El Paso, TX—The last time we updated this blog, the Egg was pointed east on a course across middle American to Chattanooga, TN. Winter storms stilted our plans so we took an unexpected turn south, driving from Albuquerque, NM down to west Texas. Turns out it was one of the best impromptu moves we’ve made. For the last two weeks (with one more to go), we’ve been getting to know our way around one of nation’s finest bouldering destinations: Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site.
Hueco bouldering has been at turns frustrating, exhilarating, painful, and extremely fun. The style of climbing here is quite different than what we encountered in Bishop. Many problems are overhung and involve using a ton of core strength, heel hooks, and making big, powerful moves. My weaknesses in these areas were showing up on day-one when we got on Moonshine Roof, a super classic v4 roof problem. After some really hard work, I managed to send it! That day set the tone for this trip—I was going to try as many problems as I could and not allow myself to skip over things that “aren’t my style.” It’s been a great couple weeks of challenging myself, getting shut down here and there, but staying psyched all the same.
The social aspect of bouldering has always been one of my favorite things about the sport and Hueco has been no disappointment in that area. We caught up with another climbing couple living on the road and cranking out some really nice media (check them out justgoclimb.com) and met tons of other great people, as well. We ran into many familiar faces from the Red River Gorge and made some new friends from the Southeast, Canada, Colorado and beyond. Seems like everyone is here in Hueco this time of year, enjoying the mild temps and getting strong for Spring rope climbing season. Well, as least that’s what we’re doing. Next stop: The Red!
Andy has been killing it out here with the photography. He’s worked out a really cool lighting set-up with two flashes and a soft-box and has been getting some nice action and landscape shots. Check out some of his latest images, below. More always to be found on his instagram feed.
