Weekend at Datil

This weekend we headed to Datil for some climbing and camping. Linda is still going strong with her training program while I'm taking some time off in the hopes that I can start over again with a happy finger in another week or two and Dylan loves to camp. Saturday was beautiful, Linda climbed with several other people that we had planned on meeting down there. Her main goal was to see where she was as far as finishing up a route that she had put a couple of days into a year ago. She did pretty well, especially for the first trip to the Tower of the year.

 I on the other hand mostly hung around after setting up camp on Saturday. On Sunday I headed out for a bike ride that I typically do when in Datil and not too focused on climbing. Heading West on Hwy 60 over the,

 Past the NM windmill farm,

 To,

 Stopping at the,

 Taking a peak at the fresh made pies,

 and enjoying a snack before the ride back.

More about them HERE

Even though it was windy on the ride back it was worth it, ride to eat.

Nice day at the Zoo

The weather here has been crazy. On Monday or Sunday we had gusts of 75+mph in town and on Tuesday snow flurries. Today was 65-70 degrees and relatively calm, spring in New Mexico.

Today Dylan and I headed to the Zoo in the afternoon. We usually go in the mornings so it was different, including getting to see the polar bear feeding which was cool.

After the polar bears we checked out the seals and sea lions among other things.

Anyway, a nice day to be out. I have not been up to much outside of bolting a couple of routes, the latest being easier. I've been putting off the recovery from a slightly tweaked finger that happened while setting for the competition in Durango. So, I've not been climbing much and with the schizophrenic weather Lance and I have not been getting out to ride regularly, it's probably been 3 weeks since I've been on the bike. On the other hand I've started longboarding which is fun.

Climbing and more Climbing

In the last month we've been getting out to Socorro a fair bit. Linda started working on a really good route there called Bat out of Hell that is quite sandbagged at 5.11d. With all the trips out there I found myself a little project in a new route to the right of the Demon. It even fit in with where I was in training, an easy start up to a hard boulder problem with holds that are all decent size but oriented the wrong way or far apart and topped with a romp to the finish.

It took me 2 sessions on TR, though the first was on self belay, to figure out how to do the boulder problem. Then on a third day I went back, bolted and climbed the route in a couple of tries, I decided to name it Devil's Plaything. Good thing too because it is starting to get too hot out there. We made one more trip out to Major Wall and Linda wrapped up Bat out of Hell, here is Linda finishing out here successful ascent.

At some point in this whole time Mark (aka: Monomaniac) and Kate came out and I headed to the Enchanted Tower for a day with them and their 1 year old. Mark and I got on Child of Light which has really cool movement but exploits all my weaknesses as a climber (shallow pockets and high overhead shoulder moves). While Kate got to run several climbs and get used to climbing outside more. More about it HERE in their blog. 

We managed to get in a trip to Hueco this past weekend. We had made reservations for volunteer tours only to find out that most of the guides left at the end of the week and no volunteer tours were going out leaving us waiting at the gate to get in. We got lucky the first day and some friend that were in line ahead of us knew a guide that was already in the park and was able to come out and get us on his tour. On the second day we checked to see if there was a guide for the tour we had signed up for then headed to the Rock Ranch to set up a commercial tour which is expensive ($20 per person vs. $4). We managed to get on one of their tours and it happened that another group from Albuquerque was with us. Here is a shot of Dylan doing some "V-5" bouldering, as one person on the tour described this wall.

 And Richard, from ABQ bearing down on the start of D.I.G. which is a fun but painful problem that I flashed years ago and Richard flashed on this day. I highly recommend taping your tips if you get on this problem.

Anyway, dealing with Hueco as always turned into a big hassle. 

On the other hand Today I made it back out to Socorro with Dylan and a friend, Karl to put up another new route. Yes, it is now too hot to climb, at least anything hard in the sun there, but this was an easier and friendlier route than the last. The end result is HERE I have not decided on a name yet or know if there was a previous one for the line, but it is another nice option to warm up on for future visits.