). Vealchop and Nic went in search of more slots like excited 2nd graders. That night we went to El Rancho Escondido because we were all so hungry and didn't want to cook. I am convinced that the margaritas that they serve there are twice as strong and half the price as drinks in Minneapolis.
Today at the coffee shop we officially befriended the employees and they are going to give us a personal tour of the mercado in Juarez on Monday. I am super psyched.
Eric leaves today :( He will be missed.

What day is it?

Lately I seem to forget what day it is. That is a good thing I think. It is better than longing for Friday and dreading Monday.
Yesterday Brian sent a V10 called Fern Roof. He was happy. We walked all the way to the south side of North Mountain, got sunburned, and worked on this V8 called Adjust Your Attitude. The name was very relevant for the time we were working on it. Climbing is associated with a lot of frustration. However, you have those days where you look at the bigger picture and just enjoy climbing for climbing. I guess this sounds weird if you are not a climber.
The weather continues to be sunny and beautiful, and last night the full moon lit up the desert sand and made everything glow.
We officially know all of the employees at the coffee shop we sit at on our rest days. They are starting to give us extra meat and veggies in our sandwiches because they know that we are stingy and hungry. Ahhhh life is good.
Jim is working on this V14 called El Teco de los tres B's....or something like that. It looks really cool. Nic is close on Choir boys, and the MVP of the trip thus far is Adam for his ascent of See Spot Run, V6. It is about 20 feet tall and scary. Erik mastered Sign of the Cross and Vealchop continues to throw himself at Power of Silence. We all have our projects and all continue to support eachother as we each climb at completley different levels. That is the neat thing about climbing. No matter what your body type or strength, climbing is a different experience for everyone. Sometimes you are inspired and sometimes you are not. That is the fun in it. Sometimes you do something on your first try and sometimes you spend a month on something.

Ahhh the philosophy of climbing.

bad day

Today was a glorius day of complaining and being narrow minded. Brian and I both felt tired, sore, and just not good. I did a not fun V3 after about 10 tries and decided to call it quits early on in the day. Brian continued to not climb very well either and we gave up feeling exhausted, dizzy, and defeated. All of our muscles hurt, our stomachs are upset from either the camping food or El Paso well water, and it was a cold windy day. We are going to bed early in hopes that tomorrow will be better.

Jim Merli on Barefoot on Sacred Ground, V12
Me crushing Mushroom Roof, V8








Brian and I enjoying the view and the sun











me writing my blog while the boys watch a climbing video

This is too good not to post for everyone to view. Emmy wrote this for her parents, to help them understand what I write about climbing...

freaky deaky climbing terms -

Beta - n. where someone else put their hands and feet on a climbing problem, "can you give me the beta on 'power of silence' ?

Crimp - also Crimper n. a really small hold that you use just the tips of your fingers for (nothing past the first knuckle), lots of times you can only fit two or three fingers on a crimp.

Crush - v. also Crushing, basically kicking a boulder problem's ass. "I crushed 'power of silence' today!"

flash - v. to climb a problem on the first try, without looking at the problem until you're on it

heel hook - n. also heel hooking v. (pretty obvious, but just in case) some holds you can grip better when you're upside down if you use your heel. most climbing shoes have ridiculous amounts of rubber on the heel so you can "hook" your foot on a hold

Jug - n. a really large hold

slab - n. a flat vertical piece of rock, looks like a stone wall for a building

sloper - n. a slanted hold that you usually palm. it's more about body tension and balance vs. something to hold on to.

V1-V15 - adj. American rating system for boulder problems, describes how hard a bouldering problem is. V1 being the easiest.

Day 13

Another rest day brings too much coffee and not enough rest. We got lucky because it is cloudy for the first time since we have arrived and it was sprinkling, which apparently is a very big deal around here.
I have been posting a lot of my pictures on www.flickr.com
You need to have a yahoo account to see them. My flickr name is Umphrey and my e-mail is umnprey57@yahoo.com so you can do a search for me and see all of the fun and exciting pictures.

Day 11
On Tuesday we all woke up to the beautiful Texas sun and made our usual oatmeal and coffee breakfeast. We packed up our sandy, dirty climbing stuff and headed to the warm up boulders. Warming up is always so much work. Everyone is breathing heavy and ignoring all of the sore muscles that tell us we probably should be resting instead of climbing. Even if your muscles are ok then the skin on your hands is another issue. I think I am the only person that hasn't bled yet. I have some nice bruises to make up for that though.
Erik, Adam, Danielle and I hoofed it over to the Mushroom Roof, V8, which I finally completed after three days of work. It was nice to finally get that done. Adam is putting in his work on the classic problems called Left El Murray and Center El Murray, V6. They are very hard. Erik quickly became intrigued by Crap Arete Especial, which is somewhat of a party trick.
Danielle and I packed up and walked over to her project Wicicala Cave, V5. It has really neat moves on it. After that we met up with the boys at Choir Boys, V9, and watched Nic thrash himself on it until he was too tired to move.
The day ended with Danielle running the store in the barn as usual, which means she was really playing foozeball with me and drinking a Blue Moon. In the barn I bargained my way to a brand new Dragonfly backpacking stove for $30, which is worth about $100. I ran back to Jim's van to play with it and show Brian and got stuck listening to disturbing boy conversations inspired by Brian's never ending imagination.

Day 12
I will never get sick of the sunshine waking me up every morning with the birds chirping in the desert bushes. However, I am sick of all the sand! It gets everywhere and makes your whole body feel disgustingly dry. Also, my hands are so dirty that I wash them and they don't look any different than they did before i washed them. It's awesome.
Wednesday proved to be another success for me. I sent Baby Martini, V6. I wasn't expecting to do so, but I was climbing on it and I got really close to the end and just decided to give it my all and finish it. It is my favorite climb thus far. I love roof climbing. Roof climbing on jugs with all these crazy toe and heel hooks is just plain fun.
Nic, Erik and I decided to do a little accidental spelunking while looking for a climbing area. We crawled into the very back of this cave with a hole in it, went through the hole which opened up into this very narrow corridor, and then we had to climb up through another hole through another slot where the earth then gave birth to us. We found the area, but decided not to climb after all that. Jim and Brian continue to work on their projects in the Martini Cave. They are SO STRONG.
Later we met up with them at a problem called Barefoot on Sacred Ground where we encountered the hilarious Dave Graham. All of the boys were working on it, and Jim did this huge move to a hueco to finish up the problem, and his hand slipped out of the jug and he flew backword and down about 15ft and landed in a tree/bush. He was ok, but it was scary to watch. Afterwards he stood with his hand on his heart and said, "that was a little beyond my comfort level." Then Jamie Emerson was quick to tell him that we went too high to finish the problem, and the problem ends on the lower jug. Good to know.
Nic sent Stegasaur, V8, and did the classic V2 called Nobody Here Gets Out Alive. Dan rested and chatted video cameras with Mike Call.

At the moment we are sitting at a coffee shop and someone has talked the owner into playing a climbing video (Best of the West) on their big screen t.v. Yes we are about 20 miles from where the movie was filmed but hey, it's still inspiring to watch.

Tomorrow i will work on Babyface, V7 and hopefully do it.

Hueco Pictures

Erik and I taking a rest day
El Paso Sunset
Brian Camp on Baby Face,V7
View from the top of North Mountain

Day 10 and others in between

Today is a rest day.
My good friend Emmy has informed me that my "lingo" is somewhat hard to decipher. Apparently I am so immersed in the world of climbing that i do not even notice that everyone who reads this cannot understand what i am talking about. Sorry mom, Patti'O Furniture, and Mike.
Day 7
We went into the park early and warmed up on the warm up boulders. I actually took some pictures (Brian warming up). Then we seperated, Jim and Brian went to a climb called Power of Silence to work out the moves, while Eric, Adam (MN), Danielle (CO) and I went to the Mushroom boulder to attempt Mushroom Roof, V8. I worked out all of the moves far too many times and fell off of the top oh about 7 times. That is so frustrating. I was working on it with a girl from Germany named Lyla. She was so much fun and she kept falling off of the very end as well. It is so great to be able to climb with strong female climbers. Climbing with other women is very inspiring, and refreshing after traveling with just men for the past month. I climbed on Mushroom roof until my left hand fingertips were pink with pain and decided to call it quits on that problem. We packed up our stuff and hiked up North Mountain to meet up with the other boys at the Martini Cave where Jim was sussing out the moves on Esperanza, V14. Adam and I played on Baby Martini until my skin was to hurty to even open my water jug. Then we all hiked up the chains (I will take a picture of this soon so you all know what i am talking about) and went to this problem called Babyface.

Day 8
On Saturday I tried Mushroon Roof again but found no success because two days on in Hueco is really hard to do apparently. Your skin just sucks and you are so sore every morning. I think i just took it easy the rest of the day and followed people around and soaked up the Texas sun.

Day 9
Yesterday i took a painful rest day. We went into the park and i had to watch people climb all day while i sat on rocks and read Harry Potter. Not only was it hard to watch people climb while i couldn't, but i have the attention span of a gnat, and i got butt cheek chaffe from sitting on rock all day. I finished Harry Potter though and now I am on to the second one (a special shout out to Emmy for making me bring them with me). H Pot is awesome! I also sat in the sun and found songs on my Ipod that I never knew i had (thanks to Don!) Brian worked out the moves to Right Martini, V12, which i actually took pictures of. It is such a beautiful climb. The moves are so unique. Brian is super excited about it and he will get it with some work. It is really long and sustained. I wish i could climb that hard because it is such an amazing classic problem.
After my depressing day of not climbing, i was quick to drink some Little Penguin merlot as I ate my usual pasta dinner with desert sand in it. The wind whipped through our conversation about what everyone did that day as the sun sank behind the mountains in Juarez, creating a beautiful polluted orange sunset. I really love desert life. I am so happy.
The evening ended with an extremely intense game of foozeball with a 14 year old boy from Colorado and guy from Germany and Danielly and i. Jim and I fell into a relaxed stupor of watching Coneheads in the barn on Brian's laptop. The stench of the dead mouse somewhere in the couch we were sitting on kept us awake enough to struggle back to our vehicles we call home through the strongest wind i have ever felt. When i spit after brushing my teeth I swear it flew 15ft.

As much time as we have here it takes a lot of time to warm up to the area, build up good skin, and work out the moves to your projects. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day of cleaning up my projects that i have put so much time into. I will get some pictures of myself climbing i hope(sorry Mom).

Day 6

Day 2 turned into not so much of a rest day. We got into the park in the afternoon, and Vealchop (Brian's friend from the Black Hills) RAN up the mountain while i, struggled and wheezed to meet up with him at a boulder named "nobody here gets out alive". NHGOA for short. It is an amazing V2 that starts under a roof and you hold onto these smoothe, huge holes in the rock. It is a lot of fun. Then we hiked (i wheezed) up to this really neat roof called Daily Dick Dose, V7. I took my inhaler, checked out the holds, put my shoes on, drilled Brian for beta, started climbing and didn't stop until I got to the end. It was an unintentional flash on a soft 7 with Brian giving me beta the whole time. It was a good start to the trip. Vealchop did it as well, however he chose a much more burly way.
Some rock stars came trotting up the hill to work on Babyface and i immediately became intimidated. However Jim took me over there to steal beta and I started my work on it. It is going to take me awhile to do because it is not my style, and it is actually a V7. Very tall, and beautiful looking, i hate it right now because it has two crimps on it. I hate crimping.
Getting up to speed, the day before yesterday we warmed up forever, then went over the this beautiful problem called Power of Silence, V10. Jim did it on his first try, Brian has it wired along with Vealchop. This guy from Santa Fe adopted us for the day and climbed with us. His named is Cloud and by the end of the day he was Klauss. Vealchop liked Klauss better. We walked around a lot more and tried more stuff until the park closed.
Yesterday is why i am limping around today, and sore in placed that have never been sore before. We hiked up the mountain which i will tell you went much better than the first day. The wheezing and burning was there but not nearly as bad. My body will adjust. We warmed up and then Vealchop and i went exploring for this problem called Stegasaur, V8. We found it in this really low deep cave with smooth rock on the bottom. It is this really neat upside down fin that widens out and opens up to a short slab. It is REALLY hard, if you start with your feet facing into the cave. My entire left leg is in pain today from heal hooking. Hopefully I will do it on Friday.
Last night was the best night here so far. There were 6 of us Minnesotans all comfortably crammed into Jim's Volkswagon Westfalia vanagon, drinking wine by candle light, and listening to MC Boondoggle, and Halloween Alaska. The wine made us all relax after three days of destroying our bodies and soon we were laughing at climbing stories of the Chief in Squamish, and making fun of eachother like usual.
Last night as a mantled out of the van, V12, and crept into the darkness i did not fall prey to a cactus and i may have mastered desert peeing(i am still glad i wear gortex shoes).
So today we are sitting at the coffee shop drinking my usual decaf. (i like the taste), stuffing ourselves with egg and cheese english muffins and waiting for more fellow Minnesotans to arrive at the airport. Brian and I are really happy and are grateful to be doing what we love.
Heal sore muscles Heal!