Being back at work is no where near as good as being on a trip for a few weeks and living the climbing dream with you're only worry which boulder to try next?Ah well back to reality, but it was a great trip. Hueco is amazing! I really enjoyed the climbing there. There are classics of every style and grade and I would definitely recommend the trip to see it. I guess it's kind of a right of passage if you're a keen boulderer you're gonna end up at
Hueco some day.
Is it the best bouldering in the world? In my opinion, probably not but it definitely is amazing in it's own right. I think the restrictions led to a bit of mysteria about the place and it actually made me reflect a bit on how we can take things for granted and I felt quite privileged to be able to climb there. I didn't find the tour system too bad at all, I think if you can understand why it's necessary and be a little bit flexible about what you want to climb it doesn't really detract from the experience at all. In fact it kind of added to it in a way for me. I really enjoyed climbing with all types of different people from all over the world that I may have not got to meet otherwise. Working problems together, sharing beta and stories, really great stuff.
One thing I took away with me is how strong the scene is in Hueco and probably the U.S. in general. It was really cool to see how enthusiastic every one was all the time. It would be awesome to see more big groups of people rolling round with crash pads pushing each other up things here too! We can definitely learn a thing or two from their climbing culture. We truly have some unique world class boulder problems, especially in the Grampians but also Sydney and even the chossy old Central Coast has some gems hidden in there that would satisfy the most fussy bloc connoisseur. Get out there and enjoy them!
So enough waffle, Hueco is sick enough said. I would have liked to pull a bit harder over there but I was pretty happy how I climbed. I think the training really paid off. One of the biggest things I wanted to achieve was a bit more consistency in my climbing, just to climb things quickly at a high level (for me any how). Problems generally take me a while to warm into and complete and I rarely send that fast but I didn't really go back to anything a second day in Hueco. Which kind of makes me think I probably could have projected something harder but how many classics would I have missed out on doing?? In the end I was enjoying being somewhere where I had so many great new problems to climb that I didn't really care and I think I learnt more as a climber than just Trying a couple of hard things for sure. I do think the standard there is a step up from Australia in regards to the grades though, especially in the moderates, it seems to fall back in line at the higher end.
Notable things I did in my three weeks there;
Purple flowers v9 (soft v10s)
10-10 V9
Big Nosed Millie V9
Paleozic V9
Pumped Full of Semen V9
Beer Can Traverse V9
Adjust your attitude v8
McBain v8
Ultra Mega v8
Stinking Jesus v8
Brand New Religion v8
Crash test Dummy v7
Sign of the Chalk v7
Daily Dick Dose v7
Best of the West v7
Belly of the beast v7
New Religion v7
Speed bump v7
(sign of the beast 666)
all in a day
Alf in a Blender v6
Uncut Yogi v6
Hypro glow v6
Funnily enough most of my favourite climbs were many of the other easier problems things like Asylum crack v3 and 100 proof roof v3 which are quite humbling to say the least.
I wanted to give a quick thanks to the guys at the ranch for making our trip really great. These guys have got it sorted out and if your travelling from a far I would recommend staying at the house cause it just makes getting into the park so much easier. Thanks heaps for everything Mary, Rocco, Nikias, Corbett, Dave, Neil and all the guides you guys are doing a great job!
So great to see all the Aussies crushing hard over there too! James, Chirs, and Vinnie were all on fire. For such a small climbing community in this country we do pretty well, get behind these guys they're doing great things.
Later
