Arkansas Update

Well, today was day 4 on of consistent climbing and a lot has happened since the last update. We're now out of the Hartlerode's house and are shacking up in our cabin at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. Pretty good time. There are like 16 people or so that I know from the last summer here chilling and just enjoying the beautiful weather and awesome friendship. Here is a short recap with some pictures of the climbing during the last three days, leading up to today.

Day 2:

Ended up taking a bit of a rest of a rest day. Ended up repeating all of the same problems from day 1 at the ranch first go and called it a day. Here are some shots of the sends.

First move of Wild Flowers V3:


Topping out on nothing:


Start crimp of Slopadon Milsevic V5:


Bumping through the harder side pulls:


Bear hugging out through the top:


Getting the top sloper:


Topping out Slopadon...again:


Strolling away:



Day 3: Today I was able to get a send on High-Five a V4 dyno. Unfortunately, there are no pictures or video.


Working Memento V5...Still haven't sent. It sooooo hard for me:


Feeling like junk, and trying to get psyched for Miho V7 (Wayne has the video cam too, so video is to come):


Miho V7, the send photo sequence:

Crazy drop move knee to gaston:



The crux foot move:


Hard drop left knee into a full on compression move with the gaston and out to a good three finger crimp:


To the slopers on the top out:


Finishing it up:



Day 4:

Today, I was able to get two sends. One of the super cool Moondye Stand Start V4, which has this beastly dyno (video to come), and then also one of Chuckwagon V6 (pictures to come). Pretty psyched since today was supposed to be a rest day (HA!)

Happy New Year!

First Day Climbing

Went out to Horseshoe today for some bouldering an it went pretty well. Here is the tick list.

Trees, Shrubs, and Vines V2: Flash
Wild Flowers V3: Flash
Udaho V3: Second Go
War Bonnet V4: 3 Goes today and some goes earlier in the fall. Hard for me.
Slopadon Milosevic V5: 3 Goes

Pretty psyched for the day and I came really close to a cool V7 called Miho. Wayne, Lindsay, and Brian Martin were all able to get sends and hopefully K-Mart and I will be right on their tails tomorrow! Pics will be up when they become available.

Back home...

Well, I'm sure as everyone knows, the weather in the South East has been nothing short of terrible the last few days. As a result Drew and I bailed out of the Hartlerode residence on Monday morning making an eventual 10 hour drive through heinous conditions to Nashville to meet up with K-Bo and chill in a civilized town. Yesterday, we went to ClimbNashville and managed to get in a few pitches and do a fair amount of bouldering. Pretty good stuff and something I definitely needed since we only got in around a 1 and 1/2 days of climbing in AR. Bummer. I'm back home now though, and will be counting down the days until my re-arrival to the NW Arkansas area for hopefully a more successful trip!

Day 2

Day two was spent at a local crag here around Conway, and was definitely a ton of fun. We got a bit of a relaxed start and eventually met up with two of Wayne's friends Gene a Chris, who are both really strong. The majority of the problems were down in this old creek bed that had through time eroded the sandstone down to expose these beautiful 15-30 ft vertical walls with amazing caves all over the place. Needless to say, the majority of things we worked on were cave problems today, which are not really my strength. However, things went a little better than expect. Here is a quick photo summary of the day:


This is the "Warm-up" problem that rings in at about V4:


Drew on one of the big throws. This wasn't too friendly for the shorter folk:


This problem had several cool lock-offs with crossovers:


After this we worked a V6 in the same cave but none of us could get a send together besides Wayne's friend Chris. So we moved on over to this real cool high ball face problem called, Off the Wagon On the Town, for a bit.


Here is Wayne working through the crux up top. He used a different sequence than most, by using a crimp out and left which to get to he had to get in this precarious position about 12 ft. off of the deck. Yikes. :


Drew with the high foot pulling around to the crux:


I ended up getting a send of this on my 3rd go, and it goes for around V3. After this we moved down a little further to an area called the Whiskey Cave where we worked a cool, dynamic, and slopey V4 problem, that no one really knew the name of.


Hitting the big huck:


Getting the high foot for a drop knee:


Wayne moving out to the dished sloper:


Wayne making the final moves to the end jug:

Here is a quick video of me sending the V4:





Everyone back at Wayne's apartment looking at you looking at us on the blog!


Today, it looks like we're going to head to Fontaine Red (yes, it makes fun of the ever famous Fontainbleau with its name) to give some classics a go before the rain, and meet up with Tim from the last summer. If the weather turns south, we're probably gonna head to Horseshoe and hit up some of the stuff underneath the numerous large roofs!

Day 1 in AR

Drew and I made it in today at around 2 and were able to go and get some climbing in at around 3. Definitely psyched. Went well too. Did a warm-up, and a cool arete. After that we went and did this full value, awesome, boulder problem called Huecos and Dynos, V4. Here are some pictures of everyone and some of the climbing!


Sweet camper:


The "Whatta-Burger" where we met up with Wayne:


The problem starts matched in the low hueco, goes out to the sloper and bumps to the next hueco:


From there you pull through and gain a new crimp. Bump the left and to a side-pullish thing then make the dyno to the top hold!


This is with the crimp gained and getting ready for the throw:


Wayne after snagging the dyno hold:


Drew on Huecos and Dynos:


Lindsey on H&D:


Tomorrow we're heading to another crag down the road to hit this new V5/6 Wayne just sent. Hopefully Drew and I can follow suit!

Welp...

Tomorrow is go day! I'll be leaving Murray with Drew in the morning to head out to Conway, AR. There we will meet up with Wayne and Lindsey, both of whom I worked with this past summer, for 7-8 days of non-stop climbing on the beautiful sandstone of NW Arkansas. I've purchased a large amount of batteries and cleared the memory card of my camera off, so you can expect to see some pictures of the amazing sending that will surely be going down! I'm psyched!