Last Week in Joe's

Here is my beautiful abode.  Newly cleaned this past week and already sandy and dirty!  The dust here seems to get everywhere, especially because my crash pads go over my bed after being in the dirt and mud.  But having the shelf and the bed is a huge improvement on how I started the trip, just sleeping on my pads with everything stacked next to me.

It's warmed up here now.  It's been in the 60s or low 70s everyday which is actually a little too hot too be ideal.  The holds don't feel as sticky as they did in the cold but the climbing is still going well.  I've been getting closer and closer on Beyond Life, possibly the best V10 I've ever seen.  I'm also close on Feels Like Grit V8, which is an awesome and very hard slab.  I've probably pulled on it more than 50 times but it's so technical and the feet are so small that tiny movements or losses of balance cause you to fall.  Hopefully next time I go to both those climbs I'll do them; well at least I should.

I'll be leaving Joe's sometime this week to head to Red Rocks in Nevada for the Red Rocks Rendezvous; an annual climbing festival.  Before I leave here though I'll upload the video of all the climbing I've done here.  Till then, bye!

Joe's Update

It is absolutely frigid here at the moment.  The high today was less than 40°F, and at night it's been going below 20°F!  I woke up this morning to semi-frozen milk and water, and when I looked out my windows from my sleeping bag I noticed ice crystals on the inside of my car.  While getting up in the morning has been a little miserable we've still been climbing, because while it's not comfortable the friction is great.  When it's this cold there's no moisture on your hands and shoes, and with the sandstone here having the course texture it does you just seem to stick to the rock.  Once we warm up by our morning fire, get some hot food and coffee, and wait for noon so its gets a little less freezing we go out and climb.

With the help of these great climbing conditions yesterday I managed to send a V10 in one session.  Called Finger Hut it climbs through four very small holds after which it's big holds to the top.  I'm going to try and get some photos/video of it tomorrow so my next post will contain those.  I'm also going to include a photo of my car setup (as per the suggestion of my Dad), as that's where I've been sleeping in my makeshift plywood bed with my plywood and 2x4 shelf next to it.  While it's still cold it's much better than a tent!

Some Joe's Photos

Being in Joe's Valley at the moment feels a little like a Hueco Tanks reunion.  Every single one of the 9 other people I'm camping with I met in Hueco, even if only briefly.  My first morning here my friend Jesse and I ran into two guys from Pennsylvania who we climbed with in Hueco, Lee and Eric.  They joined us at our campsite and the day before yesterday I went out and climbed with them.  Here are some shots of Lee on a climb called Planet of the Apes.  It's an awesome V7 thats climbs a blocky feature for the right hand with crimps for the left.  I have some video of myself climbing it but I'm going to save it and edit it together with a couple of other climbs.

And here is Lee on anther V7, this one called Water Painting.  It involves lots of weird foot movement, toe hook and heel hooks on big ledges and flakes.  At some point I'll post the video I have of myself on this one too.

Other than those two 7s I've climbed some 5s and a V9 called No Substance that I got third try.  I was so close to flashing it (getting the climb first try)!  It starts on a huge hold then traverses the sloping edge of the bolder.  I climbed to the hardest move my first try smoothly and well before just coming short on a big jump move.  Second try I made a silly mistake before I got to where I fell before, and then on my third attempt I sent.  Now I've gotten two V9s within three attempts I think in the near future I may be able to flash one.  Well hopefully at least, I may be speaking too soon.

Joe's Valley Utah

Eleven hours of driving later and I'm now in Joe's Valley, Utah.  I made the drive day before yesterday, and after camping in the Manti-La Sal National Forest went climbing yesterday.  Today I woke up and there were huge gusts of wind blowing snow through the valley so I went into town, and here I am enjoying the free internet at the Food Ranch where I bought my groceries.

The rock here is a really cool, dark and dense sandstone.  It's featured with cracks, ledges, and occasionally pockets.  The walls of the valley are covered in boulders and pine trees, and there's still snow on the ground on the north facing sides.  It's a nice change from the deserts of Joshua Tree and Hueco Tanks.  On the climbing side of things I did one of the best V6s ever today.  Called Wheels of Fire it climbs a few big moves between ledges before a precise move to a left hand pocket which you pull up on to reach a crack.  From there you move to lip of the boulder.  It climbs so well; the foot holds are just where you want them and the hand holds are comfortable but textured.  I also did a V8, and many easier climbs yesterday.

While I don't have any pictures from here yet here are a few I took in J Tree.  I never got round to taking any climbing shots but these are still worth posting.

And here's a shot of the sunset my last night in California.

I'll post some Joe's Valley pictures sometime this week, till then bye!

Joshua Tree, California

After driving to SoCal Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning (I stopped for a night in Tucson), I camped for a night in Joshua Tree National Park before spending the weekend with my good friend Cameron.  It was a great weekend, and it was nice to sleep in a room on a mattress for a few nights! Cameron goes to Chapman university in the outskirts of LA so we went into the city on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with his friends on campus.

Now I'm back in J Tree.  Today I spent the morning and early afternoon bouldering on my own, just trying to do as many easy climbs as possible.  The area has a huge amount of climbing history, and was one of the places people pioneered morning climbing starting in the 60s.  But, most of the climbing here is roped traditional climbing, so I probably won't spend more than a week here before heading to Joe's Valley in Utah.

I'll post another update in a couple of days before I leave.  Till then, bye!

Leaving Hueco

It's starting to warm up here in El Paso (not good for climbing), so I'm heading to Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California tomorrow.  But my time here ended awesomely!  I did my first V11 yesterday, a climb called Dark Age.  It's one of the more famous V11s in Hueco and climbs through an overhang onto a corner, and from there you climb right into a tall V6 (the V6 is well known too; it's called See Spot Run and is a very high classic).  After my first session working Dark Age I was falling at the beginning of the V6, because after climbing the eleven I was so tired and out of breath the V6 moves felt almost impossible.

Then I went back yesterday and after falling at the same point a few times I broke through; only to fall when I placed my foot in the wrong place close to the top.  Disappointed and starting to feel tired I knew I only had a couple of attempts left with full strength, which I need to climb something so hard.  I rested for a quarter of an hour, then psyched myself up to try again.  As I started climbing my arms felt fatigued and I realized that this would be my last solid attempt.  Thinking that I pulled through the hardest moves and found myself half way up the V6.  Feeling tired and quite high (my feet were about 10 feet off the ground and I was only half way up), I took a couple of breaths then pressed on through were I had fallen before and topped out the boulder.

It's an awesome feeling to climb something really hard for yourself, and especially on a climb of this grade where I wasn't expecting to be do able to do all the moves in isolation, never mind climb it from start to finish.  It was good way to end my time in Hueco, and it coincided perfectly with my departure and the start of warmer weather.  I'm spending today in El Paso doing chores getting ready to go, before after a morning of climbing tomorrow I'll head to SoCal.

Thanks for reading!