apAdventures

The bathroom in our main house is done! Check out the pictures. We haven’t moved all of our stuff into it yet so I’ll have to snap some pictures after we use it.

Here is a view from the entrance. We had the light switch moved since everyone had trouble finding it.

Our talavera sink, tile counter top and new cabinet

The talavera sink up close. We purchased this one in Tucson, not Mexico.

Our tile design for the top of the shower.

Soap/Shampoo dishes!

That window that was rotting.

Big use of little space.

Check out our progress building a shade roof over our hot tub.

Click on the picture to see the slideshow

Here is a quick look at the bathroom and the shade roof progress…

The shower tiles are up. Needs grout.

The sink and cabinet are in place. Needs grout.

Extra Shelves. Needs painted.

It was a cold morning when we started working on the shade roof.

Posts are finally up.

Here is another view with the woody in the background.

April nor I got any Legos for Christmas so the next logical step to occupy our time (away from that climbing addiction) is to tear up our house a little more. The next couple of items on our long list is our main house (as opposed to the guest house) bathroom and the re-building of the shade structure over our spa. Seems like a lot huh? YES! So, we hired some help. Thanks to a friend’s good recommendation, the bathroom project is underway by a really nice guy we can trust will get the job done, for the right price and to our precise level of detail. As for the shade structure, well, April and I took on that job ourselves. Check out our progress…

Remember the “porch project?” We sure do. In the background of the first picture is a nice reminder to me that our major porch re-building is done. The picture is also scary because here we are again, painting round wooden posts. Luckily these posts have nothing to do with the porch. They will be used for the shade structure over the spa.

In the back of this picture you can see the original shade roof over the spa. Dale’s hands frame it well. In a monsoon storm over the summer that entire roof fell! Luckily nothing was damaged and nobody was underneath it! Now it’s time for us engineers to overbuild it so that it stands the test of time.

Here is a picture taken in bad lighting of what our bathroom looked like before work started.

Here is a view of the floor looking into the shower. We thought the tiles were really ugly in the shower but regardless of how they looked, they were totally impossible to clean.

April looks into the bathroom and thinks, “So much for those tiles in the shower. Bye bye.” Or, “What did we just do to our perfectly functioning bathroom.

Our chance to put a light in the dark ‘closet of a shower’ that once existed.

The window in our shower before the demolition.

The window during demolition. Notice the rotten window ledge.

The window, starting to take shape.

We hope to keep up with posting some pictures of our progress. In the meantime I better get back to training. We’re off to Hueco again, soon….

If you’ve ever climbed on the Mushroom Boulder you would understand how dissapointed we are, hearing that no one will ever experience a similar enjoyment of such a classic boulder.

From www.Climbing.com:
“Sometimes called the single best boulder in the world, the Mushroom Boulder at Hueco Tanks, Texas, has been closed to climbing to protect the soil, plant life, and possible archaeological resources under the rock.”

Hopefully by now we have been providing a convincing argument that our crazy amounts of driving to and from various climbing destinations is totally worth it. And yet again, I think we can prove it. After we used up our last Hueco reservations for the year, we said our goodbyes and set our sights on our near term holiday plans. Relax, rest, eat lots of food and recover for the rest of the Hueco season. However, as April and I sat in the car during the long drive back to Tucson last weekend, contemplating our next few weeks, one of us asked the classic question, “How about just one more trip?” Within milliseconds we had the answer. Next weekend. Turns out the only available reservations were on Monday (today). Hmmm, after about another millisecond of thought we figured out a way to make one last trip happen. So, as I sit here in the car on the way back to Tucson, I am still convinced that we are not crazy for driving all the way to El Paso for just one day. Once again we had an amazing time and it was totally worth it!

This stellar last day started off at the Mushroom Boulder. While warming up, our good friend Nate, whom we hadn’t seen for nearly two years, randomly strolled up. Coincidentally it was the last day of his short four day trip all the way from New Hampshire. A pleasant surprise!

When my feet started to get cold and I couldn’t wait to leave to try some problems at the next spot I said to April, “Hurry up with Mushroom Roof. Either send it or let’s go. I’m psyched to try some other stuff.” April replied, “Alright, I’m about done here. Today isn’t the day for Mushroom but I’m going to give one go on Left El Murray before we leave.” Many a hardman and hardwoman have claimed the ultimate classic Left El Murray (v6) HARDER than Mushroom Roof (v8), myself included. April has given Left El Murray much attention over the years, and to no avail. Well, today was an exception to all of the above. She crushed it.

The rest of the day was a combination of running into more old friends (the season is ON) and linking up hard moves on all the problems we touched. April & Raquel had a good little session on King Cobra (v6), while my bros and I slapped the finishing hold on Anal Intruder #10 (v11). After that, I managed to make my best link yet on Right Martini (v12). It’s now time for sending go’s! And the day concluded with some spontaneous interest by myself, April, and Raquel in The Bloody Flapper Traverse (v9) – a climb that I’ve dabbled on in the past but never managed to send….until today.

So now what? April and I are both climbing harder now than we’ve ever climbed before. To keep us in tune for the duration of the Hueco season, which has only just begun, it’s time to take a short pitstop. We’re going to rest up, enjoy the holidays with the families, let our tendons relax and get reacquainted with our muscle fibers, and continue the season stronger than ever. See you in January, Hueco.

posted by pjv

As I studied the razor sharp crimps of the partially chalked, slightly overhanging wall, home to the classic Right El Murray (v8), my friend Justin said, “Hey, are you going to try that climb? Good luck dude, because if you fail to tick it you’ll only go home half a hardman.”

I was like, “Uh, whatever macho saying you just told me doesn’t sound good. Where did you come up with that rule? I mean, I’ve basically written this crimp nightmare off of my tick list but for some reason I’m going to try it again today. I guess by the sounds of it, I have to do this climb to really get credit for completing the three El Murrays. Right?”

Justin said, “Check out the guidebook man, I’m not lying.”

“The steepest section of the wall is home to the Left, Center, and Right El Murrays. The Center El Murray has been justly dubbed Hueco’s Greatest Problem. Many a tough guy has had fits at the El Murrays, knowing that if he doesn’t tick all three he’ll leave Hueco only half a hardman.”

John Sherman, “Texas Tall Tales”
Climbing Magazine No. 116.

It was funny because after hearing Justin tell me that goofy phrase something in my brain clicked. I thought to myself, “I can’t leave this problem undone. I have to do it. I have to do it even if my fingers snap off. I can’t leave here today knowing that I’m half a hardman. I am a FULL HARDMAN!” Yes. Psyched. The moment of psychedness overcame my body and I yelled to April, “Hey, quit working Mushroom Roof, gimme the pads now! I’m psyched.” She was like, “Alright fine, but hurry up. My feet are getting cold watching you flail on your attempts.”

Oh well, it didn’t quite register what she said. I grabbed the pads, threw them down, chalked up and pulled on.

Thought process:
– Ouch, left hand fingers crimp side-pull, thumb digs deep into a sharp spike
– Right hand crimps something but first move is to a hold that doesn’t really exist and isn’t chalked that much but I pretend it’s there and crimp HARD. Ouch again.
– Ok, left foot up, the jarring movement of my foot grinds my left thumb and right crimp deeper, ouch. Oh well, go.
– One more left foot smack. Ouch.
– Cross over to another no-chalk imaginary crimp. OUCH! Oh man I stuck it!
– Don’t fall now! Or you will have to repeat those moves again
– Right hand to a sharp, fairly good, side-pull…breath baby
– Set feet and move left hand from very painful crimp to less painful crimp. Mini ouch.
– Now, setup, look, spot the final jug hueco with birds nest inside, leap and do not damage bird’s nest…STICK! Yeah. Let out loud yell for good measure and to unleash all the pent up pain. Whoooo hoooooo.
– Top out and say, “Damn, I’m never doing that climb ever again!”

Ahhhhhhh. Damn it feels good to be a HARDMAN!

posted by pjv

What’s a Tucson boulderer to do with a 4-day weekend? Head to Bishop of course!

Paul and I flew back east for our family “Thanksgiving” two weekends ago, so this weekend was treated like any ‘ol weekend for us. Only this weekend, we had FOUR whole days off from work. And like many of the 4-day weekends prior, we decided yet again to make the grueling trek up to the east side of the Sierra Nevadas to squeeze out 2.5 precious days of Bishop bouldering. 12 hours of driving (each way) for only two and a half days of climbing? Is it really worth it? I’d like to say that we are sane and logical human beings and we ask ourselves this question each time we decide to make this heinous trek. But we don’t. We just go.

Thursday afternoon, Thanksgiving Day, finds myself, Paul and ‘lil brown dog Morgan bumpin’ along in our Sportsmobile van up the washboard dirt road toward the Buttermilks. Our tick lists – which we feverishly scratched down the night before (if you’re me) or 2 weeks before (if you’re Paul) – are packed with more climbs than can usually be ticked in a whole two weeks. And, well, since we have a mere two days, we best be gettin’ to the business.

Our first stop is the Pollen Grains. It’s around 2ish and we have just enough time to go find this amazing looking line we’ve seen in photo after photo. High, technical, not too hard and thin: Jedi Mind Tricks, v4. Paul promptly eats this little morsel up with an onsight and declares it his all-time second favorite v4 ever (Moonshine Roof at Hueco holding the first place position, OF course). I pass on this one. Too high for me today! We then start making our way up to The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, but the steep face of the Honey Boulder sucks us in and we boulder on it until dark. Paul quickly ticks Cindy Swank, v7 and Finder’s Fee, v9. I come pretty darn close on Cindy Swank but then darkness closes in and we call it quits.

Friday is a Happies day. Our mission this day is two lines: Slow Dance, v10 for Paul and Gleaner, v6 for me. Paul spends about an hour linking up the moves of Slow Dance very nicely, but there’s not enough time to pull it together for a send today. On next to Gleaner. After chillin’ in the cold Slow Dance cave with Paul, I thought I’d need some time to warm up a bit on Gleaner before giving it some sending attempts. I think wrong and quickly tick it. Woo!

Originally we had planned on climbing at the Buttermilks on Saturday. However, since we had such an awesome time at the Pollen Grains two days prior, we decided to head back. Turned out to be a great decision because we basically have all the boulders to ourselves on this busy holiday weekend. After some less-than-stellar grainy, slabby, scary warm-ups, we throw our pads under the classic roof of the Beekeeper Boulder. I work on the Beekeeper’s Apprentice, v5. No send – a little burlier than I had anticipated! Or maybe I’m just tired – yeah that’s it, haha. Paul shows me how it’s done and then some – ticking off all the rest of the climbs under the Beekeeper roof. Fun little session. After a few more Pollen Grains classics and some more sending go’s from me on Cindy Swank, we declare our muscles and tips total toast.

With a couple more hours of daylight, we finish off the day – and the trip – with a hike up to the Bardini Boulders to check out The Maze of Death, v12 and to admire with dropped jaws, the monolith highball This Side of Paradise, v10. Dwarfed under the massive Bardini Boulder, with the vast Sierra Nevadas behind us, the multitude of Buttermilk boulders in front of us, and the canyons holding the still more Happy and Sad boulders off in the distance, we pretty much decide right then and there that a 4-day weekend at Bishop is *not* enough. There are too many boulders we want to climb! Too many projects we dream of sending! We’ve been making these short little jaunts up to these boulders for 4 years now. And in these 4 years, the wish list has grown pages longer than the tick list. The realization sinks in. It’s time to start setting our sights on a real Bishop roadtrip. Soon.

posted by arr

Check out what we dug up in the archives:

Had a halloween woody session last week which turned out to be a blast! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped us make a dent in of our pile of donuts and cider.

Spent the weekend in NY visiting with April’s family. During the fall we couldn’t be more homesick. The changing leaves, family, friends, cool temperatures, and the sense of the approaching winter, just to name a few, are things we miss the most. Can’t wait to visit for a long stay in December and January. In the meantime we have plenty planned on the climbing front. Hueco, Bishop….the season is on!

posted by pjv