Cool Hueco Tanks Indian Art.
Jacinda crushing "No One Here Gets Out Alive".
Me, getting my ass handed to me on "The Mexican Chicken".
Joel go for the "The Sweedish Slot".
Cory on "Lobster Claw".
Danielle on "Lobster Claw".The Harrison family headed it down to Hueco for Thanksgiving this year. I have only been there once and only for one day years ago. Danielle has spent quit a bit of time there and I was psyched to finally go to Hueco for more than one day. A couple of friends of ours, Cory and Jacinda, headed down with us as well. Poor Danielle has been loaded down pretty heavy with school and really can't climb as much as she would like to. Any time she has a chance to go on a small climbing trip, she is pretty much climbing off the couch. She gets frustrated because she is not in the climbing shape she would like to be in. For her, just getting to go and climb without stressing about school is good enough. I've been feeling as though I'm getting back into the shape I was in, before taking so much time off for tendinitis this past summer.
Hueco was pretty much dead. I think everyone was in Bishop this Thanksgiving which was really nice. Joel, Erin, and Kelly were down there for the entire week and told us that the temps were in the 50's earlier in the week. When we arrived on Thursday, the temps were in the upper 60's to 70ish. We all climbed at North Mountain the two days we were there. I got to see a bunch of problems that I have only seen in videos. We started at "No One Here Gets Out Alive". Joel, Erin and Kelly met us there and Joel gave me a list of problems I should try. He got me on "The Mexican Chicken". Wow, what a great problem. Horizontal is not my terrain and I got a bit worked right off the bat. He then got me on "Loaded With Power". Oh my god, what an insane problem! It had just gone into the shade and Joel sprayed me down with beta. I gave it a couple of goes, but when I started sweating, I decided it was too warm. We all headed over to Chris's arete. Danielle had worked on this problem a couple of years earlier and wanted to try to finish it. It is in a really small cave that does not accommodate very many people. She got kind of frustrated because everyone was either doing the problem or working moves on it and she just could not focus. When I say everyone, I mean at leased 8 people. Near by, Kelly showed me what is known as the Swedish Slot. It is this insanely small slot between two boulders that you have to squeeze through. It is the funniest shit to watch someone try and squeeze through this slot without getting stuck. After that, we headed over to "Girls of Juarez". Just another insanely classic roof with gigantic huecos. Toe hooks, heal hooks, under clings, and a nice top out. After that, on the way back to the parking lot, we stopped at "Loaded". The temps cooled down a bit and there was a large French posse there working on Loaded and Loaded Direct with lots of pads. On my first try, I got all the way to the last crimp and could not figure out what to do to dyno to the lip. My tips were pretty much gone at that point. I was kind of bummed because I truly believe that if the temps were better the first time I got on it, I would have done it. My tips were sweaty pretty much the entire day which made them hurt pretty badly at the end of our first day. We all partied at a great Mexican restaurant that night and crashed out hard. The next day, we headed to "Lobster Claw". Cory, Jacinda, Danielle and I were pretty cooked already and it was only the second day. We hung at that area for a while, so I got on "Schwerer Gustov" and "Anal Intruder". Yeah, way too warm for "Schwere" and I was way too cooked for "Anal Intruder". After that, we headed back over to "Girls of Texas" and I tried "Baby Martini on the Rocks". I was able to do all the moves after the hueco, but my tips were way too thrashed to do the first move. I think we were all pretty much done after that and sent out for margis. The trip was pretty fun, but I wished it was a bit cooler. I would of loved to have sent "Loaded With Power", but that will only make me want to go back to Hueco. There are a bunch of other problems we looked at that I think I may have stood a pretty good chance of sending because they never see sun and stay cool, oh well. We all had a great time and can't wait to go back.
