East Spur

My first day climbing in Hueco in four years was a blast. We milled around through the morning because Mike had a conference call, and he was to be our guide for the day. Hueco has some really stringent rules regarding entrance, and you've got to either take an orientation and stick to an area called "North Mountain", or hire a guide to show you the other areas, East Mountain, West Mountain, or East Spur. Mike is a commercial guide working for a licensed group, and he's nicely positioned to have nearly unfettered access to the boulders. The CO vagabonds aren't so lucky. Fortunately, Mike's our buddy so it wasn't like we were on some extortionist taxi ride in downtown Caracas.

Our half day coincided nicely with a need to wait out the morning's cold temps. It was freezing early today, and even if Mike's schedule would have been clear, there's no way we could have stuck with it in 35 degree air. At noon, we headed out towards the park and were greeted with sunshine and warming temperatures. The approach to East Spur is pretty quick, and we were on the boulders before anyone had too long to complain that their climbing trip wasn't filled with sufficient climbing.

We started out at The Gunks boulder, I assume named in homage to the great climbing area in upstate NY. This particular rock does sort of look like the climbing up near New Paltz. We warmed up on The Vulgarian, and quickly headed over to New Religion, a V7 I'd been on during my first trip to the area back in '06. I was with Nuno when I first saw this problem, but back then, I couldn't even do the first move. The good news is that I can now get off the ground, but unfortunately, I didn't finish it. Here are some photos of Kathy on and around New Religion.

While we were climbing on and around New Religion, we heard a whoop of joy from Mike. He'd sneaked away to get on his longstanding project, a v12 called Rumble in the Jungle. When I say longstanding, I mean it. Three years! He'd put in around 30 days trying this problem, and today, after working on it during the winter and dreaming about the moves in the summer, he sent. Way to go Mike!

After we slapped some hi-fives and generally basked in the warming rays of the sun and Mike's beaming excitement, we headed over to a climb called That High-Pro Glow. THPG is quite distinct from New Religion. Instead of pure power moves where you've got to link the large distance between descent holds, the type that typify No Religion, THPG relies on compression and squeezing around a blunt arete. After some really cool tension moves, you move up and out to a top out that's reasonably easy, but pretty damn high. As I was pulling up onto the top of the boulder after doing the problem, it was hard for my mind not to wander back to my slip from this summer. If you remember, I was bouldering at Rocky Mountain National Park when I slipped on a very easy move and came crashing down from about 12 feet onto a big rock. I had to put that disaster out of my mind and focus, and thankfully I was safely finish the problem. Here are some pics from the start.

After That High-Pro Glow, we made a quick run back towards The Gunks where Mike and Greg tried Alf in a Blender, a curious little beast that's low to the ground and largely bereft of any decent holds. Whatever the grade, it's likely too easy. This thing looked rough! I was able to scope Greg pulling onto the climb through a really cool little tunnel in the surrounding rocks.


And finally, we ended the day on a problem called Uncut Yogi. This was a fantastic way to end things on East Spur. Uncut Yogi relies on good feet and awful pinches as you move up and out of a hole and into the fading daylight of the setting sun. No one was able to finish it today, but I don't think anyone felt slighted. We were all looking forward to heading back to the House of Doom and cooking up some killer fajitas. I might bemoan the architectural disaster that is El Paso, but you'll never catch me complaining about the quality of their Mexican food. Fresh salsa, perfect avocados, spicy marinated chicken and warm tortillas are an excellent way to greet the night. Oh, and of course, a nice cold beer. We earned them today.

Speaking of House of Doom, I got Mike to tell me the story about how it got its name. I can't wait until I get the picture of the pentagram they had on the roof. Mike and his buddy Sam, not John as I'd originally reported, rented a house down here in El Paso four years ago with the purpose of hosting all of their climbing buddies on their road trips. It was a great excuse to get friends together, but quickly, things got out of hand. Mike would regularly wake up and walk into the living room only to find a strangers, and now and then one would be snorting crushed Ritalin off his coffee table. There were no numbers on the front of the house, but somehow, the local climbers kept coming to the house and making themselves right at home. I imagine the flaming, demonic pentagram on the roof helped draw them to the dwelling, and also lent the place its name. There's no sign of the devil on the place where we're staying now, and no strangers, either. I'm liking this mature version much more.

Tomorrow looks like a rest day, and then we're going to try to crush it on Sunday. I Hope I can post something tomorrow, and wish all my Voyeurs a great start to their respective weekends.