It's been a while since our last post, so here's an update.
We went to Hueco Tanks for Labor Day Weekend. Beth was finally able to get her second observational tour in, and she passed with flying colors. She is now fully certified as a Hueco Tanks guide! She tried three times before, but each time the park had to cancel the tour because they were short-staffed that day.
 |
| Beth guiding us through the Hueco Tanks back country, East Mountain. She's now fully certified! |
We went to East on Saturday morning, hitting Hobbit and Try Hard. It was a bit hot, and none of us (Austin and Nicole came too) really wanted to commit to the final move on either problem. After Beth passed her observation, we tried hard a bit longer and then left for North Mountain so Beth could climb too. FYI: Put your pads
way further back from Try Hard than you expect. If you hit the lip but swing off, you fall really far back!
On North, we headed up to the New Meadow. Beth and Nicole worked Lobster Claw and both got further than last trip. Beth tried a knee bar pad and managed to reach the last left-hand sidepull below the face. I tried the knee bar pad too, just to show the unnecessary extra knee bars you can use super high up. Austin and I then went over to Beer Can Traverse and worked it for a while. Austin got really close, but didn't quite send, so maybe next time!
 |
| Me working the crux of Beer Can Traverse, North Mountain, Hueco Tanks. Thanks for the photo Nicole! |
Sunday I took us all out to East and East Spur on a commercial tour. Unfortunately, it rained a little the night before, so we had to stick to roof climbs and severely overhung problems. We avoided any topouts just in case, since holds tend to peel off after a rain. We warmed up on a crack near Moonshine Roof, then played around on Moonshine for a bit too. We then went to Javalina, and Nicole and I got fairly far on it. Then Austin and I worked The Egg. I gave up and finally put the knee bar pad on, and then quickly worked out the first few moves. It looked like it was going to rain so we had to hurry up, so Austin and I traded off attempts. On my last attempt I got a lot further than I had anticipated, and had forgotten the beta and just did some really stupid stuff. Austin tweaked his pinky on his last go, so we decided it was a good time to leave. Luckily, it never did start to rain.
 |
| Nicole working Javalina, East Spur, Hueco Tanks. |
No sends, but still a great trip! I've got a few new projects and Beth made progress on hers!
