On Thursday, I was fortunate enough to have my class and work canceled and I headed out at around 10 a.m. to Jasper, Arkansas to meet up with people that I worked with the past summer and do some climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. I was definitely satisfied with my experience. I cruised in on Thursday evening close to five and jumped out of my car to go and get some quick bouldering in before it got too dark. I was quickly able to dispatch a few problems one being an interesting V1 arete and the second a cool pockety problem called Bottoms Up, weighing in at V2. I also did a problem that I thought was V3 but I messed the start holds up so it might have been a little easier. Still would have been probably hard V2, in my opinion.
Friday day rolled around and my friend Kevin Martin was there for me to go and do some climbing with. We were up relatively early, and then headed right up to a sector called 'The North Forty.' First, we warmed up on a pretty cool little 5.8 named Green Goblin that wasn't too bad. Next, we decided to just jump straight into the business and both were able to nab an ascent of Sonny Jim 5.11b, mine being a flash due to Kevin's onsight. It's definitely a cool route and has a cool balancy crux to a cool roof pull. Next, I led up a 5.10a called Season of the Storm and got that flashed. Finally, Kevin and I both gave another 5.11b called Big Top a shot and man was it hard. It's a super overhanging jug haul, but just not my style and I took several falls, and felt pretty pathetic. After this we decided to call it quits for the morning and went down and took a siesta.
Green Goblin:
The roof you pull on Sonny Jim:
In the evening my friend Wayne and his buddy Josh rolled in and we headed out to the Idaho's to do some quick bouldering. With a bit of help from Wayne on beta, I was able to finish a desperate V4 called Dig Dug that is a classic for Horseshoe and then I was able to nail another V4, Make You Cuss Arete, on the second go! Next, we did a really cool V3 slab problem called The Crescent. Not too bad of an evening session and I was almost able to send another V4, War Bonnet, but just missed it from muscle failure. It'll have to go during the winter trip!
Saturday, the weather ended up being pretty crummy in the morning so I decided to cruis back to KY, and ended up climbing at Jackson Falls today. My sister Lauren also came out today which was quite a surprise and she was kind of a good luck charm...of sorts. What I mean is I was finally able to figure out the top out sequence for my 5.12a project Industry. Pretty cool and definitely pretty physical. My beta involves getting a jam of sorts on a vertical seam at the bottom where water pools when it rains and then crossing up and hitting another identical hold with my right index and middle finger. Definitely feels pretty burly and there is probably some better beta but it works! I gave it two goes today and on the second I was able to make it completely through with only two falls, one of which being in a section that I typically have on lock down. I really hope that this will go sometime in the next few weekends! I'd love to sleep well again!
Other than that now I'm studying my butt off for the two exams that I have tomorrow. Yuck, and I guess I need to get back to that!
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