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!
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