Category Archives: Climbing

Hueco Rock Rodeo

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This was my first Hueco Rock Rodeo and as it suggests, it’s hosted in Hueco Tanks near El Paso, Texas. The rodeo is an outdoor festival/competition where competitors of all abilities can climb on a specific day and compete in a sort of competition. They select specific problems on one of the mountains that you can try and they’re given a point value. They try to put emphasis on some climbs if they’re new, or really cool. You have the whole day to climb and they take your top 6 climbs.

For me, the rodeo is a great chance to climb in the back country with some of my good friends and have a competition atmosphere at the same time. It’s actually a pretty cool environment. The whole day, I was climbing alongside my “competitors” but at the same time, I’m equally as psyched when they do a problem, as when I do. I love that atmosphere and I thought my first rodeo was awesome.

focus

 

I had a really good day and it all started at 6:30 when my alarm went off and I jumped in the shower. I’m down here in Hueco with Mike Doyle and Jamie Chong and we had planned to climb together for as much as the day as we could. We had a quick breakfast and we were at the Rock Ranch by 7:30 as we were told the buses would be heading into the park for 8am. We started in a tour alongside my good friends from Europe Katha Saurwein and Jorg Verhoeven from the Netherlands. It took an hour for everything to get finally organized, but a long story short is we were warming up in the East Spur Maze at 9. It was freezing cold, and it took a while to warm up, but the first problem on my list was “Focus”, a V10 that went up a really cool arête feature. The crux is pulling the lip near the top, but I find that the individual moves aren’t that bad, and the hardest part is it being impossible to work individual moves. I wasn’t fully warmed up, but I had done Focus two days before, so I sent it first go of the day at 10:19am. Jamie and Mike both followed up with repeats of this classic highball.

elchupacabra

The second problem on my list was “El Chupacabra Right” which was given V11. We went over to the climb just after Focus and it took me a while to remember which method I was going to use. I knew that attempts were going to be important in a day where I’m supposed to do six V10′s and up. Jorg made quick work of the boulder (being tall which makes it easier ^^) so I got my shoes on and tried it second. It was pumpy, and my fingers numbed up 2/3 of the way through the boulder, but I held it together and got away with another 1st try send. 11:02am and I was well on my way into the rodeo. Jamie, Mike and Katha were trying the left variation which goes at V10 for a while, so I put on my shoes and rested a bit.

fullmonty

I had seen that “Full Monty” V12 was on the list and I thought that I could repeat it pretty fast. I find the problem very hard for me, but I feel way fitter than I did the year that I did it. As most of us wanted to head to “Rumble in the Jungle” (V11), I convinced them to stop at Full Monty because it was on the way. My first try was pretty awful, but my second try was good. I got to the last move, and left for the last hold a bit too far left. As my body came away, I knew I was falling. I rested for a bit and on my third try I fell in the middle of the boulder. I could tell that the rest of them wanted to go down to Rumble, so I told them to go while I rested and waited to try it another couple of times. I rested for maybe 5 minutes, and then felt good again. My 4th try was like my second and I got up to the last move. This time, I didn’t misfire the last move, and I was topping out the boulder a few seconds later. It was 12:02pm and this boulder had given me a bit of trouble, but I was halfway done my rodeo!

flamignon

I decided to take a bit of a rest, as I needed to eat some food and get some energy back. The next two problems on my list were “Flamignon” V13 and “Rumble in the Jungle” V11, in that order. I had just done Flamignon two days ago, and I pretty confident I’d do it very quickly if not 1st try. I rested for the better part of an hour and at just after 1pm, I had setup the pads and was getting ready to try it. On my first try, I stuck the first few moves, including the “crux” moves, but when I went to swing my feet out, one of them brushed the pad, and I subsequently dropped off as “dabbing” is no good. I laughed it off and a few minutes later, I was getting ready to go again. At 1:08pm, I was doing Flamignon and it wasn’t the prettiest ascent as my feet cut off a few times, but it got the job done and I was squeezing my way through the very small topout hole making sure not to touch the adjacent rocks.

rumbleinthejungle

Rumble was next, and I was pretty sure I’d be able to do it first try. I spent a healthy amount of time looking at the problem, and touching the holds to get myself re acquainted with the boulder. In 2008 or 2009, I had flashed this problem with running beta from none other than Jorg. He had done this problem 1st try before I had done Flamignon and Katha also managed to repeat the problem in a few tries! I made sure I knew what I was doing and put my shoes on. With a bit of beta from Jamie and Mike as I forgot minor things, I made my way through the roof and was topping out just after. It was 1:38pm and I had done 5 problems. I knew now that I’d be able to do 6 boulders so I planned on taking an hour rest and trying “Crook by the Book” V14 which I had tried a couple days ago and come pretty close.

After waiting at Rumble for three quarters of an hour and painfully watching Jamie fall off the topout of the boulder, I was standing around the edge of the boulder when Jorg (from across the canyon) was yelling my name. He had gone off to do “The Machinist” in which he had done in which I can only assume 1st or 2nd try and was now wanting to get on “Nagual” V13. He was yelling at me because he knew I had a big crashpad and he needed it to try the boulder :) I was heading over there to try Crook so I yelled back over that I’d be right over. 5 minutes later, I was standing under Nagual and Jorg was getting ready to try it.

previewingnagual

I still hadn’t tried Nagual after seeing it years and years ago. I knew the boulder was very crimpy, very hard, yet very flashable. A few years back Paul Robinson had flashed the line and called it hard V13 as a hold had recently broken. Jorg had done the line a few days back, and was psyched to give it a go. He did it first go which is what made me try the line.  At 2:39pm on March 3rd, 2012, I made the second flash of Nagual V13 (8B) in Hueco Tanks. This is hardest flash I’ve ever completed. I’m going to be releasing another post exclusively about this climb in a couple of days, so check back for the full story of this climb. Not everyone wants to hear the full details of the climb, but I’ll just be talking about what was going through my head before, during and after the climb.

My day was more or less over and now I was just trying to bump off my lowest number problems. A dozen or so minutes after I had done Nagual, Jorg flashed “Subzero” which is just in the corridor above Nagual. He gave me the beta and I flashed that one as well. It was only 3pm so I wanted to rest a good hour and try Crook. I ate the rest of my food, looks at the Machinist and rested an hour before trying Crook.

crookbythebook

 

To make a longish story short, I couldn’t do the crux move. I did every other move, but without the crux move, it was just a dream. My attempts became worse and worse, and after a half hour of flailing, I concluded that my day was done. I didn’t really care though, I had flashed Nagual, and I had done 7 problems V10 and up.

I finished my day at the Rock Rodeo with the following problems on my scorecard:

Because they only take top 6 climbs, Focus would be bumped out, but I was still psyched I had done it! I ended up finishing 3rd at the Rodeo as Daniel Woods absolutely crushed it. He started his day with repeats of Nagual, Crook and Machinist and finished his day with Full Monty, Two Days With Gene V11 and another V12 to finish it off. Jorg came second, although very close to me, by doing most of the same problems as me, but taking out Full Monty and Flamignon, and exchanging them for Two Days With Gene and Machinist.

I was excited to be on the podium, and had an awesome time at my first Rock Rodeo. I’ll hopefully be back next year and who knows, maybe I can have another day like this one!

Snowy February in France

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morningfrombedroom

A few days ago, I look out my window and wake up to this… It’s now the coldest time of year in France with temperatures dropping to -12 in Paris, and according to the weather forcast, it “feels” like -20. I wonder how Marshal is doing in Fontainebleau at the moment…

I’ve been continuing my training after getting home from Font. It’s been pretty good besides the temperatures dropping below freezing. I’ve been working on power mostly, in preparation for ABS Nationals and I’m feeling good. I find that whenever I’m gearing up towards these competitions, it almost feels like a giant mind game. I know that I want to get stronger, I think about ABS every other day, and I’m trying to train enough so that I get stronger but not too much where I just get tired. Since I got back from Font, I’ve trained about 6 times and on only 1 day did I feel pretty bad.

lanscapesnow

 

I have just over 2 weeks left before ABS and I’m going to continue what I’m doing. There’s a training camp that I’m going to be attending with Mathilde in two weeks which will mark the last “training” day before ABS. People often ask me what I expect to place in ABS and honestly, I’m always aiming to podium. Last year was a crazy year with Daniel Woods (the strongest at the competition) missing finals mostly due to the format of rules… I did end up winning, but it was close, and exciting.

I’m almost just as excited to head to my first ever Hueco Rock Rodeo after the ABS weekend. I haven’t been to Hueco for at least 3 years, and my last trip there was pretty disappointing. I thought I was stronger than I actually was and mostly got shut down. This year, I’m going to try and stay optimistic. I have a few lines that I want to try, but I really just want to have fun, try new stuff and get some good video playing with my new camera!

portraitsnow

 

I’m also going to have the chance to climb with my “coach” Mike Doyle. He’s going to take the time out of his busy work schedule and try to meet me in Hueco Tanks. That should also make the trip that much sweeter. During my trip to ABS and Hueco, I’ll be actively blogging for the Sportiva LIVE website and updating photos of my trip. I’m not sure what’ll happen about the format of the posts and photos but if you have suggestions on how they should be released, just post them as a comment to let me know!

Khéops Assis in a day!

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mgv9fromtop

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a quick trip to Fontainebleau (which will hereby be referred to as Font) with one of my good friends Marshal German. We left to Font on Monday the 23rd of January in hopes of climbing 5 days in a row. I was supposed to come back Friday or Saturday night to get back into training. After the long Christmas break, I’ve been eager and motivated to be back in a gym. Trips like this to font just make my passion for outdoor climbing grow.

After leaving Toulouse at 7am and getting to Font 7 hours later, we headed straight for a climbing area, the Franchard to be a bit more precise. I had been there a couple years back but tried a new parking spot. After a good half an hour of walking around, we found ourselves back at the car and no climbing had been done. We drove to another parking area that I randomly had in my GPS and climbed for an hour before the rain started in.

mgv9

Tuesday to Thursday were complete write offs. In those 3 days, we were touching rock for maybe 20 minutes… We’d usually get to the crag, it’d be wet, we’d wait for it to dry, try to climb, and then it’d start raining. We’d be disgusted but since we were already out there, we may as well try go find the boulder that we’d want to do on dry days. I figured if it took us an hour to find a boulder, I’d rather find it in the rain, than when we could actually climb!

We didn’t do ANY climbing on Thursday but found the Elephant area as well as the Elephunk boulder. Marshal and I were both intrigued by the Elephunk line although we guessed that it would take an extra day to dry out because of all the vegetation around it. On the Tuesday or Wednesday, we had roamed around the Cuvier sectors and found a few of the ones we wanted to get on including “Sideways Daze”, “Noir Desire”, and “Kheops”. As soon as I saw the Kheops boulder, I was instantly fascinated by it. I had watched Paul Robinson climb it in The Schengen Files and it looked like the line fit me perfectly. The moves at the bottom didn’t look very hard, and it was all compression. After looking at the problem for a while, I assumed that the sloper to sloper move was going to be the crux. After watching Paul’s video a few more times, I was pretty sure I was right.

smv9

After getting up a little earlier on Friday (9:00am), we were out at the boulder by 11. It was the first day that we had woken up and not seen wet rocks just outside where we were staying. We drove straight to the Rempart sector and started warming up on the first boulder we saw. It was cold! We did a few boulders before wandering into the main part of the sector with the “Big Four”, which I can only imagine are the 4 amazing boulders separated by manmade stairs to keep the sand at bay. I did a few of those and even tried an 8A on the top boulder but after grabbing the heinous left hand crimp near the top, I concluded that it was too hot to climb in the sun and we moved on. We went to the “Noir Desire” line and then onto Kheops.

kheops00

By the time we finally got to the Kheops boulder, it was probably 3pm. It was cold in the shade, and luckily the boulder had tree coverage. I unpacked my stuff, set up my tripod and began taking a closer look at the problem. From the ground, I touched the first few holds and got a good sequence in my head. I figured I’d use the same beta as Paul as it’s the only beta I’ve seen. From what I could tell, I’d probably get up into the hard crux move, and I guess there was a chance I could flash it. I always like to give boulder a good flash burn even if it’s impossible. Now with Adam Ondra and Daniel Woods flashing V14, you just never know when it’s going to possible for other!

kheops01

I was happy to say that my flash go was very satisfying. I did the first 5 or so moves and fell exactly where I thought I might, from sloper to sloper. I didn’t even come close to doing the move, but it still felt good. I then figured I’d just try that one move until I got it. I spent the next 20 or so minutes trying to figure out that move but after 7-8 tries, I just couldn’t do it. After that many tries, I sat down and studied Paul’s movie again. I was just looking for where he put his right foot for the hard move. After watching the movie for probably 5 minutes, I suspected that he was putting his heel unusually close to his left foot right on the arête.

kheops02

I saw how I assumed it would work, and put my shoes on pretty fast. The first time I tried the move with that magical heel, I did the top! I was psyched and as I was running down the backside of the boulder, I already knew that Kheops Assis was totally possible, and today! I didn’t rest nearly long enough before my next attempt and fell on the hard move again. I figured I needed a bit of rest, so I suggested we walk back up to Noir Desire for 10 minutes to let me recover and let Marshal try that one again. We hiked up and Marshal tried Noir Desire another few times before declaring that he was spent for the day. We were only up there for 10 minutes, but I could feel my muscles twitching to get back on the wall. We walked back down to the problem and found two other climbers now trying it as well. I grabbed my shoes and asked if I could add my pad to the mix. They had the area pretty covered so I put mine near the back mostly as added comfort.

kheops03

After waving my arms back and forth a few times, I felt good. I pulled on, did the first 5 moves easily and felt strange on the crux move. I subsequently fell, and was a little bit annoyed. I didn’t feel tired when I got there, and I couldn’t really remember what I had done differently while doing the top. I figured I had to pull more with my left arm and try to press my left hip against the prow. After a quick 5 minutes rest, I was getting ready for another attempt.

kheops04

When I stepped on, I could feel it again, the bottom moves felt relatively easy. I got up into the crux move and focused hard to pull with my left arm. I rotated my left hip as much as I could, and stabbed for the right hand sloper. I managed to get up high enough and before I could realize it, I was on the hold. Now I just had to keep it together for the top. The top moves aren’t that hard, but they’re still spicy. You’re smearing your left foot on the arête, and any slip would make you fall. I managed to keep it together while running up the final slab as well. I was thrilled as I came running back around the boulder. I gave a quick pound to Marshal and sighed with relief.

kheops05

As I mentioned before, this is the first V14 (8B+) boulder that I’ve managed to do in just one day. New Base Line was close, but I tried it for 15 minutes just before the sun went down and sent it two days later after a rest day. Regardless of how long it takes one to do a boulder, I was psyched with this one!

kheops06

On top of it all, I got my whole ascent on film! I have my flash go, my working burns and my 3 ground up burns at the end including the send. I even have a burn where I pull on, do a couple moves, dab, then step off. Can’t have any of that on hard sends! The one minor downfall is that I just bought my new D7000 and everything’s a bit new. Marshal and I, whoever was closer would press record and I guess it didn’t properly focus on some of the burns, including the send… Sadly, my some of my work and also the send of Kheops Assis will be a bit blurry :(

kheops07

Oh well. I’m also trying to put together enough footage to make a short film about myself over the past few months. So far, I have a bit of footage from Switzerland, then this footage from Font, and hopefully more footage to come when I head to Hueco in a month. I haven’t decided on a name, and to be honest, it’s my first video so it’ll be pretty bad when you compare it to movies that have teams of people working on it, but it’ll still be cool footage and free!

kheops08

As you’ve seen throughout the post, I have some stills of the boulder. I took them off my video footage so it won’t be the best quality either. You can find all the shots HERE, or just go to the photo gallery as well. Next on my plate is training! With ABS Nationals not too far off now :)