From Hueco to Where Co.

Hello All, Today is day 5 at Hueco Tanks State Park and Historical Site. Hueco means hollow and Tanks refers to water: Hueco Tanks is an oasis in the desert where there is water in hollow formations. Its a pretty rad place: boulders are everywhere and when you go up to them you may find a cave on one side which opens up a passage to many more boulders and caves.

The climbing here is stupendous. At first it just stupifies; the "Oh my god" factor takes over and I find myself salivating over routes and sussing beta. The rock quality is mostly great, and the amount is huge with first ascents waiting to be had. This morning for example, I went with some friends Gustavo and Dingo to a good boulder called Ghetto Simulator - V2. I think it should hardly get a boulder grading... the problem is 20+ moves and over 10m long up this boulder. Whatever it is it's awesome! As I was talking about first ascents a climber named Jason Kehl put up a new problem behind Ghetto Simulator yesterday. This proud line visible from many areas had somehow remained unclimbed.

I spent the rest of the morning soaking up some vitamin D and working out the moves on a problem called "adjust you attitude." I got all the moves and now it comes down to linking them together: maybe with an adjustment of my attitude it will go... but probably not on this trip. Hopefully, though, on the way back north.

We will probably leave for Mexico on Friday morning, with hopes of crossing at the Columbia crossing (or possibly Laredo). Then we'll head south and take a bit of a break from the climbing bum lifestyle. I'll appreciate it and hopefully I'll come back to climbing with even more pysche. I know my heels will love the rest and lack of smashing.

On our first day I took a fall onto the rock and smashed my heels up good. I smashed em so good I couldn;t climb the next day and climbing isn't exactly happening without some of my new found best friend ibuprofin. The hiking across rock all day and constant impact is the worst for them. C'est la vie. It's all part of the game, and when you wager on the rock you sure as hell pay for it.

Tonight is movie night at the rock ranch. There is talk of Borat. If we watch that I don't know if Thomas will ever stop quoting it. hah. Now, though, I'll end this post here.

-Charlie

In Need of a Little Something Else

Red Rocks is a gorgeous desert landscape with hoards of Red and White Sandstone rising out of it's edges. There are countless multipitch trad routes and even more sport crags that line a 13 mile long scenic route in the heart of the desert. The area and our camp are protected from the Vegas strip and it's relentless light by a few small hills and subsequent valleys. We've spent our time mainly climbing on sport routes; that is, routes with bolts into the rock.

We've been mainly hitting up the countless sport crags. Surrounded by perfect overhanging red sandstone it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Every climb feels like a struggle to me. The pump in my forearms starts to feel unbearable and the ability to hold on fails. It's been making sending climbs pretty hard. Thus I haven't been as successful as I might have liked. But I'm getting stronger and that's a positive thing. But there's just something missing in me at the moment.

For me this place hasn't exactly been the site of great ambition or intensity. While I've climbed my fair share and done some things that I'm fairly stoked about I haven't really been on top of my game. It seems like I'm a bit in need of something else.

Realizing this lack of interest isn't the easiest thing to do. Esspecially when everyone around you is so stoked on climbing.

Because of this I found myslef taking a day off to do other things and be on my own. Something that I feel I need for some reason... it might have something to do with spending every minute of every day with people... the same people at that.

I took the day off and decided that I'd be productive... I picked up the guitar and started writing. Something I hadn't done in a while. What I came up with was a reflection of how I was feeling that morning.

All of these things I want to do today,

"There's too little time" I always seem to say.

Thoughts scrambled as they permutate away

Lost in the hours as they decay.

Step up to the plate where ambtion waits,

To test the strength of my character traits.

What is it that my soul anticipates,

A feeling of success that only complicates?

I strive for a feeling of accomplishment.

A token of all the time that I've spent.

A selfish act that makes my mind content.

And in the end gives way to self contempt.

What a problem it is I face,

Too much privelege seems to be the case.

All the essentials of my life are in place

And now I waste my time, what a disgrace.

I think of all I've done recently.

I pollute the earth so complacently,

I do these things I want most wastefully.

All I seek is to do so decently.

We all want to do something meaningful,

Fill our glass so it ain't half full.

Make a change that might be helpful.

Quit doing the same as I feel so resentful.

It's all a matter of the heart.

To feel content is such an art.

We've all got to do something before we part.

I wrote a song, I guess that's a start.

I completed the day by shooting a number of rolls of film off in the desert, reading my book, writing in my journal and organizing my thoughts on the trip. While I may not have sent any climbs... that day was one of the most productive in a long time. I felt good and had a chance to just chill. Completely.

The constant feeling that what I am doing is so totally hypocritical of what I feel is the appropriate way to travel or to use our resources has led to some interesting thought and conversation among many like minded individuals. It's not necessarily making the trip feel negative... but it's giving me some more insight into how I will do things differently in the future. My reliance on money that I've saved and the tools that we've bought and brought along makes me feel like I could do things in a way that might remove this feeling of hypocracy.

While this might sound like a downer it's a pretty powerful thing to me. I'm still gonna rock it... and make the most out of the experience. It's one of those things that makes me feel like I'm figuring shit out... and I'm stoked on that.

Well, from here we head down to El Paso Texas. We'll climb at Hueco Tanks and suss out the situation in Mexico to see whether or not it's safe to head into central america.

Much love,

Thomas Sloss

The Vegas Strip Trip

So we left Bishop and made our way to Joshua tree for a day where we managed to get a bit of climbing in before deciding that Vegas might be more fun. We were right. We showed up late and ready to rock... the tired eyes turned bright and the Strip was electrifying. It may sound like we were on acid or something but we weren't... just drunk.

Our need to scale walls made for an entertaining night as Charlie and I wound up in hadcuffs with a taser pointed at us for traversing a brick wall... It turned out that the Cop just had a small Penis and was intending to extend it with a power trip. The constant stream of the word, "Fuck" was enough for me to know that we wouldn't be arrested, despite his constant reasureance that we'd spend the night in Jail. It turns out that a lack of professionalism really doesn't lend itself well to an effective power trip.

But the night went on and we found ourselves staying at the Excalibur Hotel Resort... in the parking lot. We were hoping we'd get the chance to invite some unsuspecting girls back to the hotel... and surprise them with a VW Bus. But no such luck... it turns out that broken english is more the way to go here. Or atleast a shower and some nice clothes.

We've decided to possibly change our plans on the course of the trip. For now we plan on entering Mexico within the next two weeks and trecking south to Panama to spend New Years on Costa Rica and then do the Utah portion of the trip afterwards. New Orleans and Habitat for humanity are therefore not out of the picture for February when the Dalhousie crew should be rolling in.

Anyways, my Library computer is seconds away from booting me off and loosing this post.

So I'll let you all know what the definite plans are for the next little while. So far Red Rocks is kick ass and,"somewhere near Barstow the drugs began to take hold".

Vegas is a Strip and a rather trippy one at that.

Thomas Sloss

Bishop (Fish Shop)

So much for our plan to get up Royal Arches... so much for getting up, period. The 5:30am alarm clock didn't quite do it's job, or maybe we just chose to ignore it. Regardless, by the time we woke up it was late... and we just weren't feeling it.

It's kind of been the story of the trip so far. Aside from a few special times we haven't been too successful in the whole alpine start category. We tend to go for the chill morning of food, coffee and a book. It's something I'm getting used to, and understandably so... but it's kind of a scary thought at the same time.

We left Yosemite on a Tuesday and headed south to Bishop California (a mecca of bouldering). We added a new member to the group in our Aussie buddy Rhys. We all fled what is camp 4, not because we don't like the place... but, for us, it isn't the time. We all seemed to be on the same page in terms of leaving behind the logistics of ropes and the uncertainty of a hand jam for the familiarity of hard bouldering.

At this point it's been almost three weeks that we've spent in the desert. High desert mind you... our camp is at 6,400 feet and is backed by mountains in the 13,000 ft range. It's spectacular to wake up before sunrise for that morning pee and watch the horizon's shadow slowly lower down the snowcapped peaks. I feel pretty lucky.

We're camped about 100m away from some of the best bouldering in the world (so I'm told) with a mountain fed stream running right beside us. We don't even have to worry about leaving food out... by far the most simplistic camping I've ever done.

This is the first stop on the trip that I really feel like I'm becoming a better climber. Bouldering is an amazing sport. It's not just about strength, but about figuring out the moves and the technique and putting everything together to get to the top. At the same time... one of the most important parts is keeping yourself in it mentally. Since leaving home I've bumped my hardest grade from v5 to v8... sending two v8's in one day. By Bishop standards I feel like I'm doing pretty well. It's funny how much easier I find it to be motivated to boulder. The simplicity of it just lends itself to late start, beers and just spending time with wicked people. Something I'm pretty happy to do.

We managed to summit Mt. Whitney during our stay. Five friends, Charlie and I took off on a 37 Km hike that rose over 7000 feet to the tallest summit in California at 14 495 feet. Walking that distance is a good go in itself... but when you throw in the sun and the altitude... it makes for a long day. One that had me puking by the end. But it's nothing that a good burger can't fix.

Aside from the bouldering and hiking we've done a fair amount of drinking, saunaing and hotspringing. A couple of friends from Vermont wound up camping with us and the brilliant idea of rolling hot rocks into a pile and then covering ourselves up with a tarp and proceding to douse them with water came into action. The amount of body water lost makes the hang over that much worse... I wound up puking that night too... I'm on quite a roll. But the show stopper has got to be the hot springs. Natural hot water from the ground, a pool and a bunch of beer. Pretty much sums it up.

I love this place and it hurts to leave. Today was the strongest day so far and I felt like I was making progress on a new climb. But alas we said we would leave... so off we go to Joshua Tree California. We'll be there for a few days and then head up to Las Vegas for a while. Red Rocks here we come.

Love you all.

Thomas Sloss