B² Productions | Climbing Blog

We awoke in the our vast room in the tower of the Luxor. It was Sunday morning, but the thick black out curtains killed any cut out any light attempting to enter the room. We got dressed and ventured downstairs. Getting to the casino floor was a stark reminder of where we were. We wandered across the gaming floor taking guesses at the whether the people engrossed in their games of Roulette, Black Jack or at the Slots had actually been to bed at all or whether they’d just been caught up in the weird, timeless vortex that is a Las Vegas casino. We wanted some breakfast so headed to the buffet at the end of the Casino floor. We were greeted by a long queue which did nothing for the my mood (I’m not the best company when I’m hungry). The queue was bad enough, but when we saw the extortionate price of the buffet it soured my mood even further. $18 for a Champagne brunch – The only option available on a Sunday. I don’t like Champagne, and neither does Benny especially. I certainly wasn’t willing to pay over the odds for a grossly over rated glass of fizzy white! Sadly, the other Casinos only offered a similar “choice” so we had to settle for Coffee and a muffin in Starbucks. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was cheap.

We’d been in Vegas for a few hours and it was already starting to grate. The novelty wore off during my first visit there, and the years absence hadn’t really added anything to it’s charm. It is a strangely fascinating place. For a while. The size, noise and extravagance of the strip is incredible, even by American standards. However, unless you’re a gambler, a big drinker or are really pretty well off (none of which apply to me) it does start to get to you pretty quickly. We’d been in some of the most naturally beautiful places in the world and now this horribly tacky sea of lights and excess seemed to undermine it all some how. It was ok though. We were here to pick up Snoo who was flying in to join us again, and I was excited enough by this to live with Vegas for a couple of days.

A shot of The Strip at night.

If you get off the strip, Vegas is actually quite nice. It’s amazing how driving just a couple of blocks can make you feel like you’re in a totally different place. This is what we did. We mooched around the shops, had some food and some drinks and generally tried to chill as much as possible in the sweltering Nevada heat. Some how, we made it through the day. Not only that, we had quite a laugh as well. We both felt so out of place and edgy that the best thing to do was make a joke of the whole situation. Pretty soon it was time to head out to the airport to pick up Snoo. We sadly parted ways with the beloved Focus and picked up a bigger ride for the next week or so. The car which would be known as ‘The Hearse’ due to it’s size and rather ugly shape. It was actually more comfortable than the Pathfinder we had at the start so that was something.

We arrived at the terminal and waited for Snoo, amusing ourselves with a right wing, religious pamphlet we found on one of the seats. Again, our slightly dark, sarcastic senses of humour were helping us make the best of things. As the plane arrived, we moved the gates and played on the slot machines which were liberally sprinkled around the place. I even managed to keep up my Vegas winning streak – over my time I’ve been there, I am in credit! Ha! Take that ‘The House’! Snoo soon arrived, we collected bags and headed out to the car to wrestle our way back through the Vegas traffic back to the hotel. We dropped Snoo’s stuff off and decided to head out and get some food (off strip naturally). It was decided that we’d head to a Pizza Hut we’d been to before. We thought it would be an easy and relaxing experience. We should have known that such a thing in Vegas does not exist. We made slow progress down the strip (Ok, now seems like a good time to set the record straight with a confession. The reason we made slow progress was totally my fault. It was our last night here, and I really wanted to get some footage driving down the strip – I had know idea how long it would take and thus how tight we’d end up cutting things at this point. To Benny and especially Snoo: I am truly sorry!) We finally got away from the bright lights on tailbacks and arrived at our destination. Only to find it closed. In our haze of Vegas rage this did not go down well. Our bad vibes and aborted plans were starting to take their toll on poor, jetlagged Snoo. We decided it was time to admit defeat and head back to the hotel. We grabbed what little food we could find on the casino floor of the Luxor before hitting the sack. We had planned in another day in Vegas as we thought she’d be too tired to want to drive anywhere. I think the thought of having to spend another day with these two miserable bastards was a more tiring thought than a few hours on the road. She had the casting vote and pleased the whole group by deciding to push on early for Joshua Tree.

After a good nights sleep (for all it’s wrongs, Vegas do know how to do comfort) we hit the road, foregoing breakfast in favour of grabbing something en route. As we made our way along the I-15 it felt like a weight was being lifted from our shouders, and our moods lifted with it. We were back on track!

The next day we were straight online in search of info about the gate! After a few minutes Benny produced the goods! There was some info about the gate, but more importantly that it was only there to stop car access to the car park and the pump. It seems that the pump had been the victim of some vandalism, so the gate had been put in place as a deterrent. Crucially though, the rocks were still accessible to climbers – you just had to leave your car at the gate and hike in. Sweet! Excited by the prospect of seeing New Joe’s, we headed downstairs to get fuelled up. Unfortunately, we were greeted by the most meagre selection of breakfast thus far on the trip. Granted we were a bit late, but even so – it didn’t look like you’d have had a massive selection of stuff had you been the first in line. We settled for a quick cup of tea each (which was one welcome addition after endless coffee – we are English after all), got checked out and headed down to Walmart to get some supplies for breakfast, and the rest of the day. Food, water and a box of the most hideous sweets (the multi coloured atrocities called ‘Dots’) known to man in hand, it was back out to the valley with us!

Benny on 'Warm Me Up Scotty' (V1)

The sun was out with a vengeance. As we arrived back at the gate we were greeted by a cloudless blue sky, and crisp temperatures (helped by the high altitude) – basically perfect climbing temps. We loaded ourselves up and headed off up the track towards the now defunct car park. The high altitude may have been helping the temps, but it certainly wasn’t doing much for our lungs. I’m ashamed to admit it, but we did have to stop half way along and catch our breath! The walk in wasn’t actually as far as we’d thought and soon we were stood below the Ben Moon test piece ‘Black Lung’ (V13). Before any one gets too excited, we had no intention of trying that – but like any famous problem it’s impressive to stand and look at and get a sense of just how hard it actually is. We’d chosen Area 51 as it had a good mix of problems. We decided to start at the bottom and work up. There was one boulder just next to Black Lung which had four problems on, which helpfully went from V1 – V4. Perfect. First up was ‘Warm Me Up Scotty (V1), which started under a small roof on good holds. There was a couple of moves back to the lip before pulling over on to a fairly high, but easy slab. A great little warm up. The V2 was called ‘Getting Warmer Traverse’ and started from the same sit start as ‘Warm Me Up Scotty’, but instead of going straight back to the lip, you went left along the lip of the roof to the left hand side arete and then up. There were a few tricky moves as you went across the lip (especially for the taller gentleman), but again the slab over the top had plenty of good holds. One thing we did notice at New Joe’s was that the friction was incredible! Even on this fairly warm sunny day our feet were just sticking to anything. It took a little while to get our heads into it, but once we realised we could happily use the tiniest little smears we really started to get into it. The rock at New Joe’s also reminded me a lot of Fontainebleau – with the welcome addition of a lot more crimpy holds. I really liked it here! After a couple of attempts each, we both sent ‘Getting Warmer Traverse’ and moved onto the last problem on the face – A nice V3 arete problem called ‘Get Shorty’. It followed a similar pattern to the V1 (a couple of moves to a lip and a mantle up onto a slab). According to the guide book it’s “Easier if you have a beard” – which was lucky for the pair of us. Benny managed to flash the problem, but I struggled with the high tension sit start, which involved cramming yourself into a rather awkward space on bad feet. It was a cool problem though, and I did manage it after about three or four attempts. We were both enjoying working our way up through the grades, so we decided to have a look at he V4 around the back of where we’d just been. ‘Sun In My Eye’ is a short (basically one move) intense, and very fun problem. From a sit start you pull up on a good rail, place one foot in a really bad foot hold and make a long throw to a good pocket just over the lip. From there it’s a relatively simple top out. It sounds easy enough, but it took both Benny and me a good while to get into the right body position to to actually get and leverage to get up to the lip. It was fun though, and we both settled in to work the problem for a while. While we were on the problem, for the first time in the two days we’d bee at Joe’s we actually had some company! Another couple of climbers came hiking up the path looking for Area 51. They turned out to be called John and Lucy, and they originally hailed from New York. John was on a mammoth road trip from the East Coast heading west – a trip which made ours look quite timid in comparison. Lucy had recently moved to Salt Lake City for uni, and John had stopped by to see her as part of the trip. We chatted for a while, and then they headed round the back of the boulder to start on the same problems we had. Benny and I continued to work ‘SIME’ and although I came close a couple of times, I still couldn’t quite make the move. After a while, John came back round to see what we were up to. It was becoming increasingly apparent that he was a pretty handy climber – A theory that was shortly proven when, after asking if he could jump on, systematically flashed the problem with ease. He used some really effective beta, where by he had his legs spread really far apart and basically straddled the rock. His left foot was in the bad foot hold, and his right foot was flagged right out. This seemed to give him just enough spring to get up to the lip. It seemed like a plan, and once he was done, I got back on and gave it a go. My first attempt with the new beta was very close – I had my fingers in the hold but couldn’t quite hold it. I sat on the pad and psyched myself up. The second time I latched the pocket with ease! I managed to hold the swing, but then messed up my foot work for the top out and was forced to bail out! The third time was the charm though – I stuck the hold again and topped out with ease, up over the lip and into the sunshine! The day was going well. Benny wasn’t far behind, and he managed to nail the problem to after a few more attempts! This working-up-through-the-grades technique seemed to be paying off, so we decided to try and find  V5 to work on and hopefully continue our successful streak. Benny had a quick look through the guide book and found an interesting looking V4/V5 called ‘Self Service’. It was a different boulder, and a bit of a hike through the under growth. We bis our goodbyes to John and Lucy and headed through the trees to the new boulder.

Benny on 'Sun In My Eye' (V4)

The guide book was a little unclear as to how ‘Self Service’ actually worked. It was pretty short again, and with good holds. However, the ambiguous description of the problem left it a little up in the air as to whether the good side pulls out to the left of the problem were actually in. There was a V2 which ran up that part of the face, and we just assumed that they were part of that. So, we set to work trying to figure it out. From what we could see, you started on a good jug, and utilising a pretty intense drop knee move, you got established on a bad undercling (or in my case a really, wide, and actually quite painful pinch which was pretty much at the extent of my grip). You matched your left hand onto a bad sloper just next to the underclingy-pinch-type-thing, bumped you right foot up and made a crazy throw over to a good (if you came at it from the right way) crimpy rail. Unfortunately, we were coming at it from the wrong way and the decent part of the rail was just out of reach. We both managed to link up to this point (with a fair amount of work), and we were pretty convinced it was the way to go. We did spend a bit of time weighing up the possibility  that the decent side pulls were part of the problem, but we came to conclusion that using them would have made the problem easier than V5. In hindsight, we probably should have put our theory to the test, but instead we we just carried on working our way (which ironically felt harder than V5). Unfortunately, we didn’t really get any further than this point, despite many huge throws, loud screams and heavy deck outs on to the pad.

Ben on 'Self Service' (V4/5)

We carried on working the moves until both fatigue and time got the better of us. It was getting to around 4pm by this point and we were booked into a hotel at the stop over place of Cedar City en route to Las Vegas, which we quite fancied getting to before it was dark. We conceded defeat, packed up the gear and hiked back out to the car. Benny was determined to try and put the mystery of the side up holds to bed though, and vowed to do some research when we next had an internet connection.

As we got back to the car, and started packing up the gear, a truck pulled up alongside us by the metal gate and a rather stern looking man jumped out. We started looking sheepish like school boys who have been caught doing something wrong, and they know it. We muttered a timid hello to the guy, and in an instant the gruff exterior melted away to one of the biggest, most welcoming smiles I’ve ever encountered. The smile was accompanied by one of the thickest Arkanas accents I’ve ever encounted – It was amazing. He said hello back and asked us how our day’s climbing had gone (he worked for the company that maintains the pumps up in the car park and obviously regularly came across climbers in this spot). We asked about the gate an whether it was a new addition. It turns out that it had been put there in the last few years as there had been a lot of vandalism to the pump, so the gate had been put in as a deterrent. That was one mystery solved at least, and to anyone in the same situation we had been a few days before and have been frantically searching Google for an answer, I hope this post has helped. You can thank me later. We thanked the guy for clearing things up for us and he headed up the track to the car park . We finished packing up the car and hit the road, aiming for Cedar City 150 miles or so south.

It was still a beautiful evening as we drove down through the valley and back onto the interstate. The beautiful sunshine was a bit misleading however. As we stopped at a Gas Station about 50 miles in, we got out of the car only to be greeted by gale force, freezing cold winds! Neither of us had sweatshirts on, and a we stood shivering as we filled up on fuel and made a vain attempt to get some of the filthy and miscellaneous dead insects off the windscreen. We still had a fair way to go, and we were both feeling a little tired from the days climb. It was time to bring out the big guns – The Arizona Raspberry Ice Tea! All fuelled up, we swapped drivers so I was behind the wheel and pushed on. I cracked the can on as we left and it wasn’t long before the caffeine was causing through my veins and I was getting my second wind. It wasn’t long before Cedar City was in range. I was feeling pretty much fully energised now, and neither really wanted to stop so we made the executive decision to push straight on to Vegas. I still don’t quite know how I managed it, but I ended up driving the full 200+ miles from the Gas station down through Utah, clipping the corner of Arizona and into Nevada. We were treated to a very spectacular sunset across the plains as we head across the desert – this for me was probably one of the best and most exciting drives of the trip. This is what I’d hoped for before we left and it was just as good as I imagined it. Before long, we pulled over the brow of the hill and the we were greeted by the hugest sprawl of lights I’ve ever seen emerging from the darkness. It had been a long drive, and we were happy to have arrived in Vegas finally and get checked into our room. That probably was the only time we were happy in Vegas. At least until we left…

The next morning was cloudy and muggy as we loaded our stuff into the car. It was time to bid farewell to Moab, and continue our journey through Utah. Destination: Joe’s Valley – Or more accurately, Price, UT. The drive was pretty short – A mere 150 or so miles. Childs play after the mammoth distances we had been covering, and it was set to take no more than a few hours. As we left Moab, back out along the Hwy 191 past Arches National Park, the grey clouds loomed over head and the heavens began to open. The drive was fairly unremarkable. It’s hard to top the magnitude and beauty of the Canyonlands – It felt like Utah had stopped trying. As we got closer to Price, we were starting to feel a little apprehensive. We’d hardly passed anywhere particularly big, or built up, and in fact what we had passed looked horribly recession ridden and depressed. The rain didn’t help. We pushed on, and soon the TomTom was informing us that “We’d reached our destination”. Really? Blimey. I’m glad we’re only here one night! Price was the biggest town we’d seen since Moab, possibly bigger than Moab, but it was nowhere near as vibrant or happy to see us. It looked and felt Price had fallen on hard times. We arrived at the Super 8 where we’d staying. They must have been doing alright for themselves as they were treating the place to a new coat of Tarmac on the car park. It was certainly doing better than the boarded up shell of what was once a Texaco opposite. We were forced to park over the road and wander across to check in. The hotel felt as ghostly as town, but the Indian family that ran the place were friendly enough, and we were fitted out with a very nice room for a very reasonable price.

We were hoping to get out and climb that afternoon, but we weren’t sure if that was going to happen. The rain was off and on, but we figured that with a forty minute drive to get to the crag, we might be able to shake it off. First, we needed food. It was time to see what Price had to offer. We stopped by the local Walmart (everywhere has a Walmart!) to pick up water and supplies for climbing, and then went looking for lunch. We found our way to the main strip. In it’s hey-day I would have thought that Price would have looked really nice. The main drag was fairly short by American standards, but there was a real feel of faded 1950’s glamour within the art deco style signs above the shops and cinema. I kind of felt sorry for the place. We found a Subway, and went in to grab some food. Benny and I chatted in the queue, and obviously aroused some attention. Tourism isn’t big in Price, especially compared to some of the places we’d been. People in San Francisco or Boulder, for example, are fairly nonplussed by our English accents, and it wouldn’t be uncommon to hear other people sporting them. But here, in deepest, darkest Utah, two guys from London are a bit of a novelty. And the girl on the till, Ingrid, brought this to our attention. “Hey, where are you guys from?”. An easy one. “Oh, we’re from Uk. London, to be precise”. “What the hell are you doing in Price?!” The tone and delivery of the question made it feel like there should have been an angle poise lamp in my face. I was a little taken a-back. She wasn’t rude, so was genuinely curious and bemused in equal measure. “Erm, we’re climbers. He here to climb out in Joe’s Valley”. “Oh, right”. The answer seemed to suffice. We chatted with Ingrid a bit longer as she informed us of how she “wants to go to London and come back with an accent”. She didn’t seem to accept that she already HAD an accent, which I considered to be far more interesting than my watered down, south east mish-mash.

We sat and ate our food and watched the rain bucket down outside. We exchanged sad, hard-done-by looks as the thunder and lighting rumbled and crackled over head. We finally came to the conclusion that Price had nothing really to offer us, so we might as well risk the forty minute drive out to the rocks. We waited for a break in the rain, and made a break for it ourselves. The clouds looked ominous for most of the way, but as got closer to Orangeville, we were starting to see patches of blue sky over head. We were feeling more reassured for this, and pressed on. As we entered Orangeville, we stopped off to gas and supplies before making the final push down the country roads to the valley. All was going well until we ran into something we didn’t expect to see, and certainly something we’d never see anywhere else on the trip. Sheep. Lots and lots of Sheep. In the road. It was like a scene from rural Yorkshire, only the sheep seemed to be being herded by a Cowboy. Or should that be ‘Sheepboy’? We crept through the seemingly endless flock, popped out the other side and finished the trek down to the river.

It was quiet down here. Well, there was the constant cascade of the river twenty feet or so below, but other than that there was nothing. Just total silence. It was nice. We gathered up our stuff and scrambled down the track in search of some warm up problems. There were a few on a boulder right next to the river. The boulder was, in fact, so next to the river that we couldn’t do some of the problems as our pad would float off down stream. Benny had his eye on one such problem. The Angler. A mega slopey, diagonal rail which runs from just over head height to the top of the boulder. Id’d have thought it would have been scary at the best of times, but with nothing but slippery rocks and two feet of water below you at the crux, it looked even worse! Certainly not for me. Benny was torn, but finally decided it was for the best to give it a miss. We pressed on, further down the river to another boulder which was more what we needed. Standing at around 15 feet or so, the boulder we found had a good number of relatively easy warm up problems on. We worked our way through a handful of V1′, 2’s and 3’s. Up the highest point of the boulder, there were a line of big, juggy yet sloping pockets and holes which made for some good fun highballs! I really needed to work on some highball stuff, especially as if I ever wanted to return to the buttermilks, it was something I was going to have to nail. We managed them quite easily, and it felt nice to be so stable while being so high off the deck. The rock at Joe’s was excellent as well, and felt very reminiscent of Fontainebleau and the Southern Sandstone of our local crags of Bowles and Harrisons. The cool air temperature from being down by the river meant that the friction was superb as well – We were really enjoying it here!

After the warm up, and feeling in good spirits, we decided to make our way back to the road, and see what the other side of the hill had to offer. When we got out, we could see a really large looking, imposing roof jutting up quite close to the road. It was covered in chalk so we decided that that was as good a place as any to start. We got to the roof and had a look around. We consulted the book and saw there was a V4 called Techno Beat on one side of the boulder. We were going to try that, but some how we got distracted. Up the middle of the roof was a perfect little seam, which started on nice, big holds at the bottom and slowly petered through small, slopey crimps to a awkward slopey rail out to the right. This little beauty turned out to be called Big Joe (V7). It was a tall order, but we were inspired. Benny especially. It certainly suited him more than me but we both got stuck in. Benny soon made quick progress up the seam and hit the the first crux move. There was a long, deadpoint move to perfect little three finger slot. Benny came really close a few times on this move, being able to get better established on the bad footholds than I could. Also, his incredible finger strength meant he could hang onto the bad, shallow, sloping crimp which you had to take your weight on while making the big move.A few attempts later and he’d linked up the middle section and began working on the end. Which is also devilishly hard! Typically.

Benny on Big Joe (V7)

I had tired myself out working the lower section and my inability to make any progress was starting to frustrate me. I decided to have a bit of a venture further up the hill to see what else the Big Joe section of the valley had to offer. I followed the map in the guide book and found a few nice looking things, but nothing massively inspiring (especially at this time of the day), and nothing that I could really be bothered to drag all the gear up to. I came back down and reported my findings (or lack there of) to Benny who I’d left working Big Joe. His enthusiasm to do the problem was still sky high, but I think by this point his fingers weren’t quite as psyched. He a few more good burns but then we both came to the conclusion that it was time to call it a day for now. We were keen to do some more gentle stuff to warm down though, so we decided to head a little way up the road, back on the way towards Orangeville, to a spot called New Joe’s.

Ben G. on Big Joe (V7)

There was a map in the guide book to the New Joe’s boulders. More specifically, we wanted to hit the area called Area 51. There was a nice mix of problems which sounded fun. We crammed all the gear back into the Focus, and headed back up the main road, swinging a left where instructed and we slowly crawled up the side road towards a large mine at the end. The map indicated that there should be a small track off to the right which led up to a car park with a solar powered pump in. The first exit which could feasible be the track had a metal gate across. Not a good sign. We pulled in and I jumped out and had a look. Sure enough, it was padlocked. There were no signs or anything, with the exception of a quickly scrawled note by some climbers to some other climbers indicating that they had already gone home – some two weeks earlier. Hmmm. At least that was a sign that we were roughly in the right place. Maybe it was further up. We got back in the car and carried on our crawl up the deserted road. We saw one other possible turn off, but there was no way you could have gotten a car down there! We were now only a few yards from the mine where the road became a dead end. Weird. The only land mark the map could give us was a distance from the turn off from the main road: 3.25 mile. We decided to try one more time, we raced back down to the main road, Benny pulled off a spectacular U-turn, flipped the trip on the speedo and we made our back up towards the mine. We approached the metal gate as the trip meter hit 3.25 miles confirming our suspicions. We scoured the book for any info about it, but there was no mention of it anywhere. The sun was starting to dip down behind the hills now, and we didn’t fancy hiking all the way up to the car park. We decided to head back into Price, have a look online to see if we could find any information about this elusive gate and hit New Joe’s the next day.

The drive back was a lot more pleasant than the drive out. The rain had passed and it had turned into quite a nice evening. We were both starving now, so we headed straight into the centre of Price in search of food. We hadn’t actually considered this up until now, and judging by the state of Price during the day, we weren’t holding our breath for a huge amount of night life. Luckily, Pizza Hut was our salvation. We got in and pretty much had the place to ourselves (with the exception of the debris left from one of the most powerful and destructive forces known to man: a childrens party). Overall, the first day in Joe’s Valley was a success and we were both excited to get back out climbing again the next day!

The sun was creeping in round the side of the blinds as we woke up on our third day in Moab. The more we were settling into life on the road, and life in the US time zones, the later we were starting to wake up too! We finally managed to get ourselves sorted and out of the hotel around 10:30 though. Our plan for the (late) morning was to head to Arches National Park. We loaded up on intensely sugary breakfasty type things from the gas station a couple of doors down, and made the short trip out of town to the park. We wound our way up the steep road that leads up to the start of the amazing, epic landscapes and rock forms. I had visited Arches the previous year, and it is certainly one of the most striking National Parks I’d been to. Although not as lush, green or classically “beautiful” as Yosemite, for example, the sheer vastness, scale and impossibility of some of the arches and rock forms there make for a very different and unusual form of beauty. For a climbing obsessive it’s a paradise as well.

A panorama from Arches National Park (taking in The Three Gossips and Sheep Rock)

As we drove between spots and shot photos, I would find myself staring up at Balanced Rock and imagine myself trying to get round the underside and to the top of this huge, precariously balanced boulder. We drove near enough the length of the main round which runs length ways up the middle of the 76,359 Acres of the park, stopping intermittently to look and various vistas. Towards the end of the road, we stopped at Devil’s Garden Trailhead and got out for a walk. We strolled through the parking lot and spotted all the different license plates from around the country. There were people here from New York, Michigan and even as far afield as Vancouver! Such is the pull of this incredible beauty spot, tagged onto the edge of a little town in the middle of the Utah desert. The path lead us away from the car park, and then split off in a variety of different directions. We took the trail off to our right and went and looked at Tunnel Arch, which was more of a giant hole than an Arch. We then doubled back on ourselves and headed towards the end of the trail, and to Pine Tree Arch. Although tucked away at the end of the trail, Pine Tree Arch offered a really nice, beautifully framed view of the park to the North. By now, the clouds were starting to appear again, and was turning the weather quite humid and uncomfortable. We decided to call it a day for Arches, and we made the slow drive back through the park and back into Moab.

Our destination was a pretty easy choice: McStiff’s it was for lunch and another three hours worth of pool practice! It was nice having the loft at McStiffs to ourselves. We more or less had the whole place to ourselves. We strung out our lunch and games of pool, and generally felt incredibly chilled. I felt grateful to be on the trip, and felt the most relaxed I had for a long while. At around about 3:30, we decided it was time to get motivated, and get back out to the rocks. We swung into the hotel on the way back to Big Bend, gathered up our stuff and hit the Hwy 128 out of town. Big Bend was deserted when we arrived. It was a lot cooler in the valley, and we still had a good five hours of daylight left. We headed to the Black Box Boulder again, and began a short warm up. After the successes for the previous night, we decided to try out some other new problems. We wandered down towards the road, and sussed out a few simple problems on the Flat Top boulder. Flat Top is around ten or twelve feet high with a great long face of tiny pockets and crimps. We tried a couple of problems: The Pregnancy Arete and Leftover Lover.

Benny on the Flat Top Boulder

Continuing our extended warm up, we got a few tricky problems on the Hueco Boulder. As the name suggests, the boulder maninly consists of a row of long Huecos, under a large, slabby face. Benny was keen to try Ranger Bob (V1), which, from a standing start began with a mantel up onto a large ledge, before following a thin crack up the slab. Benny managed the mantel easily, but struggled with the slab. He was having a hard time getting his feet established on the awkwardly angled edges, while still maintaining a decent grip on the crack. Also, the large shelf which he mantled on t begin with went from being a big help to a massive psychological hinderance! It was pretty off putting to commit to the sketchy moves on the highball slab with the knowledge that you’d have a nasty fall onto the ledge! He decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, and after watching Benny on the problem for a good five minutes trying to figure out the sequence, I decided the same. We decided instead to have a stab at Upwardly Mobile (V0) just next door. It started with a sit start on good huecos, before making a massive, off balance move (for me at least) to a side pull. With a lot of heaving and liberal use of the arete, I managed to get up right, and then it was a case of keeping my head in the game long enough to get up the easy but high slab. Benny managed the problem with relative ease as well, albeit with a different sequence at the bottom.

After the warm up, we were feeling good. And, although we’d been enjoying the new problems, the pull of Circus Tricks, which was still close by was too strong. We had to give another try – it was our last night after all. I wasn’t especially confident that I’d get any further along, but I had to give it a while none the less. We chucked the matts down underneath and started working the top section again. At least it was easy to work the crux from the ground. I managed the first couple of moves to get established again on the, by now, all too familiar, bad undercling side pull. I tried more elaborate foot sequences, trying to established as high as possible, before my my fingers finally gave out and I’d drop off. Benny was managing to stick the undercling move now as well. He had to cut loose, but summoning up a phenomenal amount of body tension, he managed to keep himself on! He was now facing the same problem as me, in that he had to work out where to put his feet. We took a break, and spent some time brushing and examining nearly invisible edges in search of something. Benny pointed out an edge for my right foot, slightly higher and longer than what I had been previously using. I’d previously dismissed it as being too small and in the wrong place, but Benny insisted that that was the foothold that he’d seen another guy use to stick the move to the top. I decided to take his work for it, and gave it a try. And you know what, he was right! I jacked my foot up to the hold, and by turning it sideways it sat quite nicely in place. I only had a second or two to make the move, but with my legs now more bent up, I found I could spring off it toward the lip. On the first couple of tries I came incredibly close, getting my fingers well over the lip, but just not being able to hold it! After a couple more attempts I nailed it! I hung there, wondering how to solve the next little problem – The awkward, mantelly top out. I got into this position a couple of times, and just couldn’t bring myself to throw my leg up and over to top out! I felt a lot more confident and excited about it now though, but unfortunately very tired at the same time. I just wished we had another evening to try it. Gah! We had to pack up and leave the next morning. It looked like Circus Tricks would have to wait until another time. I have no idea when though…

Benny on Circus Tricks

We decided to end on a high, so we packed up and headed back into town for dinner. Moab had been great again, and I hope to get back there one day. But now, it was off to somewhere new for both of us! The next day we were heading off across Utah to Joe’s Valley! And we had no idea what to expect…

Sorry, that interruption perhaps wasn’t as brief as I’d intended. So erm, anyway, where was I?…

I slept surprisingly well in the Hostel. However, we were both very keen to get checked out and checked into somewhere a bit better equipped. We were also beginning to take on the appearance of the road weary travellers, and it was time to smarten up. We decided to forego the shower (which did look like the sort of utility which seemed to do the opposite of what it was designed for – in this case, making you dirtier than when you went in). We checked out and headed down Moab’s main drag to get breakfast at the frightfully continental sounding Pancake Haus. Das ist gut. After getting all carbed up, we checked into the Super 8 at the opposite end of the strip, dropped off our stuff and immediately headed back out to get smartened up. We found a tiny little barbers shop just off one of the side roads, and while Norm worked his hair based magic, the three of us put the world to rights. Norm told us all about the state of Utah (read into that what you will) and we thanked our lucky stars that in this hugely religious, largely republican state we were currently nestled in a little corner of left wing happiness. After our shearing (which is what it had become after a good six weeks or so) we went back to the hotel to get showered and from there, feeling human once again, we ventured out into the midday heat. We trawled the various bike and climbing stores looking for trainers and things before retiring to our local for more games of pool and lunch. We must have been in McStiffs for a good few hours waiting for the clouds to disappear and the humidity to subside enough for us to head back to Big Bend.

Benny breaking off one of our many games of Pool at McStiffs...

As late afternoon rolled around, we made our way out towards Big Bend, stopping by the hotel on the way to grab our stuff. It was turning into a beautiful evening. Where as in the midday sun, the exposed Big Bend area would have been a little sun trap, with the run starting to dip behind the mountains the conditions were perfect. Once again, when we arrived the place was deserted (with the exception of some campers over the road). We dropped our stuff down in front of the Black Box Boulder and began warming up on some of the crimpy little problems on the BBB. All was going well until I started to feel a pain in my finger. It felt like it was bruised at the base where it meets the palm of the hand. Nothing terrible, enough to make crimping down on tiny holds uncomfortable. It slowly dawned on me. This had happened before. I’d strained the tendon. It’s a pesky little affliction which is still plaguing even as I write this, months later. D’oh. I rested for a while, while Benny worked some ridiculously crimpy, barely there problem called BBB-5. I did have a cursor attempt on it, but sore fingers aside, I couldn’t even get off the ground on it anyway. The starting holds were the tiniest of sloping crimps, and for me they were situated a little over waist height. Although there were good starting footholds, I couldn’t take any weight on my hands, and therefore couldn’t get balanced which resulted in me stumbling backwards every time. I decided it was a lost cause for me and sat back with the camera and watch Benny work his magic. Being shorter than me, he could drop down onto the starting hand holds more, get established and then move off them. From there things got bigger (both the holds and the moves between them), but Benny soon worked the whole thing out and was at the top in no time. He was happy he’d sent the problem – I was equally happy too. Whilst he’d been trying the impossible start, I’d gotten perhaps one of my favourite shots of the trip. Happy days…

Benny on the Black Box Boulder. One of my favourite shots from the trip.

Now the pain my finger had subsided, I was keen to get climbing again. I’d been flicking through the guidebook, and I’d noticed that there was a V3 variation to the traverse problem Benny had done the night before. The variation was only one move different (possibly even less than that) – instead of sticking religiously to the break running just below the top of the boulder, there was a large sloper on the lower lip which was in the V3 version, but not the V4. This made such a massive difference to me. I could now hold on long enough on the sloper to move my feet and left hand around, and to get established for the next crux moves. Feeling very psyched by my new discovery, I laid the matts down and went for a full attempt. It took me a couple of goes to get the footwork right, but once that sequences was sorted out, I sailed through the moves and topped out with ease! Hurrah! It was starting to feel like the previous nights demons had been laid to rest. It was exciting!

After the initial victory on the Trail Traverse, I was up for finding something else on the same boulder to attack! Another problem topped out in the same place as Trail Traverse which I liked the look of. It was a nice, short V2 called Middle Man. The crux came down to essentially one long between two massive holds – perfect for me! The guidebook’s definition of the problem was intriguingly cryptic about the problem too. The book hinted at there being a crafty, techniquey way around it. After a little discussion we pretty much had it sussed. The move was too big, with too scrunchy a start to dyno for the ledge, but, the foot and hand holds there were good enough to drop in a serious drop knee move to pull up to the lip with relative ease – Especially for a freak like ape boy like me. On the first attempt, I had my balance all wrong and just missed the lip. Second time though, I stuck it

with ease! Then it was just a case of a simple, smeary top out and it was all over! An awesome problem! However, where Benny had the advantage on the tiny, crimpy problem on the Black Box Boulder I had the advantage here. He still got agonisingly close to it though With a while longer working it, I reckon the problem would have gone…

Feeling sufficiently warmed up, we decided to attack Circus Tricks again. Unfortunately, it hadn’t gotten any easier over night as I’d hoped. The fgoot holds were still small, and we were still struggling. Benny was still trying to suss the move to the bad undercling, and although getting closer all the time, still not managing to stick it. He was landing the hold a lot more solidly now though which was encouraging, and actually getting to the stage where he could move his feet around. I still couldn’t find a decent enough placement to make the big last move to the lip. We worked the problem unsuccessfully for a few hours before deciding to call it a night. We went back into town and found a nice little Pizza place, we ate our fill and sunk a few beers before retiring for the now seemingly luxurious Super 8 for the night…

First off, apologies for the delay in the next few posts. We’re trying to catch up with the backlog, but it’s proving tricky. We’re used to using the driving days to catch up, but sadly, being back home we no longer have any. Our story will be finished though, I promise you this!

In the mean time, here’s a little treat for you. To prove that we haven’t just been sitting around, B² Productions have put together a new, short film from Hueco Tanks in Texas. It’s a selection of some of our favourite problems there. Don’t expect to see any big numbers go down, but hopefully you’ll still enjoy watching the problems we tried. You may enjoy the big send at the end though! We’d love to here any feedback you might have! Enjoy!

It was still raining the next morning. The clouds totally obscured the tops of the mountains. We were glad to be on our way again. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Boulder, but the near constant rain when you want to climb is pretty draining. I was excited for Moab though. The weather forecasts indicated a better outlook for our arrival. We packed up the car in the stare road rain, and headed off on the next leg of our journey. A new state beckoned (our sixth of the trip). We got out of the city quickly, and before long were heading up the winding roads towards the Rockies. I’d done this drive before, the previous year with Snoo. It is pretty stunning. The thick could cover took the edge off a little, but the higher we got, the clearer the views became. Before long, we popped out of the Eisenhower tunnel and started our descent down towards the state line. We crossed into Utah and the landscape totally changed! The lush, snow covered rockies were now far behind us, and stretched out in front was miles of desert. You could be forgiven for thinking that Utah is fairly unimpressive as far as scenery goes (and to begin with, it does have the same dull, southern New Mexico styling) but luckily, we had an ace up our sleeve. Pretty soon after crossing the border, we swung off the I-70 and, ignoring the protests from Tom-Tom joined Highway 128. We briefly pulled over to mount the video camera out of the sun roof in preparation for what was to come. The 128 winds its way slowly down towards Moab. It’s by no means the fastest road, but it definitely is the most scenic. Before long, we were down in the heart of the valley. Massive, red walls and pillars of desert sandstone soared up either side of us, getting more impressive with every bend in the road. I’d been down this way before, but it was all new to Benny. I remembered how I felt when we first drove down this way, and he seemed to be experiencing the same now. It still blew me away however. Like Yosemite, photos and video really don’t seem to do these vast landscapes the justice that actually being there does. We stopped a couple of times to take photos, and we pointed out various landmarks to each other. The silence and sense of space is incredible. I really like this area of America, and the 128 is exactly the sort of classic road trip road you want to be heading down.

The Beast on Highway 128 (Check out the sweet additions!)

We rolled into Moab and headed down the main strip towards our hostel. We’d been recommended this place by Aaron in Boulder, so we thought we’d give it a try. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting, but it turned out I was expected a bit more than I got. To be fair to the place, it was fine, but it was most definitely a hostel, which comes as a bit of a shock after having been in hotels. What it lacked in quality, it made up for in value – it was dirt cheap! We decided to go with it, and crammed the stuff we needed into the room, stuck the AC on, and decided to make the most of the evening by heading straight out bouldering. The engine of the focus was still warm as we fired it back up and hit the road again. Moab, like many towns in the western United States, basically consists of one long strip of a high street, with a grid of residential streets crossing the main street. It’s a really cool, town and it has a real outdoors-y, bohemian feel to it. One thing that sets Moab apart from a lot of places is the lack of chain outlets. Sure, there are some (McDonalds, Burger Kings, Best Westerns etc) but largely the place seems very independently owned and operated. I think this has something to do with why I feel so welcome and at home there. It’s a little island of chill in a very stiff, starch, up tight state.

The view from Big Bend (Click for a larger version)

We made our way out of town and back down the 128 the way we had come, for about 7 miles. Big Bend is a great little spot. Sat right on the edge of the 128, in the heart of the valley with the river running close by. By the time we arrived the sun was just starting its descent into night time, and the temps were dropping to bareable climbing levels. It felt good to be back there. I had lots of nice memories flooding back of the previous year when Snoo and I had ventured down to see what was there. With no crash pad and no guide book, we just messed around on things that looked do-able. This time we were armed. We had pads and guidebooks, and we were fitter and stronger than the previous year. We began the session warming up with a few V0’s and V1’s on the Black Box Boulder. There’s some really cool problems on there, with all kinds of variations on the perfect, crimps and sidepulls. It felt nice to be moving across the rock with the sun on your back. Unfortunately, getting straight onto fairly heavy duty crimps without warming up is not the wisest of ideas. The middle finger of my left hand started the all to familiar bruised sensation of a strained tendon! Not the start I had hoped for. I tried to warm my fingers up the best I could, while Benny went and sussed out a cool V4 traverse called Trail Traverse on the Trail boulder. Starting from a sit start on good crimps, you make your way right, along a series of ok pockets with very little for your feet. Benny was making pretty short work of the middle section with some deft heel hooks and crafty foot work, while I found the whole thing a lot more difficult. My balance and positioning on the holds was all out of whack, and I soon found myself getting irritated and frustrated with myself. This is never a good situation for me to get myself in, so I decided to step back from it and just spot Benny while he gunned for the ascent. I didn’t take long. After working out an impressive looking, near horizontal reach through move, and some more impeccable footwork, he had linked up the trick moves on the pockets on the rail into the ending. A couple more attempts and he had the entire thing done! Excellent effort – he would do well on the desert sandstone.

Benny on Trail Traverse (V4)

We were both starting to feel pretty tired by this point after the long drive, but not too tired to check out the massive Chaos boulder which sits smack in the middle of the Big Bend area. We were drawn like moths to a flame towards a great looking line on the corner which a guy and his girlfriend were trying. The line turned out to be called ‘Circus Tricks’ (V4). The guidebook informed us that this problem had been “sandbagged” (graded lower than it’s difficulty suggests). Despite the fact we were tried, it certainly felt very tough for a V4! From the sit down start, you have to make a heel hook up next to your hands, before pulling up hard to the next couple of holds on the arete. As the muscles in my legs started it seize up, it was becoming increasingly hard to make the move, and to get my heel to stick in place. We decided to have a quick couple of burns on the moves towards the end. These were super hard too! The problem wasn’t too high, so you could work the ending quite easily. From standing you could get two good, deep crimps, and with your left foot up on a high, large ledge, make a big move up left to (sort of) undercling on the arete. There was very little there to hold, but with enough body tension, you could just about stay in place. I got this move after a couple of tries, but Benny found it a lot harder. The arete was just out of his reach, which meant he had to cut his feet every time. Holding the arete and the one remaining crimper became increasingly difficult here, and he was struggling to stay on. Although I could make the move, I was stuck with what to do next. There was a distinct lack of footholds after the initial good ledge, and I was finding it difficult to hold myself on long enough to move anywhere. It was becoming clear that Circus Tricks would allude us for tonight, and as the sun finally disappeared, we packed up and headed back to town for dinner in the micro-brewery called Eddie McStiffs (which would become our daytime home for the next few days) and some well earned sleep.

The clouds hung low over the mountains in Boulder again. Low, and incredibly threatening. We’d used our only real rain contingency plan the previous day with our visit to the Spot, so we weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves. The clouds and damp were enough to put you off climbing, but they weren’t anywhere near as much of a hinderance as our now ravaged finger tips! I hate to sound like a broken record, but it was a repeating problem. A lazy breakfast was in order, followed by another stroll round the town. We drove out a little way to a open air mall type place which promised us another outdoor store. We wandered slowly round browsing in various shops with no real agenda. We sat and sipped at smoothies from Jamba Juice, and I found a pair of Sanuk-equivilent-Sketchers for a bargain price. The climbing store offered yet another poor range of climbing shoes, so we cut our losses and headed back to the hotel.

Ben chilling in Jamba Juice

As the skies opened properly for the first time that day, we decided to put our free time to good use. We’d been shooting all this footage, and I’d been managing to dump some of it over the course of a few evenings – it was time to put a new video together! Our new Ford Focus was fitted with Sirius radio. This turned out to be a God send! We’d managed to find an Elecrtronica/Chill Out station called Chill XM, which played nothing but pretty much constant climbing video music. We’d kept a pen and paper handy to note down all the new artists which we would usually have had to scour the internet for being delivered right into our laps as we covered the hundreds of miles between Hueco and Boulder. So, with new music sourced it was time to get to work. The fruits of that afternoons efforts has already been posted on here, but here it is again…

We were getting slicker now. Granted, the video is only six minutes long but I was still pretty impressed that we managed to turn it over and have it uploading in just over three hours. It was a rest day well spent in my opinion, and we certainly earned our slap up dinner at Red Lobster! After dinner, we got packed up and rounded the night off with a few games of pool in the hotel. As a full blown storm set in for the night, we were ready to leave Boulder and head on to our next destination – Moab, Utah…

It was a cloudy day in Boulder, Colorado. The clouds that had been threatening the previous day were still around. The decision was made for us – We’d head to the gym! Not just any gym though – The Spot. The place where big names like Daniel Woods and Alex Puccio regular crush the holds to dust. It was gonna be cool. Also, our fingers were wrecked. We were still suffering the after effects of Hueco Tanks, and pulling down on the tiny crimps and glassy, sharp pockets up at Flagstaff hadn’t really helped matters. The Spot offered nice, forgiving plastic. We had a bit of a lazy morning, before getting a late breakfast. Before we went climbing we decided to have a little bit of an explore round the town. Boulder proudly boasts the only flagship, dedicated PrAna store which was far too tempting to pass up, so we decided to make that our first destination. I was still on the hunt for shoes, so en route we swung into REI. Another disappointing selection of climbing apparel! We had a quick look round and then returned to plan A. We parked up near where we’d been the night before and wandered around the quiet, manicured streets of Boulder. Boulder had a really nice vibe, the sort of vibe which would be achieved if you injected a few hundred thousand pounds into the North Laines in Brighton. It was well scrubbed up and presentable, but still with an underlying streak of Bo-Ho chic. We found the store and wandered around, trying things on and generally feeling a little overwhelmed. I managed to find a T-shirt I’d seen online and subsequently fallen in love with. It’s been added to the collection. I also picked up a cool pair of lightweight climbing trousers. A pretty good haul I thought.

Once the shopping was done it was off to the Spot. We found the place without too much difficulty and it turned out to be not far from our hotel. After the general signing-your-life-away rigmarole, we were ready to go. We’d been in touch with Aaron from the day before, and he came down to meet us. The previous nights fun and games seemed to be wearing heavily on him though, and he was a lot more lethargic than the previous day. The Spot is a bouldering specific centre (with a few token top ropes thrown in for the kids), with a couple of cool, freestanding boulders in the centre. A long wall runs along the back which finishes up with a pretty high cave roof. There were holds all over the place, and it took a while to get our head around following the coloured tags from the holds instead of the colour if the holds themselves. I liked the Spot instantly. It was chilled, the staff were friendly and were playing good music, The problems were fun and they even had a slack line! However, my one huge gripe was the convoluted grading system. I don’t want this to turn into a grades rant, but seriously, there’s enough systems in the world to contend with without adding a new one into the mix – especially one that seems (to me at least) to make no real sense! For bouldering, I think America have got the best, most consistent system with the V grades. All crags in the states use this, and even the Castle has now moved primarily over to it from the British Technical. The Spot seem to have created their own which, possibly unsurprisingly enough, involves the use of spots with pluses and minuses, and a variety of initials to dictate the use of features etc. The ranges started at 3 spots for a V0/4A or B up five +’s with all kinds of variations in between. It really isn’t a big thing at all really. I’d like to reiterate that the problems were super fun, there was no problem there, it just struck me as odd to complicate things with a new system when a more reliable system is already in place and I’m sure used by all the staff whenever they head out to any of the great climbing spots around Boulder.

Benny on one of the freestanding boulders in The Spot Gym

All thoughts of weird grading systems was soon eclipsed by one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a climbing gym I’ve been to: Boulders you could top out on! It’s nearly impossible for me o go to any climbing gym and not compare it to The Castle – it’s my frame of reference, but The Castle could REALLY do with one of those boulders! Top outs are one of my weak points when I get on real rock, and it would be so cool to have some way to train for that! The Spot has exactly that! The boulders are featured, but not too heavily which is good, and they are also pretty high, which helped to over come some of the fear of topping out high off the ground. After working around some of the cool problems we saw on the back wall (not completing many due to fatique, but still having a good go) we moved onto one of the big boulders. We found a cool project straight off. I’d say it was around V4 or 5 (I have no idea what it was in Spots). It started by getting established on a couple of pretty good crimps, before making a big move up to jug. The next couple of moves felt totally impossible to begin with – A reach back to a high gastone with your left hand, then dropping your weight onto that arm, and catching a side pull underneath. Benny was pretty solid here from the start, but I kept popping straight off! Soon though, it started coming together. The key was a mix of body tension and footwork which took some figuring out. Projecting boulder problems is one of my favourite parts of climbing. It can be hugely frustrating too, but we were making regular progress so the excitement remained. Benny made the next big step – basically a backwards dyno to a big sloper with a little SOS on the top to catch! His feet swung right out and it took a lot of effort to hold it. I tried the section up to there and managed to make the move too – The next part was tricky though. We began linking up to the dyno from the start, but holding it took a huge amount of effort, and close as we came, we’d have probably needed another, fresher session to link through the last few moves to the top. We decided to leave that problem after working it for about half an hour. We didn’t move far though. Benny found a cool problem on the arete just to the right of where we had been. This was really fun too, but very different in style. From an easy sit start, you worked your way up, either side of the arete on slopers. It was super fun as well, and right up my street with a load of big, throwy moves between slopers. We didn’t manage to top this out either, sadly, but it was fun to work all the same.

After that we were pretty spent. We did a few easish problems to warm down and then made our way back to the hotel. By the time we’d chilled out, we couldn’t be bothered to go anywhere else. We decided to explore a bit more of what the Boulder Outlook Hotel had to offer. We donned our trunks and headed for the pool. The hotel had a cool leisure area in just off the lobby, with a pool, spa and most impressively of all – a climbable boulder! We didn’t really make the most of it though, as we were too busy splashing around in the worlds coldest pool! To balance it out though, they also had the worlds hottest spa. We alternated between the two until we couldn’t take any more and went back to shower, change and return for some dinner and beers in the bar, and the first of what would become a regular event, a pool marathon (my pool skills have certainly improved over the course of the trip, even if my climbing hasn’t…).

We had to hit the road early, we had big miles to cover to get up to Boulder, Colorado. 740 long miles. It’d be our longest drive so far. We said our goodbyes to Charles and bought our token Hueco T-Shirts. It was sad to be leaving, we had enjoyed the freedom of the ranch and we’d be back to the confinement of hotels for the foreseeable future. We hit the road west back into New Mexico, we’d been told that there were often border checks on the roads out of El Paso but we didn’t come across any. We turned off the highway a few miles into New Mexico and headed north towards Albuquerque. The miles ticked by slowly, the barren desert passed by the window. We laughed at a town called Radium Springs. We drove. About an hour into the drive we hit slow traffic, cars ahead were being diverted through a building on the side of the road. What’s going on? We crawled up the slip road, past ominous looking cameras and sensors. Ah, border control – not where we expected it, but shouldn’t be an issue. Shouldn’t be, but it was. Most of the cars we could see in front passed through without issue, the cop stopped us however and instructed us to wind down the window. “Documents?” in a thick Mexican accent. I handed him my EU driving license. “What’s this?” he spat. I thought he was going to chuck it on the ground. Our passports were in the trunk, it’s fair to say that there was a bit of a communication break down at this point. We got out of the car, unloaded our cases onto the floor, I caught a glimpse of the tailback now forming behind us. I couldn’t see where it ended. I found my passport pretty quickly and proudly handed it over. The cop inspected it, and told me to take my hands out of my pocket. Ben couldn’t find his passport, and by now all our stuff was spread out on the road. The cop had a sudden brainwave and instructed us to pull into a lay by next to the office, we repacked all our gear and moved the car. I waited whilst Ben again rummaged around for his passport, this time with the company of two other burly and surly cops. I’d like to say this story ended happily, but as I write this from a filthy Mexican prison, it’s hard to do so…

I jest, Ben eventually found his passport and we pushed on towards Albuquerque. Ben’s laptop had broken the previous day, so we planned on swinging by the Apple Store there to try and get it repaired. The rest of miles where predictably boring, broken up only by a fuel stop in the ‘Chili Capital of the World’. Albuquerque soon appeared over the horizon, and first stop would be a geek stop at Starbucks to get some wireless so that we could find the Apple Store. Turns out that in Albuquerque getting an internet connection is not as easy as just rocking up to a Starbucks, but rather involves slyly parking outside of an Arbys and stealing their connection. We got the address and where on our way again. We found the Apple Store easily enough. While Ben and one of the very flamboyant Apple Genius’s got better aquatinted I checked my emails and had a browse around itching to get on the road to our actual destination, Santa Fe, about 70 miles north. I was soon informed by Ben and his new friend that I’d now be staying in Albuquerque that night instead. Ben couldn’t get his Mac looked at until the next morning at 10am. We used the Apple Store internet to book a hotel for the night and headed up to the Best Western.

We passed Santa Fe the next morning, Ben now had a working laptop, the sun was out and we were still a good distance from Boulder. Winding up into the mountains, it was immediately obvious that the north of New Mexico is quite a contrast to the south. It’s really lush and mountainous. It does make the drive easier when there are nice surroundings to gaze upon. Rest break. Springer, in hindsight not the best choice. A one horse prison town with a weird petrol station. We stocked up on doughnettes and water and made a hasty retreat, vowing not to stop in any other strange towns.

We didn’t stop at any more strange towns. But we did stop. In a massive traffic jam, pretty much from Denver to Boulder. Just what we didn’t need after a day of hard driving. We crawled a snails pace towards Boulder, the rain was on and off, massive storm clouds coming in off the mountains. It took us about two and a half hours to crawl the 30 miles or so of highway. We drove in to the carpark of the Boulder Outlook hotel tired and hungry, and got checked in. The Boulder Outlook is actually a pretty cool hotel, at least it’s the only hotel that I’ve been to that has climbing boulders next to the pool.

The next morning, we drove up to the climbing shop in the hope of tracking down a guidebook for the area, Colorado was a bit of a wild card in our travels in that we didn’t really know where we were going to climb. We’d probably just pay it by ear. The climbing shop was closed, we were there at 9:30 and it didn’t open til 10. We decided to head across the parking lot and pick up some water and snacks. Heading back across the car park we saw a familiar sight, bouldering pads and a couple of guys hanging around waiting for the shop to open. We approached them and asked where they were heading, they replied that they were heading up to Flagstaff up in the mountains. They said we were welcome to join them and we jumped at the chance. We hung around until the shop opened, bought the local guide book and followed Aaron, Adam and Chris up into the hills. The first spot we hit was a small area with one massive rock and a few satellite boulders scattered around it. We started off on a smallish

Aaron's Dyno

boulder with a few easy (but sweet) V0’s and 1’s that Aaron recommended. We then moved over to the large rock, which has a big long high face with quite a few problems on it. We had a go on a great V3 called ‘Consideration’, I felt it was tough for it’s grade and it took me around 5 or 6 tries. The top out was pretty dicey as it was quite a lofty problem. Ben had a few attempts but got shot down in the same place each time on one of the crimpy moves near the top, meaning pretty scary falls each time. Next up was a small roof problem called ‘East Overhang’ (V2) with a juggy start and a really technical top out. Next door to this was a crazy dyno, not in the guidebook, but previously sent by Aaron. Aaron gave us a demo and stuck it on his 3rd try, it looked awesome. He was also trying an extension to the problem by starting on ‘East Overhang’ and traversing around the corner to get set-up for the dyno. However it seemed the initial traverse sucked that extra bit of power that he needed for the dyno, and he couldn’t quite stick it. Ben and I had a fair few goes on the dyno with Ben coming really close to sticking it, and me a bit further from sticking it. Had we both spent a bit more time on it, I think it would have been possible.

Aaron wanted to show us another area further up the mountain, so we walked back to the car and headed further up the twisty mountain road. Occasionally through the trees we caught glimpses of the stunning view looking down towards Boulder and Denver. The next spot looked really cool with big imposing boulders scattered around on a steep hillside. We walked up towards the first rocks and one problem immediately caught my eye, a crimpfest up a near vertical spotless face. Aaron told me it was a V8, a bit outside of my grade, but I had to give it a go – so he gave me the beta. Ben and I gave the sit-start a go, and whilst it was intensely hard it came together pretty quickly for us both. The next move would prove to be the first crux though, whilst crimping a small edge with the left hand you need to make a huge static move out right for a tiny side-pull edge. Using a crazy high left foot I surprised myself and managed to stick this move, it was a pretty scrunchy move so Ben started to look for another foot placement for this move. After this, the problem is straight up on another couple of terrible edges to a good edge right below the lip. I felt excited now, it seemed possible. After another couple of goes and I was on the upper section, searching for a foot hold to make the move up to the good edge, if I could just get a good enough foot placement. Damn. Back down on the ground. I had a few more goes, getting slightly higher each time, and it felt like it was within spitting distance, the crimps had taken their toll on my right index finger though, gradually slicing it’s way into the flesh, which was now bleeding. The marginal edges would have been impossible with tape on, so I had to give up. I was a bit gutted, but at the same time I had made some good progress on a V8 and it really felt like it might have been possible.

Benny on the V8 in Flagstaff

The storm clouds were beginning to roll in off of the Rockies by this point as they often do in early summer, so we headed further up onto the hillside to a juggy lowball boulder with some easy fun traverses and straight-ups. I think the altitude had gotten to us by this point as we were both shattered, and even the easiest problems were feeling difficult Aaron told us that it took him months to get used to the high altitude when he first moved to Colorado. We arranged to meet Aaron later that night for dinner, said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. It had been a good morning.
We drove down off of the mountain headed back to the hotel. We swung by The Spot on the way back for a quick look around and vowed to head there for some indoor climbing the next day. After a bit of relaxing back in the room, we walked up to Southern Sun, a nice bar/restaurant with it’s own microbrewery to meet Aaron and Chris. I won’t go into great detail, because I don’t have much memory of the night. But it involved a lot of food, even more beer and a long walk. Everyone was going to be a bit worse for wear the next day but I was pleased to be in Boulder as I fell asleep that night.