Goin' to California

Hey, Lee here,
 I'm going to keep this short because i'm pretty well exhausted after climbing.  To catch up from last week, we decided on saturday or sunday that we should stay here until tomorrow, thursday, rather than leave on monday after picking up Brianna from the airport.  (which went very smooth by the way.) We all had projects to send and none of us were quite ready to leave Hueco yet.  As far as the climbing goes, i feel i grew accustomed to the rock here and was able to put down two projects and send quite a few more boulders than last time we updated.  my strongest sends here were: Lobster Claw v5, King Cobra v6, and just today, Hobbit in a Blender v5.  I have also climbed some other awesome boulders and worked a bunch as well.  I am really close to see spot run v6, which is an awesome highball with about a 15 degree overhang.   Unfortunately due to its sharpness, i could only give it a few goes per day and had to leave it unfinished.  King Cobra is an awesome compression problem and is easily the hardest v6 i've ever climbed and much harder than the v7 i just recently sent.  Its super powerful and i was actually surprised to send considering how impossible it felt the first day of work on it.   

I took brianna to north mountain the day she flew in to show her some problems and the area in general, and yesterday we bouldered on north.  It was a really nice day and she came close to sending a few boulders and completed others.  Today however, we went on a tour with a group of kiwis (new zealanders) that are staying at the ranch; and brianna hurt her ankle warming up.  We wrapped it up and she kept it elevated all day, and it seems to be doing rather well, hopefully she will bounce back.  The kiwis are a very eclectic bunch and they are all super strong and one in particular has been showerless for a month (see isaac below.)  I opened a new zealand climbing magazine one of their mothers sent to see wiz, who was sitting across the table, in a petzl ad on the back and an interview inside.  check out his blog at World of Wiz.  We got on quite a few hard problems and wiz gave slashface a few good burns.  at the end of the day i sent hobbit in a blender in a few goes and it was great steep climbing.

We decided since we stayed here longer to bail on vegas and the grand canyon, and head straight to joshua tree for some hopefully awesome climbing.  we will soon find out!

until next time, adios 

Check for more from jeff and eric in the future.

Jeff on La Balance

Eric on Lip Sync

Lee on King Cobra

Brianna on Nobody gets out of here alive

Brianna barely getting out alive

Wiz working Slashface

Isaac pressing it out (notice the grimy ankle)

Chase sending Sunshine

Hueco Sunset