More Hueco

Last week I did what is probably the coolest boulder I've finished.  The climb is called Dirty Martini on the Rocks and starts on two small opposing ledges with high feet.  After a delicate left hand move to an even smaller hold you sink down for a second before exploding to a good left hand hold.  The crux is stopping yourself from swinging off after this as your feet rip backwards off the wall.  The attempt I did the climb my right hand pops off the first hold before I have a chance to establich control, but luckily I managed to stay on and finish the boulder.

Here is the video.  Luckily I was there with quite a few people and since they all had cameras there's a bunch of angles.

The New Zealanders I was climbing with when I first arrived have all left now, so I've been climbing with a couple of Americans (one of them a Berkeley grad), and a Canadian.  The Canadian, Jesse, works two weeks on two weeks off so spends half of his time in his van climbing.  He's going to be in Utah the same time I'm planning on being there in late March.  On top of that he'll be spending all summer at his local crag, Squamish, British Columbia, somewhere I hope I'll make it too during June.  He'll show me around both areas!

The campsite I'm staying hosted the Hueco Rock Rodeo last weekend.  The rock rodeo is an annual climbing festival and competition held in Hueco, and so over the weekend the area flooded with climbers (some of them sponsored professionals) who were here for the competition and the festivities. There were a ton of climbing brands sponsoring the event, donating prizes, showing their gear off at their boothes and giving away a ton of free stuff (I finished the weekend with three new hats, two new t-shirts, a pair of shorts and a ton of koozies; all of them were free).  New Belgium Brewery (makers of Fat Tire) also sponsored the event so the parties that went on Friday, Saturday and even Sunday night got pretty lively.