B² Productions | Climbing Blog

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.