Shannon leading Raven in Shelf Road.
Katy attempting the start of Chunky Monkey (Shelf Road)
The first injury...Katy's bloody toe.
Bob, the Hueco Tanks tour guide.
The only alien we saw in Roswell...a streetlight.
The white gypsum sand of New Mexico.Right now we're in the UC in Alpine, Texas. "The UC?" you might ask...no it's not the Ugly Coyote, the Unicorn Cave or the Universal Commode. It's the University Center at the local state university. We're here putting "our" student fees to work using the free wi-fi.
We're working backwards here, so if you want to know where we started you're going to have to go to the bottom and read backwards (that or find a Super Mario Bros warp zone.)
We departed this morning from Hueco Tanks State Historic Park outside of Juarez, Mexico (or El Paso, Texas for all of you "gringos" out there). We managed to avoid getting spanked by Mary Beth, the volunteer park host, by abiding by the 6:00pm campground curfew each night. We followed Bob the park guide around into the "guided only areas" of East and West Mountain and learned from Bob that the pictographs were painted from "a mixture of stuff over different periods of time." (that's a direct quote) We camped right in the park in what we now refer to as "the Fun Palace" or "Camp Hilton." We had our own water spigot, a trash can, a sheltered picnic table, and the bathroom down the road had showers!! We spruced the place up with a hammock, slack line, and camp chairs. Our site even came with a raccoon that tried to steal food out of our coolers while we slept. The best part was that each morning and evening we'd ride our bikes by a guy sitting out in front of his camper in a lawn chair and he'd say stuff like "mornin' or howdy." Good ol' Texas.
Okay...this really is a climbing trip...we promise. Hueco Tanks is not just a clever name. The rocks are dotted with little round indented pockets of all shapes and sizes. (These are the "huecos" for all you gringos.) The rock just begs to be climbed and climb it we did. It took us a day of psuedo-bouldering and wandering to get our bearings. On day two, we met some friendly climbers, Ken and Jeff, who came all the way from Portland, Oregon. They needed an extra rope, we needed a guide book. The four of us teamed up and climbed some spectacular routes. After a semi-rough start in Colorado, we finally found our groove. Shannon had a great trad lead up a double crack system and Katy led up a run-out hueco face climb. After Ken and Jeff had departed, we climbed a two pitch route, Cakewalk Direct, that had a fun Indian Jones style descent. We couldn't quit smiling as we rode our bikes back to the Fun Palace that night.
For all of you geography buffs out there, you migh recall an area between Colorado and Texas. We call it "New Mexico," as does the rest of the literate world. New Mexico was formally known as "the land of enchantment." We now call it "the land of aliens and sand." Which brings us to our New Mexico stops: Roswell and White Sands National Monument. We drove into Roswell in the late evening and as it got dark we began a time journal so that we'd know if we had been abducted. You may deem this unnecessary, but there are a few minutes, after we walked into the Alien Walmart, that we can't account for. We awoke the next morning and after a few phone calls found that it was still the year 2007...whew! close call.
That afternoon found us riding our bikes down a white sand road...way more out of this world than an "aliens welcome" sign at the Roswell Arby's. We were in White Sands National Monument and it was virtually deserted except for us, our bikes, and the park ranger who would occassionally drive by and tell us to "pedal, pedal, pedal!" through his patrol vehicle loud speaker. We walked out into the dunes, danced around in our underwear, found a stink bug or two and marveled at the purity of the white gypsum sand. It was an afternoon well spent...it was so beautiful.
Which, naturally, brings us to the beginning...not just the beginning of this trip, but the beginning of our climbing history together: Shelf Road (say this like Lloyd says "Apsen" in Dumb and Dumber.) It was a rough start as Shannon had contracted the Black Plague (or some other fever inducing, lung hacking virus.) Katy spent a few antsy days staring at the cliffs while Shannon recovered, but by the end we had some challenging climbs under our harnesses. Sick or not, in good shape or not, Shelf did not disappoint us. We met some awesome and entertaining camp neighbors. (yes that's you Nick, Shawn, and Jonathan or Nick and Shawnathan as we like to call you. And really, we're sorry to hear that the watermelons stole your car. You never can trust a pink fruit with that many seeds.) On the last day, our boyfriends (Stevie and Jamie) came and climbed. Stevie led a route and Jamie was even caught smiling after a climb. They sent us off in style by buying us pizza, putting us up in a hotel and calling us "gypsies" as we said our goodbyes.
We're working backwards here, so if you want to know where we started you're going to have to go to the bottom and read backwards (that or find a Super Mario Bros warp zone.)
We departed this morning from Hueco Tanks State Historic Park outside of Juarez, Mexico (or El Paso, Texas for all of you "gringos" out there). We managed to avoid getting spanked by Mary Beth, the volunteer park host, by abiding by the 6:00pm campground curfew each night. We followed Bob the park guide around into the "guided only areas" of East and West Mountain and learned from Bob that the pictographs were painted from "a mixture of stuff over different periods of time." (that's a direct quote) We camped right in the park in what we now refer to as "the Fun Palace" or "Camp Hilton." We had our own water spigot, a trash can, a sheltered picnic table, and the bathroom down the road had showers!! We spruced the place up with a hammock, slack line, and camp chairs. Our site even came with a raccoon that tried to steal food out of our coolers while we slept. The best part was that each morning and evening we'd ride our bikes by a guy sitting out in front of his camper in a lawn chair and he'd say stuff like "mornin' or howdy." Good ol' Texas.
Okay...this really is a climbing trip...we promise. Hueco Tanks is not just a clever name. The rocks are dotted with little round indented pockets of all shapes and sizes. (These are the "huecos" for all you gringos.) The rock just begs to be climbed and climb it we did. It took us a day of psuedo-bouldering and wandering to get our bearings. On day two, we met some friendly climbers, Ken and Jeff, who came all the way from Portland, Oregon. They needed an extra rope, we needed a guide book. The four of us teamed up and climbed some spectacular routes. After a semi-rough start in Colorado, we finally found our groove. Shannon had a great trad lead up a double crack system and Katy led up a run-out hueco face climb. After Ken and Jeff had departed, we climbed a two pitch route, Cakewalk Direct, that had a fun Indian Jones style descent. We couldn't quit smiling as we rode our bikes back to the Fun Palace that night.
For all of you geography buffs out there, you migh recall an area between Colorado and Texas. We call it "New Mexico," as does the rest of the literate world. New Mexico was formally known as "the land of enchantment." We now call it "the land of aliens and sand." Which brings us to our New Mexico stops: Roswell and White Sands National Monument. We drove into Roswell in the late evening and as it got dark we began a time journal so that we'd know if we had been abducted. You may deem this unnecessary, but there are a few minutes, after we walked into the Alien Walmart, that we can't account for. We awoke the next morning and after a few phone calls found that it was still the year 2007...whew! close call.
That afternoon found us riding our bikes down a white sand road...way more out of this world than an "aliens welcome" sign at the Roswell Arby's. We were in White Sands National Monument and it was virtually deserted except for us, our bikes, and the park ranger who would occassionally drive by and tell us to "pedal, pedal, pedal!" through his patrol vehicle loud speaker. We walked out into the dunes, danced around in our underwear, found a stink bug or two and marveled at the purity of the white gypsum sand. It was an afternoon well spent...it was so beautiful.
Which, naturally, brings us to the beginning...not just the beginning of this trip, but the beginning of our climbing history together: Shelf Road (say this like Lloyd says "Apsen" in Dumb and Dumber.) It was a rough start as Shannon had contracted the Black Plague (or some other fever inducing, lung hacking virus.) Katy spent a few antsy days staring at the cliffs while Shannon recovered, but by the end we had some challenging climbs under our harnesses. Sick or not, in good shape or not, Shelf did not disappoint us. We met some awesome and entertaining camp neighbors. (yes that's you Nick, Shawn, and Jonathan or Nick and Shawnathan as we like to call you. And really, we're sorry to hear that the watermelons stole your car. You never can trust a pink fruit with that many seeds.) On the last day, our boyfriends (Stevie and Jamie) came and climbed. Stevie led a route and Jamie was even caught smiling after a climb. They sent us off in style by buying us pizza, putting us up in a hotel and calling us "gypsies" as we said our goodbyes.
