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February 28, 2005
April is Broken Again
It seems as though every time I'm really starting to climb strong and kick butt, some annoying injury sprouts itself upon me. So once again, it's happened. I'm sitting at home right now, taking a sick day (aka PTO, aka VACATION DAY :*( ) nursing a severe pulled muscle in my back that had gone into an *awful* muscle spasm Sat night. Bummer dude. So alas, there was no Wanker 101 action going on at Hueco on Sunday for Paul and I (Wanker = 101 Hueco boulder problems in a day, a list of problems v2 and under with the long and pumpy Ghetto Simulator being the 101st). In fact, we never even made it to Hueco. Sorry Nate! :( We'll have to plan for it again some other time.
In the meantime, I'm just going to sit here on our new couch, trying to remain as motionless as possible, and trying to supress thoughts of how soon I can get back on the rock again.
Posted by April at 10:50 AM | Comments (3)
February 26, 2005
New Furniture
We waited in suspense all day but finally, our new furniture arrived! Check our our sofa, love seat, coffee table and end table. There are also some photos of our new table cloth. We'll need to do some serious relaxing after tomorrow. Tomorrow? The Hueco Tanks "Wanker"...
Posted by Paul at 03:44 PM | Comments (3)
February 21, 2005
Joel and KT Experience Hueco
On Friday morning Katie, Joel, April and I woke up, packed the car and were off to Hueco for the weekend by 8:30AM. We had grand plans of getting up at 5AM and trying to get to the park early but after Sushi, a dip in the hot tub, and a few margaritas the night before we decided to sleep in a little.
We got to Hueco around 2PM, Joel and KT watched the orientation video and by 3PM we were climbing at "The Small Potatoes." The weather was perfect. A few clouds were in the sky but conditions were awesome. Joel and KT managed to adjust to Hueco very quickly and they both sent a handful of problems at the warm-up area. So, with limited time left in the day we decided to show off a little and take them to Martini Roof.
When we got to Martini Roof we bumped into Vince, Tammy, Ben and Claudia. Unfortunately, Tammy had to work on Saturday and had to leave with Vince so we couldn't convince them to stay. Claudia and Ben, our new Canadian friends who are SUPER nice, stayed with us for a little at Martini and then shared a campsite with us that night.
Joel and KT worked the beginning of "Baby Martini" V6, with their big sister April. April made a lot of progress, completed all of the moves and started working on her sending go. I worked the moves on "Shaken Not Stirred" V12 and managed to figure out the sequence from the beginning to the crux. I have to figure out 1 more move and then it's time to link everything. Soon... After we were all totally burned out we decided to head back to the campsite for a relaxing dinner.
At dinner KT, Joel, April and I talked with Claudia and Ben, mostly about climbing. Climbing, climbing, climbing. What a nice night.
On Saturday we headed out on a tour that I lead, to East Mt. The tour was full with 10 people. Marcus and Dan drove from Tucson the night before so they linked up with us and were psyched to try their East Mt. projects. Dan and Marcus suprised the group by flashing the "Guilotine" V2. NICE! What a super classic problem. KT and Joel did a bunch of the V0s to the right of the wall while their big sister showed off by sending "Warm Up Roof" V4.
The next stop was "Hobbit In a Blender" V5 and "Tri Hard" V4. Our good friend Nate (currently a camp host at Hueco) sent "Tri Hard" with style. Awesome Nate! After everyone tried the collection of problems it was time for April's go at "Dragonfly" V5. By the time we managed to get to Dragonfly it was getting later in the day. April had already sent Warm Up Roof and tried many other problems so the upper part of Dragonfly didn't go. We were all cheering for her but it will have to wait until the next tour at East.
At about 1:30PM April was kind enough to relieve me of guiding and she took over the tour so I could climb. Our next stop was "The Dark Heart." When we arrived at The Dark Heart everyone went crazy. I started working "Taxing The Pipe" V9 with Kyle while Joel tried some crazy running jumping V3. Check out the pictures...
KT, Dan and some others found a cool problem under a beautiful Juniper tree outside of the main area that they worked and sent. Marcus, Joel and Dan sent a super rad highball V0 in the back of the Dark Heart. And, I managed to send the scary, Taxing The Pipe problem! YEAH! Nate figured out "The Pipe Loader" V2. This wasn't easy. I was laughing because he kept pulling on and kept getting stuck in this crazy position, unable to move upwards. Finally he unlocked the movement and sent. It looks much easier than it really is.
After the Dark Heart we went to the "Maiden Gully" but after about 20 minutes, a single black cloud brought rain and scared us out. Once we were heading back to headquarters the long scenic way a beautiful rainbow opened up in front of us. April detoured us over to two rock art sites, a "Tlolac" and "Starry-Eyed Man."
On Sunday we decided to get an early start and warm up at the New Meadow. Joel and Katie managed to complete their first V1, "Mothertrucker!" April flashed the "Mandala." NO. Not really, she did the slabby "Mandalahaha" V3.
After The New Meadow we made our last stop at "No One Here Gets Out Alive" V2. On his second attempt for the day Marcus sent the super classic with ease! Way to go man.
Once we arrived back at the hacienda in Tucson we all relaxed in the hot tub with margaritas, pizza, beer and wings. Ahhhhhh.... Another awesome weekend.
Posted by Paul at 08:44 PM | Comments (1)
February 17, 2005
KT & Joel Arrive
Joel and KT arrived in Arizona yesterday and the first place we took them was Yuki Sushi. Yum yum! Now we're off to Hueco...
Posted by Paul at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2005
Snowboarding in AZ
April and I were really impressed this weekend! We never thought that snowboarding in Arizona could be SOOOO much fun. It was awesome! The conditions were perfect and the scenery was beautiful. Our biggest problem is trying to figure out if we should go back to Sunrise every weekend or go climbing at Hueco. Tough decisions...
Check out a few of our pics from the weekend.
Posted by Paul at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Rain = No Climbing
Like I said before, "I hate looking at the weather forecast." But I don't have to look at a forecast to know that climbing this weekend is going to be all rained out. Oh well. We've gone to Hueco every weekend this year so, no big deal. We had plans to go to Vegas this weekend but Red Rocks isn't the best place to climb when it's soaking wet outside. And yes, there are places to climb when it's wet outside.
The wet backyard and the wet wall.
So, instead of going climbing we are going to do something different. We are finally going snowboarding! Ha ha. For all those people back East I'll inform you that there is snow here in AZ. Yeah, there are some really big mountains that tower over 10,000ft and there is a lot of snow that falls on them. Especially when it's raining at low elevations. I have no idea what the resorts are like but friends at work have recommended Sunrise. We'll see...
Posted by Paul at 02:40 PM | Comments (1)
February 09, 2005
Yard Work in the Desert
At about 1pm today at work, I suddenly got the super-urge to do yardwork when I got home rather than go on a run with Morgan. The weeds are growing knee high now with all the rain lately and I've noticed that some of my neighbors have "mowed" it down like "grass." Missing grass tremensly, I liked the looks of this and figured I'd try it!
Funny thing about the desert.....in the summer the green is all on the whispy thin desert trees and the ground is brown and bare. But in the winter, the trees are brown and bare (yes, trees in the desert lose their leaves in winter too) and the ground is green because of the winter rains. Well, I should mention that this is only typical of the area we live in....sort of a basin between the Catalina Mtns and the Rincon Mtns, so the ground collects more water here. Closer to the city, and up in the foothills, people aren't as lucky to have so many weeds in winter. :)
I bolted home, threw on some work clothes, grabbed the weed wacker, and went to town. Soon, all the weeds in the front yard were leveled out to ankle-high. I must admit, it looked great!! Paul and I walked around the yard as it got dark, admiring our "grass" and talking about future yard-improvement plans (that we'll someday tackle in our immense amounts of freetime, ha).
Paul then decided to head to the store to grab some groceries for dinner, and I continued with some more yard work since I was on a roll. [Please note: when living the weekend-road-warrior-rock-climber lifestyle, weekends are soley set aside for climbing, not for silly things like yardwork. So Paul and I often find ourselves using our rather ridiculous, superb time-management skills.....such as.....ummm...setting up a floodlight in the front yard after it gets dark so that one can continue on with the yardwork].
So with floodlight in place (situated not to disturb the neighbors of course!), I began clipping down the expired bougainvillea so that it can grow again and bloom beautifully in spring (which will probably be sometime later this month). After that, I began to pull the weeds that had sprouted in the flower bed by the house. After that, I trimmed back the pretty purple flowered ground cover that was spreading out onto the walkway next to the flowerbed. After that, I tackled my hanging pots and clipped out all of the dead leaves. And after that, I swept the walk-way, took my gardening tools back to the shed, called Morgan back from her horse poop sniffing over at the neighbors, and un-plugged the floodlight.
Waa-lah, yard is done. Should be good for another 2-3 months. Gotta love the desert.
Posted by April at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2005
Posting Pics
We just started playing around with posting pictures. Here are a couple from the wet weekend.
Our new REI tent! and Our soggy wet crew getting ready to climb on Sunday
Posted by Paul at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
Seeending in the Rain
April and I hate looking at the weather report. We gave it up after moving out west. Why? Because every weekend turns out fun. This last weekend just gave us more proof to show people who doubt that climbing/fun is possible when the forcast says 60-70% chance of rain. Heh heh.
Saturday morning started out as usual. April, Dan, Marcus and I made our 1:00AM arrival at the land outside of Hueco. It was cloudy outside but we quickly set up our tents and laid down for a quick sleep. At 7:30AM we woke. The ringing of our alarm wasn't what caught our attention first, it was the rain pouring against our tent. We figured it would stop and clear so we tore down the site and headed into the park to get checked in. Once inside the park boundaries we met up with Vince and Tammy, thought long and hard and said, "Dennys for breakfast?" We ended up going to a cheap but awesome Mexican place right outside the park which killed a few hours and gave us some fuel for the climbing ahead.
By about 11:30AM we were back in the park pulling into "Pond Parking." Unfortunately it was still raining therefore we were forced to head to Martini Roof. How horrible huh? Forced to go to one of the best concentration of super classic boulder problems in the park. When we arrived it was pretty crowded but most of the people were leaving. DW left after working "Esperanza (V14)." I would have liked to see him pull off the moves on that! I'm sure we'll read about the send soon. Since I ticked "Martini Left (V10)" last weekend I started working "Shaken Not Stirred (V12)." It is my favorite at Hueco that I've been on, by far. It's going down! Vince joined me but he started on the second half of the problem which was the original line before the sit start was added by Fred Nicole (I think). The second half which Vince worked, linking move after move with ease gets V7 and is called "Big Iron on His Hip." Marcus made very impressive progress on "Baby Martini (V6)" for having no warm up at all. ha ha. Dan worked the moves of Baby Martini also and at one point slipped off, totally missed the crash pad but luckily he landed in a mud puddle which cushioned his fall. Yuck.
April who amazed us all, gave several strong attempts on "Shradenfraud (V5)" and slipped off on the last move before establishing on the finishing boulder. After a short rest she gathered up the energy for a flawless SEND! NICE APRIL. She can say that she sent while it was pouring down rain outside!!! Tammy would have been next to send but an unexpected pull on her injured finger caused yet another serious tweak! We all felt for her but her climbing was over for the day and she headed back to search our our wine stash.
Before we knew it over four hours had gone by and we were wrecked from all the roof climbing. So, we headed back to the camp site and enjoyed the amazing dinner that Marcus cooked for us. We all crammed into our new REI tent and drank wine, celebrating April's send and Marcus' ability to cook an awesome meal.
Sunday started off cold and cloudy but at times the sun would come out and warm us enough to go about our climbing routine. We started off the day at the Warm Up boulder. The problems were all dry but he ground was wet and it was very cold and uncomfortable trying to get stretched out, especially after climbing in Martini Roof the day before. After warming up we went towards Mushroom Roof. Vince was determined to go there and tick off yet another problem on his list. Before we got there I stopped to try the scary "Roughage (V7)" with Greg. We got a little bit off the ground but were not psyched to do the insane next couple of moves. Marcus, Tammy, Dan and April checked out the super classic "Orfice Affair (V1)" and the "Wonder Hole (V0)."
Finally, we made it to Mushroom boulder. Vince definately gets the MVP for the weekend because as he was preparing for "Mushroom Roof (V8)" he said, "I'm going to warm up my fingers on 'Left El Murray (V6)' and then give Mushroom a burn." But, his warmup was actually his SEND!!! He and I always joked and said that Left El Murray was the hardest V6 ever. Harder than Mushroom! We were all psyched. After that he decided that since the top of Mushroom was wet it was better to try and send "Center El Murray (V6)." And...again, Vince tore it up SENDING Center El Murray. Congratulations to April and Vince The rainy weekend was full of super classic SENDING and a lot of fun.
Pictures and video coming soon...
Posted by Paul at 12:06 AM | Comments (4)
February 04, 2005
Tammy's Dragonfly send!
Here's strong Tammy showing me how it's done:
Tammy - Dragonfly Video (70Mb)
Posted by April at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
Martini Left Video
Finally, the footage you've all been waiting for, Paul sending Martini Left!
Download Martini Left Video (113Mb)
Posted by April at 08:57 PM | Comments (2)