It’s been 4 climbing days in Hueco and I don’t have any injuries! My skin is even flapper free. We’ve been having a wicked time. Our first day was spent touring North Mountain. We checked out all the major areas and basically destroyed ourselves by climbing everything. Day two was a lot slower.

Jordan and Rachel joined us two days ago and I’ll be picking Matt up from the airport tonight. Our crew is slowing congregating. So far things have been incredibly fun and the party is only beginning!

I’ve climbed some classic problems (Daily Dick Dose, Babyface, Lobster Claw, See Spot Run, etc), but I haven’t completed any of my projects yet. I felt a little disappointed on my first few days because things felt HARD! I got on Barefoot on Sacred ground and I can’t really see myself doing it. The crux move to the final jug just doesn’t seem within my reach. I’ve only looked at Diaphanous Sea, and it looks harder than I remember. I plan to try it the next time I’m at North Mountain, so we’ll see. I did make huge progress on Chablanke yesterday however. I’m pretty sure I’ll send that soon. I repeated Power of Silence, V10 yesterday as well. Check out the picture below. On my first trip to Hueco back in February 2006 I managed to flash this problem, which is probably my best flash to date. I couldn’t do that this trip though. It took me a few tries. I also tried Loaded with Power, V10, which has a painful left hand crimp. I got up to the last move or two, but didn’t complete. It should go down though.

We have some volunteer tours booked for tomorrow and Friday, but they may fall through if we don’t get a guide. If that happens we’ll end up back at North Mountain, which is no problem because there is more than enough climbing there.

I’ll be posting new pics each time I get to the internet cafe. Hopefully they’ll get all of you psyched! If you’re stuck in the gym like I will be in two weeks for the rest of the winter, it’s shit like this that motivates me!

Tomorrow I’m off to a great place – Hueco. It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve been there. There will be a crew of about nine of us overlapping our stay there for about a week. I can’t wait!

My first trip to Hueco was kind of a disaster. On my first day there I was part of a tour to East Spur. I warmed up a bit, and saw this cool crimpy problem called Better Eat Your Wheaties. It looked like my style and I figured it should be a probable flash. Yeah right. The first moved owned me. The starting left handhold is an undercling, a crimpy undercling. I guess my baby finger was in some weird spot because when I went to do the move I heard Pop Pop! It was loud enough for others around me to hear. It didn’t hurt at first and I actually thought that my knuckles just cracked. But within five minutes the pinky began to swell. Motherfucker…I just popped a tendon on the first hard problem of the first day of my first trip to Hueco. Let’s take it down a notch I figured. Nearby there’s a classic V5 that I forgot the name of. It’s slightly overhanging and long, but it looked freaking sweet. I got on it and carefully climbed up to the last move – a jump. I kind of half ass jumped and didn’t make it. The landing isn’t flat, it’s basically a hill. When I fell I thought the pad was going to be further than it was, so when I hit it was kind of a surprise. I landed on one foot and kinda rolled down the slabby rock landing. But I rolled while my foot stayed. That equals a rolled ankle. Wtf. So I spent the rest of the day limping around with a gimped finger. Needless to say, I still managed to have a good time for the rest of the trip.

I hope this experience will be better. There are a few problems that I want to test myself on. Diaphanous Sea, V12; Chablanke, V11 (I came close to this last time); Barefoot on Sacred Ground, V12; Power of Landjager, V11; and Full Monty, V12. I’ve been training in the gym as much as I can to prepare myself for this trip, will it pay off? Wish me luck.

Here’s a picture of Full Monty taken from Jamie Emerson’s blog.

Speaking of training, my last post…months ago…mentioned how psyched I was to see Sonnie’s campus video. This inspired me to get one built in my home gym, The Edge. Well, that was a success. With the help of Gary Foster, we goter done a few weeks ago.

I recently joined 8a.nu. I’ll do my best to keep my scorecard updated during this upcoming trip. Also check back here and the media section for photo and video updates!