Ahh, First Rest Day

The Rock Ranch....


After three days on we are pretty tired. It is beautiful down here! Sunny and 70 during the days, but a chilly sub-freezing at night. After a couple nights of shivering we've streamlined our sleeping attire and can now sleep through the night comfortably. Hint: wear pants to bed.

The Rock Ranch is a funny place with people from all over the world. Lots of Brits and other Euros, Canadians and people from all over the states. Everyone here is super cool and eccentric. I'm convinced you'll never meet a cool conglomerate of people than those staying at the rock ranch. The facilities are limited. The first day here the porta-potties were brimming with, well, you know what's in there. Luckily they pumped it that day too. I've never seen one so full. This guy, Rich, said that it's been so full you have to move the shit around with a stick! Good thing the park has plumbed toilets.

Our first day Nic showed us around the North Mountain; the one of 4 areas that you can access with out a guide. After a debilitating hike up the chains, (the elevation is evident) he took us to a bunch of easy 4 star classics to warm us up; No One Gets Out of Here Alive V2, Ghetto Simulator (Highball) V2, and Melon Patch (Highball) V0. We watched this guy Nick Duddle(sp?) try Esperanza V14. Only 4 other people have ever done it. He got so close, but that day wasn't the day for the send. There are so many great climbers here and so many great problems. This place makes you walk around in awe at the things people are capable of climbing! Nic took us to Terremer (Mother Earth)V15. A problem of razor crimps up a 40 degree face. It's insane. It's also very humbling.

Here's Kris & me on No One Gets Out of Here Alive...

This is me on Baby Martini...V6

This was the first thing I worked on in the park. Kinda a mistake as it burned my weak muscles and skin right away.

Here's us on Ghetto Simulator, a really long V2. It's more of a route than a boulder problem. Note the heel hook Kris is using, this is quite a rare occasion...

At the end of the day we hiked down to the Mushroom Boulder at the base of North Mountain. My skin was wasted, but Kris still found some strength to try out Center El Murray...

There are ancient Indian paintings throughout the park, most of the reason for so much restriction. You are not allowed to climb near these.

Day 2: Now we were ready to try some real problems. Brian gave us our mission...Kris:Babyface, me: Daily Dick Dose. Boulder problems are named by the first person to send (climb) them. Most of the problem in the park have obviously been established by single, horny guys. Don't blame me for the names of some of these problems.... If you go to
http://www.joelclimbs.blogspot.com/
you'll find a pic of me on Daily Dick Dose, third pic down.

Kris sent Babyface in less than a half hour. I was just around the corner from him and I decided to take a break to see how he was doing. I got there just in time to watch him send. We were yelling so loudly for him from the ground that he pulled out the last half of the problem. He hadn't gotten that far on any previous tries, so all the holds were new a foreign. Kinda scary to make committing moves to holds you haven't felt before.

According to Brian and Nic, that was a very quick send of a very hard problem.

We watched Brian try to dispatch Barefoot on Sacred Ground, a very, very hard V12. I can't even conceive climbing something that hard.
Then we hike over North Mountain and down the other side to meet up with Nic working Theater of the Absurd.

After that a quite go on Power of Silence, a very energy dependant problem. If you're not fresh, you probably won't send. Still, a very cool problem. I wish I could work it too.

Day 3: Tour to the East Spur...We met up with our guide Pete about noon. Pete was really cool. He had actually been to Taylor's Falls while working on the Sherman Stone Crusade, which is a tour of all 50 states first done by bouldering grandfather John Sherman. He came to climb Mike's Left. It's weird to meet someone who's actually climbed at our little crag. We first showed up at Jigsaw Puzzle, an extra-hard V5.

Kris came over, and disgusted by the heel hook I'm doing here, used his infamous toe-hook instead and sent the problem, after a cigarette, of course. From here we headed over to Brian's project, Rumble in the Jungle. A roof of pinches and toe hooks that stresses every muscle, especially the core, as you can see in Brian's bulging muscles....

He's going back tomorrow to put this problem to bed....

We ran into this crazy guy along the trail who claimed to be Kurt Cobain. He pointed out his large white frame sunglasses and slumped over, depressed demeanor. He later turned out to just be Brain in disguise. We should have known by the large, purple, puffy jacket.

We went into town for dinner that night to a Chinese Buffet. We all commented on how it was the nicest Chinese Buffet any of us had been to. Don't trust appearances. Half an hour later I was puking out of the car. That sucked. That's the last time I eat from a trough of food on this trip!!

More to post on Thusday! Lynn & Kris: Enjoy the cold, Minnesota!!!