The Southerly Way - Horse Pens Days 1 and 2

After a slight detour at Rocktown and an eventful drive across the border we made it to HP40. I honestly think my favorite part about HP trips is the first time you drive in and park in the upper lot. Something about it is just too cool. Its got an almost serene feel.

Later that night RV and I took a quick walk through the soaked field of boulders. Rain had been coming down hard for the past couple of days and it showed. Everything was soaked.

While we were walking around by Cadillac Thrills I took a wrong turn and stepped into a puddle. Obviously I thought that the easiest way to get past said puddle was by only going deeper into it and not stopping and turning around. I was wrong. RV was smart and stayed behind when I squealed.

Turns out there was some minor flooding that we couldn't quite see in the dark. We made our way back to the car where I put on dry socks and shoved my shoes under the car where they might dry out.

The offending puddle

A nice little pond under Inspect Her Gadget

The next morning I woke up like an excited kid and ran around the park taking pictures. It was incredibly fun to be the only one in the park at the time and it was nice to walk around in relative solitude.

Pretty soon Katie and RV were up and walking around. Temps were not ideal. Everything started out in the low 30's but there was a nice wind to dry everything off.

We layed out RV's brand new Organic Big Pad and tried to warm up through a light, blowing snow. The temp was hovering right around freezing which made warming up somewhat of a chore. All the while our pads were getting wet from the consistent snow. Fun, right?

I like the colors...Good choice

We drove how long to get out of the snow??

After a few minutes we hiked our stuff over to the classic, Bum Boy. This was one of RV's main goals for the trip and he just wanted to get up it.

4 years prior on my first trip to HP I hadn't put much thought into the idea of doing Bum Boy. It definitely wasn't a goal of mine but figured it'd be fun to do. Steve Day had worked it for a couple hours when I finally met up with him late in the day. I quickly stole some beta and did it second or third go. Steve did it right after me, just a little pissed. I've made a point of doing the problem on each subsequent trip.

Back to reality and RV and Katie had both put a solid 20 minutes into the problem before they told me they wanted beta. It took me a couple tries to remember my weird cross through undercling beta, but once I did all was well in the world and I slapped that wonderful top sloper once more.

RV on Bum Boy

Yup, that's my wife and my best man

Trying to take things a bit more serious

Invalid Beta

Katie trying to find the elusive "Butt-Bar"

Pretty soon both of them were happy to move on without a send and we walked around the corner to Genesis. This was the first problem established at HP and I can't believe I hadn't done it until this trip. It might be my favorite at HP. Very fun problem, in my mind. While RV and I were messing around on that Katie did the problem to the left of it very quickly and RV and myself followed suit right after.

On RV's first go he messed up the beta a bit and I deftly mentioned that I'd flashed it, so he'd better not screw it up. He promptly started laughing at the absurdity of the position he'd gotten himself in and fell off. He did it next go.

After running a couple laps on those we moved over to Ghetto Superstar and Mulletino. I tried out the first couple of moves on Ghetto and was pleased that they were easier than I'd remembered. My soft skin didn't last too long on the somewhat sharp crimps so I stopped before any real damage had been done. RV made some good, quick progress on the line but had to stop after a heinous dry fire.

I'd done Mulletino on my first trip and enjoyed the long, dynamic moves. I wasn't totally sure how Katie would fare on them. Yet again, she proved me very wrong and figured out some pretty fantastic beta to get out to the rail. After a few tries though she was having some troubles matching the rail as she was at 100% extension. Pretty soon though cold and hunger reigned supreme and we went back to the car to warm up a little.

After the break Katie decided to stay in the car and attempt to warm up her toes a bit while RV and I went back into the middle of the field to do an easy circuit on many of the cool sloper moderates.

We started off by warming up back on Bum Boy. I did a quick lap and once more I had to force RV into trying my beta. A couple goes later he sent and came down with a big smile on his face. I was very glad he could finish up one of his trip goals. While it isn't a brutally hard problem, it epitomizes the slopey style of climbing at Horse Pens and is a coveted send regardless of whatever grade it is.

I figure that in the next couple of years they're just going to downgrade Bum Boy to V0 and end the stupid debate once and for all.

RV and I kept moving around the field from one short sloper problem to another. I personally enjoyed how many problems we fell off of multiple times. Note that we didn't get on anything harder than V3 the entire afternoon. We both had a blast and before we knew it the light had dripped away and we were climbing in the dark.

We made light of the fact that the only person in the boulders that didn't have a headlamp with him was the Petzl rep. Brilliant.

We started out day two with similarly freezing temps and light snow. We made our first stop to the Ten Pins boulders and made a vain attempt at warming up. Well, Katie and I did. RV ran around in his climbing shoes and socks hoping a miracle would happen.

It didn't. It was still cold.

After a failed attempt at climbing the problem Thugs N Bitches, RV and Katie started trying a V7 traverse that I don't know the name of. It culminated in one very long move off of mediocre edges. Both of them were stymied, although each one came agonizingly close to reaching the juggy slot.

I took the time to play with my camera a bit and in the process got completely cold again. Fantastic.

All the while, in the background of us climbing, there was possibly the smallest HP 40 comp ever. At most they had 30 people in it. The two lone climbers in Advanced were climbing near us and it was entertaining to watch their cat and mouse game. One of them did Thugs N Bitches with a bit of a momentum hop and the other promptly did Hug N Kisses. Then one of them ran down to Ghetto Superstar and the other followed closely, gathering his things and chasing after. Later in the day I saw much of the same. Fun to watch.

So close!!!

Katie getting the first of many gobies on the traverse

Pretty soon Katie started to set her sights on Hammerhead. We pulled the pads over while RV tried Thugs N Bitches some more. When we got there someone stopped us and asked if we were Katie and Steve. Turns out he climbed up at Vertical Endeavors and remembered us from when we helped them forerun their comp! After Anthony said that we recognized him and talked for a bit. It was great to see him and his buddy and a very cool coincidence.

Katie tried Hammerhead a couple times but was having a hard time committing to the painful move in the middle with the cold really setting in. A couple other people came up and one kid came really close to flashing it but got his hands messed up before the topout.

Katie on the first moves of Hammerhead

I gleaned as much beta as I could from both of them and then promptly flashed it. By the time I hit the topout holds my hands had been numb for a minute or so already and the extra time up there was spent wondering if I could just drop off and try it again. I decided that I wanted nothing to do with the pebbly holds anymore and rolled over the top.

The overly friendly local standing on the topout telling me mid mantle, in a HEAVY southern drawl, that "Even experienced climbers have trouble with this mounting." didn't seem to help things.

As soon as I hit the steps on the way down blood starting rushing back into my hands and I wanted to puke. Katie was nice enough to take my shoes off for me as I lay on the ground whining. It hurt so bad.

I was very happy to have flashed it as I'd sort of saved it for a number of years. It's always nice when that works out.

Once again, we warmed up inside and Katie went back to the car to try and really warm up. RV had his sights set on a tough one move V7 and wanted to try it out. I told him I'd come along and take pictures.

Re-warming up in the cold afternoon

He warmed up on a cool mantle nearby and then got to work. The problem came down to locking off really hard on a mediocre sloping crimp and hitting a good sloper at the lip. After a number of efforts he decided to stop for fear of bleeding. He'd gotten close but was having a hard time getting the right distance.

Still feeling optimistic...

Feeling good...

Ish...

What the top could have looked like

After vowing to come back tomorrow we moved just down the corridor to Slush Puppy, one of my all time favorite problems anywhere. It follows a couple of crimps to a big reach into a good gaston. One of the best.

RV's skin was getting thin but I kept on egging him on. The whole time you could tell he was tired but I wanted pictures dammit! I got a couple of good ones and told him to hold off until the next day. He happily obliged and we went back to camp.

On Slush Puppy

Looking oh so rad

Day 3 radness shows up tomorrow...what will it bring???

Our Generation

When I started bouldering at the Lake I knew of three basic generations of boulderers. You had John Gill who gave us obvious classics like Flatiron and Tombstone. While not a major player, he's still someone you tend to think of when you bring up DL bouldering.

For a while things were a big dormant and quiet. That was, until Eric Zschieschie, Paul Jones and Eric Barnard came along. They brought along the first real generation of true bouldering at the lake. They plucked obvious lines like The Zipper, Perfect Medium and countless others along the East Bluff Trail. Pretty soon though they ventured off trail. Lines like Beautiful Soup and The Greatest Show On Earth were sent quickly and started to open peoples eyes to what was possible. Paul found The Reserve and Eric found Burma Road and pretty soon there was a pretty concentrated group of people searching out new boulders.

After some time people moved on with their lives and moved away from the area. This next change coincided with when I started climbing and I was lucky enough to nab one of the last copies of Eric's guide, Git On It.

Within a couple of years Todd Mei, Peter DeSalvo and Brian Sandona had started to pick up where the others left off. Todd contributed the mysterious sit start to Smooth Operator, Bud White, while Brian and Peter started scouring the West bluff for more new lines. Peter himself has said he was just a bit "ADD" at the time and saw more boulders than he knew what to do with.

He added the classic testpiece Alpine Club and just up the hill Brian added The Keymaker. They also added numerous other hard problems in the woods of the West Bluff, firmly planting themselves as the Third Generation of DL Boulderers.

Then there was nothing. Brian moved away. DeSalvo kept getting hurt and eventually moved away to Chicago. Todd moved off to England and the boulders were silent again.

Everyone knows what happened after that. I've said it time and time again. There was nothing, and then there was 08/09 and everything changed. A new generation stepped up to the plate.

The people in the pictures above are those people and I want to thank each and every one of you. Your excitement for the bouldering scene here has given me untold amounts of motivation and it makes me incredibly happy every single time I get to climb with you and call you my friends. It means a lot.

Two people in particular give me more support than necessary. My wife, Katie, who is amazing for obvious reasons and puts up with my obsessive jibber jabber of all things climbing. I really don't know how you do it. And secondly, RV. You're my best friend and I'm so glad that you share my giddy, stupid ass 8 year old excitement and immaturity.

It's been a year today since I started my awkward ramblings on this funny little site and I like to think that this has turned into something positive. I originally started it as a true climbing blog and it's morphed into a great local resource. I truly love that it's being used to make plans to go out, talk shit and discuss good booze. The comments are by far the best thing to come out of this site.

The thing about generations is that they end. Right now we're right in the middle of this thing. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm hoping it'll go on for a while. That said, this time next year the core group could be totally different. You just don't know.

So, enjoy this while it lasts. We're in the middle of the 4th generation right now and this next season is when we can really leave our mark. My psyche and excitement is overwhelming right now. You can't even imagine.

Top 10

So we're back! Such a fun trip and too much went down to have it all in one post. So, to start things off I've got a top 10 list of the trip. Enjoy.

10 - Snow

Really? 12 hours of driving gets us this??


Honestly didn't expect the weather we got. Highs of 35 or 36 were the norm most days and we got some snow the first two days at Horsepens. Friday in Chattanooga got us the above treatment and it gave us a good excuse for a rest day and breakfast at Aretha's. Fantastic. Anyone who goes to Chattanooga, ever, NEEDS to go there. Thanks for the heads up Nic.

9 - Screaming Barfies V. Us

It was cold and generally we suck at warming up. That combo brought us to some of the most violent cases of the "Screaming Barfies" I've ever experienced.

For those of you that haven't had the joy, let me give you a quick rundown. It's really cold out and you're not warmed up. You can't feel the holds so you start to overgrip. Pretty soon all the blood leaves your fingers/forearms and leaves them numb. When you finally stop climbing all the blood rushes back into your fingers/forearms and you're left with the worst case of "Pins and Needles" ever imagined.

It's maybe the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my time bouldering. The worst was when I flashed Hammerhead after not climbing for 2 plus hours. By the time I hit the jug at the lip and started to roll over on the topout my arms were numb that the only reason I didn't drop off was because I didn't want to try it again. I wanted to puke it hurt so bad.

It happened once more on my flash of Torpedo at Dayton. At least that time it was only my fingertips and it didn't last quite as long. Katie also had a nice case of the Barfies on the sharp crimps of Torpedo. She hurt so bad I had to take her shoes off for her!! RV also caught the mojo on Recollections at Dayton and Slush Puppy at HP 40. We need to warm up better.

8 - Comp Of Doom

So we got to Horsepens on Friday night and were asked if we were going to climb in the comp. Katie had said something about it earlier but we'd since forgotten. It was postponed due to weather the first day so we waited until Sunday to see how many people were actually going to overrun the park.

After being at the Triple Crown a couple years ago I wasn't sure what to think. I figured a decent amount would show.

I was wrong. The comp brought in a SOLID 25-30 folks. It was pretty entertaining watching tens of people run across the field at the start. Not quite the rush you think of when thinking of a HP40 comp. Hah!

It may have been even funnier watching both of the Advanced climbers running around chasing each other from problem to problem. One of them was taking it pretty seriously. I mean really, this is serious business people!!

I took solace in the fact that I could have entered the comp, climbed a couple 7's and gotten third overall. Woulda been fun!

7 - RV V. V6

So RV has climbed every grade up to V8 I believe. Except for V6.

After climbing the Wave a couple years ago I told RV that he should pop his V6 cherry on it. I did it quickly then and repeated it last year and just sort of figured he'd do it, smile and move on. I was proved VERY wrong.

After a number of tries he started to get closer and closer. Each time I thought he'd do it. Then he came off, missed the pad and stubbed his toe. Strike 1.

I put my shoes on like the sandbagger I am and did the problem second try. Told him it wasn't that bad, really. Then he tried once more and saw a bit of blood. Strike 2.

He said he'd give it one more go. That's all he needed. 5 goes later and there was a bloodbath. Steeeeeeeerrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiikkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Two of his fingers were bleeding, along with one other from Horsepens and he was done for the day. And very pissed.

6 - RV V. Windshield Wipers

This was the start of RV's bad luck. Day Two. It had been raining most of the drive down to Georgia and now we were on our way to Horsepens(More on the change of scenery later). All of a sudden we didn't see RV's car behind us. Not sure what was going on I called him and asked what was up. Through bouts of laughter all I heard was "DUDE!! My windshield wiper just FLEW OFF!!".

Turns out his driver's side wiper blade had broken a while back and it decided to quit on him on some back road in the middle of nowhere Georgia. Fantastic.

We got lucky on our way through another small town as the rain slowed down enough to drive. While trying to find a Wal-Mart we spied an Autozone and pulled over to get a new wiper. A quick adjustment at a random school parking lot and we were on our way again!





5 - RV V. The Swimming

In Chattanooga we stayed at a Holiday Inn with a pretty nice Pool/Hot tub combo. Katie and I made it a priority. In passing we learned that RV didn't quite know how to swim, nor had he ever been in a hot tub. We wanted to change all that.

First the hot tub. That one was pretty easy. It just took some coercing.

The tough one was the swimming. To be honest, I thought he was just joking. Then he got in the pool, started to doggie paddle and sank like an anchor. Katie and I took it upon ourselves to make him a better swimmer and over the course of a couple days, and one or two nose bleeds, he started to get a bit more comfy in the water. Eventually he was linking strokes together nicely and I'm pretty confident that he'll be a strong swimmer soon enough.

I believe in you RV!!!

4 - RV V. The Sky and Gas Pumps

This was the final straw. Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse for him, this happened. We couldn't believe it.

So there we are on the last day at Dayton. The sun was out, weather was remarkably good. The plan was to start out at Dayton and then head over to LRC to finish up some bidness. RV had just figured out the rest of the beta on the Torpedo and was getting ready to send it.

For whatever reason he looked up at the sky and something clicked in his neck/shoulder and he was done. Tweaked. He could barely talk without absurd amounts of pain shooting through his shoulder.

His day was done.

By the end of it all he could actually drive and could even look at his blind spot.

Sadly the eventfulness wasn't over for him though. About an hour outside of Marion that night we pulled over to fill up at a gas station. RV finished and pulled the pump out and gas splashed all over his jacket and pants. It never ends RV.

3 - Walmart Fire Exit Sign

Who here has seen this sign?


Cause I think it's hilarious. It's the fire exit sign from Wal-Mart. Whenever I go into one I make sure to stop and take a quick look. It's too funny not to, right? I just figured everyone had seen it when I pointed it out to RV.

Three things happened.

One, RV started laughing hysterically at the absurd safety sign and then almost instantly passed out from the intense pain in his shoulder. Remember, this was the same day he tweaked his shoulder/neck.

Two, RV saw the sign, pointed and started laughing really loudly. Without either of us knowing it RV had unexpectedly, and unintentionally, pointed directly at some red headed kid standing right next to the sign and started to laugh uncontrollably.

Three, Katie told us that we'd pointed at some kid and started laughing loudly. Apparently the kid was a bit surprised/embarassed. RV then started laughing even harder and almost started crying from the pain in his shoulder.

Perfect. I love my life.

2 - RV V. the Toyota Tacoma with Hydraulics

So there we were, in the parking lot of a Bi and Lo grocery store. We'd just picked up some soup and cider for the next days climbing and were getting ready to head back to the hotel. All was well.

Then Katie looked past me and said "That truck is moving kinda funny". RV and I looked over and didn't notice anything. Then, out of nowhere the back end dropped to the cement and a loud BANG came from the truck.

Hydraulics on a rusted out Toyota Tacoma. Love it.

In the meantime RV heard the loud noise and hit the deck in fear of his life, convinced that the Toyota was shooting a shotgun at him.

Katie and I stood there as he picked himself back up to his feet a little sheepish and embarrassed for his display of upmost fear.

Like I said, I love my life.

1 - The Fit V. Water

So, you must be asking yourself "What can be better than RV thinking he was going to get shot by a Tacoma, Steve??". We got it beat by a long shot.

We've all experienced that giddy feeling that you get when you're close to a new area. You just want to get there and run around the boulders, even if you can't climb yet. After a 13 hour drive, all three of us were feeling that. We just wanted to be at Rocktown.

We turned onto the dirt road and started making our way up the mountain. We rounded a corner and all we saw was water. I yelled to Katie to make sure she'd stop in time as the fit would not function well as an Ark.






And there we sat, staring at water 3-4 feet deep and rushing VERY fast. We just couldn't believe it. We were maybe 3-4 miles from the boulders. That's it.

We snapped some pictures, walked around in disbelief and then got back in the car. We plugged in HP 40 to the GPS and started another couple hours of driving.

Still can't believe it.

Poor RV

Today was not his day. More soon...

South Update

Well, we're up in Chattanooga right now. We had a couple of nice, albeit chilly days at Hp40. We arrived at Rocktown late on Friday night only to find the road under a solid three feet of water about a mile up the mountain. Sad.

The Fit was not go.

We drove the two hours over to Horsepens for the night after a slight wiper blade malfunction. More on that entertainment soon.

Quick update on HP 40. RV sent Bum Boy so his trip was officially complete. Katie sent Slush Puppy really fast and was pretty happy about that. She also gave some great efforts on the reachy Mulletino but couldn't release her right to the jug. I finally stopped and tried Hammerhead and was pretty pleased I flashed it. This was followed by the worst case of screaming barfies I've ever had.

I'll have pics and a wrap up soon enough.

Weather has not been our friend unfortunately. Highs of 35 and 36 the first two days produced light snow and fucking frigid conditions. We did get about a half day of perfect conditions yesterday and Katie took pretty good advantage of it. She was able to channel "The Gentleman and had a nice two hour session of straight up machince gun style attempts. I'm not sure she took more than a 5 minute break the whole time.

Tomorrow we're gonna try and find River Dance and "The Roof" at Dayton Pocket. It's looking cold but the roof might offer us some shelter. We'll see.

We stopped at Rock/Creek today, which I maintain is maybe the best specialty outdoor shop I've ever been in. Katie got a pair of Team Shoes and RV got some Velcro Muiras. I got an ear flappy beanie and lived vicariously through them.

That's about it for now. Hope all is great up in the snowy homeland!

And.......breeeeaaaaathhhhhh

It's here! Oh man. So excited to leave Madison!!! RV, Katie and I are leaving today around 4 or 5 to go down to the Chattanooga area for 10 days. After a bit of a scare the weather is looking pretty manageable. Only a couple days look like rain and we can use those as rest days.

We're going to start things at Rocktown for a couple days and then Horsepens for a day or two. We're hoping to finish up with 4 solid days at LRC.

So psyched!!

My finger has been feeling pretty good lately although it's definitely still a bit sore and tender. I feel like I'm in ok shape right now. Not great, but workable. The one thing I kinda like about this trip is that I'm going down there without any real goals. Sure there are problems I want to get on, but I don't have anything dominating me. I just want to climb a ton of problems.

I'll make an attempt to do a quick update sometime through the week but no promises. It's nice to think that when I get back it'll only be a couple more weeks until we can go up to the lake again!!

Going to be such a good season!

Knife Fight

So Katie has some sort of issue with knives. I just don't get it. She always seems to get into fights with them and, I gotta say, they ALWAYS win. Always.

This morning Katie went into the sun room in our house to do a quick Ab workout. I was good and lazy and stayed in bed. After a minute or so she yelled something to me and a I got up to see what it was.

"I cut my finger with a bread knife while I was cutting a bagel!!"

Dammit.

I ran out to the car to get the super glue, which turned out to be in her pad in the garage instead. I found WAY too many empty super glue containers in the car though. Kind of funny.

All the while I kept on wondering why she was cutting a bagel while doing an Ab workout?!? I just didn't get it (it was still very early mind you). On top of that, when she said "Bread Knife" I thought of this:


My confusion only grew the more I thought about it.

When I got back in the house I just had to ask. "Why were you cutting a bagel while doing sit-ups?????". Not my brightest moment, but still, I stand by the question. Turns out she was cutting it before she started. Made much more sense then.

Then I saw the knife on the counter and it all clicked. When she said "Bread Knife", she meant super sharp, serrated, pokey BREAD KNIFE OF DOOM AND DISMEMBERMENT. See below:


Everything was clear then. We superglued her up nicely and it seems that it'll heal pretty quickly.

On another note, I'm about as excited as I could be with our trip coming up. I've been feeling better and better each day and my finger feels good. Still a little tender but overall I'm pretty positive about it. I feel like right now I'm at about 50-60%. Maybe more but there are many areas that still feel super weak. Circuits have been helping a lot with general fitness and it feels good to try hard again.

So ready for some more Sandstone...