Buckle up kid's I'm back from Mexico and it's TRIP REPORT TIME. As usual there's a TL:DR section at the bottom.

I first heard of EPC two years ago when a bunch of people from the club went during winter, and I sorta had my eyes on this place for a while now. Feels so surreal to have finally gone there and matched the places from those pictures to my own eyes being there in person. Anyway a group of us went to EPC this winter at different times, and for the most parts I'll be talking about my part of the trip. ​

• A sport climbing haven in Mexico, an hour drive from the Monterrey Airport in Nuevo León 
• Located in the town of Hidalgo, which is quite climber-centric with super friendly locals
• Known for its tall multipitch sport climbs, but also features great single pitch climbs (and a few trad ones)
• Great climbing on limestone (not very slick or polished in my opinion), lots of features on the rock
• Lots of choss despite how popular the place is (I'll talk more about rock fall potential later)
• Various levels of climbing, but great for those in the 5.10-12 range

The climbing at EPC is right outside town. If you see the photo above, past the "Potrero Chico" sign along the road you will reach the crag. Most of the campsites are right along the road leading into the crag, and town is about a 5 min drive from the crag along this road. 

EPC is just outside the town of Hidalgo, about an hour away from the nearest big city of Monterrey. To get to Monterrey you have a few options

• Bus: There's a bus that runs from Texas I believe (Turimex) but I only heard this from other climbers I met there.
• Drive: This is a pretty common option. Mihail, Eric and Noah drove down the I-35 Southern Terminus at Laredo, TX, and had a pretty easy time through. From there it's about a 3 hour drive to EPC. The downside is that from Champaign it's about 22 hours so it'll be a long ride. Traffic back  to the States seemed to be worse than into Mexico (their car got stuck in a 3 hour jam), but procedures were pretty much the same. 
• Fly: You can fly into Monterrey International Airport via a few airlines. Inbound I took VivaAerobus from Las Vegas direct, and outbound on Volaris which transited at Mexico City and then to Denver. While my inbound flight was delayed, I had no issues with travel except that the airports had no water fountains available (not sure about drinking from the tap) so you may need to buy water. If you can't speak Spanish it's fine as both airports had attendants that knew a English to help you with checking in etc. 

From Monterrey, you can either take a bus into town. I heard it's rather cheap but I didn't get details on that. The more common option is take a taxi service (in our case, Sean) who will be able to pick you up and drop you at your accommodations accordingly. This costs about $35-50. There's a Facebook Group where people post about accommodation options and also ask about sharing a cab or something, probably worth checking out and just asking questions if you have any. 

Generally as pretty economical (or broke) climbers, many people at EPC opt for camping out. There's a variety of options to camp, and most of these campgrounds have better accommodation options such as a hostel room or even a house for rent (albeit more expensive). All campgrounds have a communal kitchen where you can use boxes and refrigerators to keep your food and booze, toilets and showers, and usually a restaurant as well. 

• Camping: Bring your tent and sleeping bag, find your space and you're done. Cheapest option, generally about $5/day. Most common option, especially for climbers staying for the long term there (some for a few months)
• Room: Hotel/hostel style. I only saw the one at Sendero but I believe theirs is a hostel style, while the other options are private rooms. Sendero's rate was about $15/night
• House: Rent out an entire place for yourself, good if you're staying with a bunch of friends and wouldn't mind paying a little more over the duration of your stay. I believe the average rate is about $10-20/night depending on where you stay.

The following are the main campgrounds that we know of/have stayed at. There are more options that you can research on.

• Rancho el Sendero: Newest campground to the area, about 10 minutes walk away from the other campgrounds. We stayed here this year and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it. There's camping ($5), hostels ($15), and a house ($??), but if you stay more than 10 days you get a 10% discount. While it is further away from climbing and the roads into the site are rather rocky, the huge selling points are
  1. Less noise for a better night's rest
  2. Clean facilities including a well equipped kitchen and hot showers (though sometimes can be janky)
  3. Fantastic Wi-Fi that allowed me to Skype my family from across the world
  4. Buffet dinners on Friday for ~$6, including wood fired pizzas (I ate like half a damn pizza on my own)
  5. Bonfire nights where everyone chills by the fire and have an awesome time

Mexico isn't exactly in good light when it comes to safety, and the city of Monterrey has seen an increase in crime rates recently. That said, it is unlikely you are a victim as long as you take decent safety precautions. Also it is possible to avoid the city almost entirely during your visit to EPC. As for Hidalgo, it is much safer, and the climber-centric community is really friendly there. The locals are also super awesome friendly people. You can probably hitch-hike in and out of town for the most parts (we got a ride from a nice local driving along the main road, and two years ago Amanda hitch-hiked THE POLICE). During our stay there, we walked out on the streets at night as a group and never felt like we were in any sort of danger per say, and we didn't really frequent town all that much. So anyway, at least from what I know, you would go into town for 4 main reasons: 

GROCERY STORE
You can get most of your essentials from the grocery store (marked on map). Selection is limited but I doubt you'll really need much more. There's a bigger supermarket further North but you'd probably require a car to get there. Groceries are pretty cheap and probably about half that of what you would pay in the States. Essentials from the store are mainly

• Snacks/granola bars/trail mix for you to bring on the climb with you
• Toilet paper since not ever cubicle will have them
• Toiletries such as toothpaste and soap
• Food for breakfast as it's usually more inconvenient to eat out in the morning
• Any food you may wanna cook for meals

​EAT
There are a bunch of convenience/booze stores throughout town (there's like 5 that you pass by before even reaching the grocery store). You can get snacks and stuff there but there isn't really much. Only thing I can remember is that some stores will charge you a little more for beer and that's cause you have to return the glass bottle for recycling for them to refund you that extra bit. Also there are a couple of roadside stores selling food (in houses or in food trucks) but we never really tried any of it.

However the one day that we did try the food in town was essentially their version of a farmers market, which happens Tuesdays and Fridays. The one on Tuesday is along a street about 2 blocks south of the grocery store. I did not go to the Friday one but I heard it is at a different location and is much bigger. The Tuesday market was just a row of stores that were set up on the street, selling things from produce to local foods to clothes and even had a bingo table you could sit and play. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking a rest day of sorts to go visit this market and try the street food, and also shop for groceries if you need, it took us no more than an hour to see everything so think of it as going to town for lunch. It reminds me a lot of night markets that you see in Taiwan or equivalents around Asia.

On of the few things I remember having were Sopes, where they had like flour tortilla dough discs about the size of your palm and they toast it then deep fry it and cut it open and toss a bunch of amazing toppings inside. IT IS SO GOOD and it's like a dollar each WHATTTTTT damn it now I'm hungry but totally try that it's so good. We also had freshly squeezed orange juice which was so tasty and also Walking Tacos which were basically nachos made inside a chips bag (usually Doritos). There's probably a lot more you can get but I also already bought like 3 large pieces of fried chicken so I was forced to stop eating. 

Food in Mexico is both fantastic and affordable (just like South East Asia which you should totally go to). If you were staying here for a while and wanted to save on expenses, you can whip up a dope ass meal for less than $3 pretty easily. If you're buying from the local grocery store, most stuff are pretty standard but here are some recommendations for groceries that we enjoyed:

• Avocados: Holy shit if there's a time to be a millennial it's now and here because it's like $1 for 3 avocados so whip out your damn avocado toasts for every breakfast and feel like a king/queen
• Chorizo: They come in little red tubes and I swear it's not actually meat it's just an entire tube of seasoning or something. Throw that on some eggs and they taste amazing
• Red Sausage Thing: I have no idea what the hell these things are but grill them over the fire and they taste phenomenal. They come in normal weiners packages. I didn't really like the ones with cheese inside but the chicken and pork meat ones were amazing. 
• Coolers: I think that's what they're called but basically just alcoholic sodas. Taste pretty good and have same alcohol volume as beer. 
• Local snacks: There are a bunch of stuff like cookies and biscuits that I've never seen before so feel free to try some and maybe you'll like them! 
• DO NOT BUY THE NACHO CHEESE IN A BAG IT'S PRETTY DISGUSTING :(​

• Rappeling: Middle mark your ropes, knot your ends, and always use an autoblock. We can get away with not doing this for single pitch since you can physically see your rope hit the ground, and you can get a fireman's for backup from your belayer. But there is literally no excuse on multipitch. Rappeling is one of the top causes of death in climbing, and it's almost always attributed to human error. Also make sure you and your partner are aware of what each other are doing. I had an instance where Kyle and I were simul-rapping and I almost went off rappel before he was in-direct. Spend a day running through your processes with your climbing partner to make sure you're solid. Better safe than sorry.

Personally I have a stupid mistake that I made and I think it is important to share this. On the last day after topping out on the last climb, we got ready to rappel. Mihail went down first, and in the mean time I was in-direct to the wall while standing on a ledge. At some point, I realized I mixed up the biners I used and switched them out from my PAS. For about 5 seconds, I didn't realize that I had no points of contact on the wall at any point. When I was back in-direct, I was literally quite shaken by what I had just done, and even now thinking back on it, it really scares me. It didn't even occur to me that what I was doing was dangerous because I was on a ledge and the rope was right in front of me. Doing all those multipitch routes got me complacent and negligent on my safety procedures (I should have had 2 points of contact in the wall and at the very least 1 at all times). I didn't realize what I had done could have killed me. I don't mean to blow this out of proportion but I just hope that we never have to hear of an incident where someone we know gets injured or even dies from making a silly mistake that can be avoided. ​

The Crag
​EPC is basically just a canyon formed by two mountains (El Toro on one side and the other I don't know the name). One of the best things about this canyon is short approaches​. Jungle Wall is literally right beside the road, and your approach to some climbs is literally two steps from the sidewalk. Even the more committing approaches took no more than 30 minutes and are steep but relatively straightforward (less the hike up to El Bobo which was a fucking nightmare).

The rock is limestone which isn't as high-friction as sandstone, but I found that this limestone was still decently grippy and full of features, which is great for an edgy boy like me who loves to edge. The rock can be sharp so get those hands ready to be bloodied especially if you're looking to hand jam. If you never climbed limestone before, it may be good to take a day to climb easier stuff to get used to it. I recommend using the first day to get used to the rock by doing single pitch climbs, because EPC boasts some solid single pitch climbs too. Another plus point for limestone is that it's really porous - most of the climbs dried out so quick we never worried about wet rock for most of the trip. Downside about the rock however is that there is still lots of choss and even large death blocks (marked with a big X) which are loose. Always be aware of the dangers and make sure you yell "ROCK" if there are any pieces falling. 

For the multipitch climbs, note that there are usually rappel rings that are separate from anchor bolts. If you are climbing, use the anchor bolts unless you are the first party up or have a bad belay position, because you don't want to be using the rap rings of a party ahead of you. There's a bunch of basic multipitch etiquette that we had to learn (such as how much space to give a party ahead, or when to give up on a climb based on the queue), so make sure to not be 'that annoying party' at the crag. 

Recommended Climbs
Ok on a lighter note, here are a few climbs that we did and highly recommend doing. I'm sure there are more but these were all we could squeeze into our short trip to EPC. A quick point that you'll probably find beta on linking pitches, which would involve more draws and potentially a longer rope. Highly recommend bringing 24 draws (at least a few of which are alpine draws), and a 70m rope (some routes can only be rappeled with a 70)

• Monkey Boy (5.11a, single pitch): One of the few single pitch climbs we did. Not too sustained and I found it really fun just based on the movement.
• Gettin' Wood (5.10d, 2 pitches): Short climb on the Spires. Not too hard, and while topping out is a little scary on the fixed pieces of protection, it's more for peace of mind, and the view at the top is super worth it. 
• Will the Wolf Survive (5.10a, 4 pitches): Classic, though you may find a bunch of newbies on the route since it's one of the better multipitch climbs that is both short and well rated so it's a good intro climb. Pitch 4 is one of the scariest and most committing leads you'll probably do, super cool.
• Jungle Mountaineering (5.10a, 4 pitches): The grading on this may feel a little inconsistent but it's not too far off. Enjoyable climb but just watch all the cacti on the wall (there's a reason why the wall is called Jungle Wall). 
• Pancho Villa Rides Again (5.10c, 5 pitches): Climbing on bolts is cool for the first 2 pitches. Plenty of footholds for those that have trouble with cracks, but hand jams are a must. Crux is well bolted. 3 pitch is among my favorite pitches ever. Stemming, knee-bars, and high feet to get over bulges made it feel awesome. View from the top is spectacular. (Submitted by Kyle)
• Satori (5.10c, 7 pitches): Didn't actually do this climb but I heard it was really good. Shares the same 1st two pitches with Off the Couch, so people have climbed both routes in a day (12 pitches total).
• Off the Couch (5.10d, 7 pitches): Despite the terrible hike in (because we bush-whacked for the most parts), there was a massive queue ahead of us. Cool finish near the top. 
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre (5.10c, 7 pitches): Get those jams in those cracks. Or if you're like me just stem the features. Easy for the grades with only a few 10+ moves, slightly uncomfortable hanging belays, and a cool little roof section. Kinda sucked that our rope got stuck on the way down when rappeling though. Apparently the view is amazing but the day I went there was like 50 feet visibility due to the fog so it made a good LinkedIn profile picture. 
• Black Cat Bone (5.10d, 9 pitches): My personal favourite climb of the trip. Pretty easy climbing for the most parts, but the 10d pitch was phenomenal. Layback to face crimps to a roof on a decently sustained section, I'd have to say this is one of the best pitches of climbing I have done ever. Even as a standalone pitch this is a 4 star climb. After that, the following 2 pitches are stellar as well, especially the dihedral section which is slightly spicy. Bring a pen and some souvenirs, there's a summit box at the top! 
• Space Boyz (5.10d, 11 pitches): Probably my second favourite climb. Pitches 5 and 6 were fantastic, with super cool moves throughout. Start of pitch 5 involves reaching out over a traverse ledge which is slightly scary but kinda fun as well. View from the top is fabulous. 
• Yankee Clipper (5.12a/10b A0, 15 pitches): Long and awesome. Getting to bolts 3–5 on the 15th pitch were hard, but after that it was 5.10 climbing and easier. French freeing helps but you still have to manage some tough moves at high exposure. Great climb with spectacular views. Pitch 13 is not the top. Anyone that says so is a quiter! (Submitted by Kyle)
• Time Wave Zero (5.12a/5.11b A0, 23 pitches): The test piece of my trip here. Had this baby on my mind for almost a year now and so glad to have done it. More on it in the highlights section below. 

There were a few climbs that were on my radar but didn't get the chance to do were:

• Pitch Black (5.10d, 6 pitches)
• Snott Girlz (5.10d, 7 pitches)
• Estrellita (5.11a, 12 pitches)
• El Sendero Diablo (5.11c, 6 pitches)

• EPC is a climbing haven in winter when temps are good (expect when Mexico decides to snow)
• Fantastic sport multipitch, generally 5.10-12 range, though there is also great single pitch stuff
• Drive down or fly into Monterrey then take a shuttle in 
• Bring about $300 for expenditure (that was my 10 days expenditure with 2 way local transport and camping included)
• Stay at Rancho el Sendero, eat at Leos, Arturo's Tacos, Face Burger
• Bring 24 draws (some alpine) and a 70m rope
• Be extra safe and watch out for falling rocks and always make sure to knot ends of your rope when rappeling
• Recommended climbs: Pancho Villa Rides Again, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Black Cat Bone, Space Boyz, Time Wave Zero
• Go meet the amazing people and have a wonderful time

Just a quick shoutout to Sean for first introducing me to this place and for taking care of us, to Kyle for being such a great climbing buddy with me for the trip, to Tanner for tackling TWZ with me, and to the rest of the crew for making this trip possible. Glad we all got back safe, and I sure hope that I will be back again. 

- Shao

​Man it literally hurts just typing this cause I have a blood blister on my index finger but who cares cause my stoke tank from HCR is still full and I am excited to write about this amazing place that I have fallen in love with so buckle up kids it’s time for another trip report. Also I'm still as long winded as ever so there's a TL:DR section below. 

Some basics and admin stuff about HCR first

• A privately owned ranch in Arkansas (~8 hour drive from Champaign).
• As the name implies, this small canyon is shaped like a horseshoe, with over 400 routes of primarily sport, but also some good trad and bouldering
• Climbing here is on sandstone which may feel similar to Jackson, but I believe it is ‘hard’ as opposed to ‘soft’ so the rock can be more jagged and sharp
• Usage of this private property is not free; $5 for camping overnight, $10 for day climbing per pax
• Camping is kind of free for all, first come first serve. Each site comes with a fire pit and a bench table.
• Facilities at the ranch include
  • Toilets with running water and usually toilet paper
  • Showers for $3/token which is ~15 mins of hot water I believe
  • A trading post that is where you pay for camping, climbing, shower tokens and also serves as a general store (open 8am-4pm) which sells food, coffee, firewood ($5/bundle) and climbing stuff too
• Since it’s a ranch there are horses, goats, cows etc roaming around even at the campsites if they so please. Herding dogs are also present and may herd climbers occasionally
• There is poop everywhere (photographic evidence available later in trip report)
• This is also where the famous 24 Hour Horseshoe Hell event is held. 

Now that that’s out of the way it’s time for me to unnecessarily recount everything that happened in those four days chronologically in great detail. 

Sketchy van left campus around 4pm on Friday and since we’d reach HCR pretty late we figured we’d save the $25 on camping and just sleep at a Walmart in Branson. The weather was oddly warm but pretty welcomed at this time of the year. None of us really slept all that well for those few hours but this is what we get of being cheap.  

At the crack of dawn we left Walmart and took the windy road into HCR. Take note that the road in isn’t all that bad but there are some sections which are quite steep and if it was muddy the drive may not be all that pleasant (I think sketchy van may have had troubles getting out if it was raining). As with Jackson there are potholes in certain areas and you may want to keep your eyes on the road if you don’t have a decent amount of clearance.

A little after sunrise we met up with the rest of the gang at the West Campground just up the hill from the Trading Post and bought our climbing passes to get ready for some climbing. We had quite a group (~20 of us) which I don’t know how it came to be but I just added a lot of people who said “I’m interested” and here we are. We were generally split in 3 groups; the big kids (Eric, Dylan, Mina and Logan) who were getting on some hard stuff, the crack boys (Peter and Mihail) who were getting crusty the whole trip and the rest who were a mix of regular and newbie climbers. I was trying to push myself and so I tried to stick with the big kids and I’m glad I did cause I pushed my limits trying to keep up with them.

Boy I could feel my fingers throbbing but there was climbing to be done so I sucked it up and powered through. After some tasty pancakes in the morning the main group headed towards The Far East which had a good number of routes too. Eric and I started off on Gracie’s Eight (5.8) which had a huge bivvy ledge. We then got on a classic and my favorite climb of the day – Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (5.11a), which had a nice crux section down low and pretty cool moves. Eric then proceeded to fight it out on what was allegedly the best 5.12 in the canyon, Super Soul Sure Shot (5.12c), which featured a crimpy start and a crazy gaston crux in the middle. Eric crushed it and I made a mistake of thinking I could possibly do it too but simply ended up ripping the skin on my fingers and not even being able to do it (I TR assisted the starting crimp section and couldn’t even do the crux by French Freeing). 

After a terrible defeat I proceeded to repair my ego by climbing Orange Crush (5.9) which was the tallest climb on the furthest part of the canyon, and it is famous for having the best view of the canyon which I agree. It is quite a view to take in and you should definitely bring a camera when going up. This route is also over protected so you can bring 14 draws or just skip a few close ones to get up. 

To end off the day we headed to Roman Wall, which featured vertical faced routes up to ~40 feet up, followed by a pretty crazy roof past the ledge for a few climbs. We were all eyeing Maximus (5.12a), a 30 foot roof overhang up to a roof for the finish. You can get to Maximus via a classic arete problem Commodus (5.10a) to the belay ledge. Dylan, Logan and Mina went first so Eric and I got on Boronocus (5.11c) which was a less intense overhang but still loads of fun on a rather long route. 

Eventually I went up Maximus but my skin was absolutely bare and chalk literally would not stick on my fingertips (plus I was still feeling terrible from Super Soul Sure Shot) so I couldn't stick the crux and it was quite a bad way to end the day, but well I think I was just happy to have tried. Eric subsequently went ahead to cruise through the crux and finish up the climb.

Jared's car had to leave early so after dinner they left for Champaign, while the rest of us cuddled by the campfire cause it was getting real cold. The major highlight of the night was Logan showing us that he could totally do Danger Can in one hit and said "It's cause you guys don't commit enough" and then proceeded to smash the can on his head and not break open the can. It was probably the best thing we saw all trip. Mihail and Logan proceeded to go late night bouldering while we all got an early night. 

After a day of defeat I decided to slow it down with pushing myself on the hard stuff. We warmed up at Roman Wall again where I did Sybarite (5.9) and then lead Commodus since I top roped it the day before. Mina was feeling strong and so she led and almost onsighted Boronocus which was awesome. We headed over to Middle East area where I go on Nipple Stimulation (5.10a) simply because of the name.

We then headed to Titanic Boulder on the other side of the canyon and got herded by the dog and also saw a whole bunch of goats (including one with obscenely big testicles). 

While passing by campsite we saw a bunch of trash and realized that the last group to leave did not clear up and left some food stuff and a load of garbage out. Not cool. Especially since the goats were so near our campsites they could have easily raided it and attracted other animals too. Plus it's a huge no-go for simply have bad camping etiquette so we cleaned it up and gave the group a lil trash talk that night. 

Now for the highlight of the trip. Eric, Dylan and Logan got on Cradle of the Deep (5.13a) which was this crazy problem up this fin on the side of the free-standing  Titanic Boulder. If you're wondering why it's called that, the next picture should do a good job explaining.

Watching the big boys get on Cradle of the Deep was pretty intense. It looked like it was way out of my reach but I'd be up to try it sometime in the future once I get stronger. If you're intending to do it, bring a stick clip because the belay ledge has a 15 foot drop off and it's not gonna be fun to fall off on lead. Logan and I managed to rodeo backclip the first bolt so we gave up. Also listening to Logan climb and get angry/excited on a climb is hilarious and I highly recommend everyone to climb with him just to listen to it. 

In the mean time, Mina and I also got on two easier climbs, Ship of Fools (5.10a) and Portside (5.10d). Ship of Fools was a straightforward climb with a bouldery start, while Portside was probably the coolest climb I did the entire trip. 

To end off the day, we went to Prophecy Wall which is where the only 5.14a of the canyon is found (The Prophet, FA by Chris Sharma in 2005). I jumped on Taliban Soup (5.11b) and managed to bump my hardest onsight grade which really made my day. Eric did Egyptian Airbus (5.12c). Both climbs were slabby up to the roof and had some pretty big moves, but nothing too difficult. Apparently Egyptian Airbus had a huge dyno move which Eric clearly didn't do so it was rather disappointing. Mina and Dylan also got on Learning to Fly (5.10c) which was a sustained slight overhung route and we finished that climb which was a great way to end the day. 

​We got back to campsite for dinner, and after some convincing from Logan about the best boulder problem he ever did in his life, a bunch of us decided to join him for late night bouldering at Idaho Boulders. Logan brought us to this problem called Make You Cuss (V2) that features super cool layback smearing which is great on a high friction day like ours. He then began to describe this incredible process of sending the problem after many attempts and how it will forever be his favorite route, making a bold statement that if someone flashes it he will start walking home.

Eric then flashed the problem.

Okay so Logan stayed but still it was one of the funniest things we ever saw (the title of this trip report also came from a conversation that night). I never got up Make You Cuss cause I suck at smearing but I think I'd like to try it if my fingers are in better shape. We also tried a couple of V0s around before moving on to another area, stopping by some classics along the way such as Grand Dragon (V7) and other boulder problems that are pretty much impossible. ​

Towards the end we were all pretty pooped from just climbing so much, but we all tried The Crescent (V3) which was a cool slabby problem with a huge crescent sidepull thing on the right. Eric made quick work of it and the rest of us struggled quite a bit. Logan eventually sent it but that involved saying "One Last Time" like 15 times and every attempt at a different beta was actually the same beta we were telling him. But it was still great that he finally got the send. Also throughout this Mihail was just sleeping on a root and didn't even care that he became a crash pad.

The last day was a slow one cause of the bouldering plus we had to pack up the site and that we had an 8 hour drive back. We packed up and left for Mullet Buttress near the north side of the crag where Eric and I got on Business in the Front (5.10b) for warming up and I hopped on Mixed Max (5.11c) which is pretty cool and I'd recommend Mixed Max if you're hitting up the area.

But the real highlight for the last day was Goat Cave, an area of overhung routes that due to low popularity, has been overrun by goats and since there are no plants on the ground in the cave, the sea of goat shit has been there forever. FYI this extends to free standing boulders being covered in poop it was horrible. But to make up for this, Goat Cave had some pretty amazing climbs. Huge plus points that they're all permadraws for convenience. 

Mina got the ball rolling with Anal Sac Expression (5.10c) which is the easiest climb in the cave. This one starts on top of the boulder and you'd want to stick clip it to prevent some serious falls if you miss the first clip. Eric did some crazy stuff on Austrian Ass Attack (5.12a) which starts off with some serious hand jamming and leads up to a big roof, which Dylan also finished afterwards. I did Mexican Sac Pull (5.11b) that was rather straightforward overhang stuff too. 

Eric's car had to run off afterwards so I belayed Dylan on what I believe was Man Junk (5.12b) and it involved a lot of climber-belayer love entanglement. The crux was definitely down low and it seemed like an intense start. ​Dylan then convinced me to do Ride the Short Bus (5.11d). This climb starts on the tip of a sharp boulder so stick clipping the first bolt is a yes. It was kind of frustrating because at the edge on my tip toes I barely reached the crimps before I have to campus to a jug and I was not able to do it, so I instead had to dyno for the jug, whereas Dylan kinda just reached for it. But once I got the first jug, it was pretty smooth sailing from there getting through the low crux and eventually the sweetest roof I've done so far into a nice juggy finish. Dylan hopped on after to send the route and it was dope. 

With the climbing done we got some final pictures of HCR and set sail back to Champaign. Sketchy van stopped by El Sombrero in Lebanon, Missouri which I'd dare say had as good salsa and food as El Tequila in Vienna, and at almost a dollar or two cheaper. If Mexican food sounds good after 4 days of climbing, this is the place. 

And that concluded my virgin trip to HCR! It was definitely an eye opening experience and I am grateful to have had great weather on some quality climbs with fantastic company. Kind of crazy looking back at my first trip report last year in the Red and realizing how much I've improved. I'm nowhere near being the strongest climber in my community (however I define that) but it's amazing to know that I have improved both physically and mentally. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible and I can't wait to see what the next trip has in store for us.

- Shao

TL:DR:

• HCR is really far away from Champaign but for sport climbers it packs some quality single pitch climbs with a good variety of difficulty (less so if you're a 5.13 climber)
• Bouldering and trad is supposedly pretty good but not in significant quantities
• HCR is privately owned and more pricey than other destinations ($5/night camping, $10/day climbing, $5/bundle firewood, $3/shower) but the facilities are good and areas are well maintained (e.g. trash bins, potable water, toilets with running water)
• Relatively beginner friendly areas (5.8/9) include North Forty, The Far East, Cliffs of Insanity, Roman Wall and Mullet Buttress
• Circus Wall (part of North Forty), Roman Wall, Titanic Boulder, Prophecy Wall and Goat Cave have some great climbs within the 5.10-5.12 range
• Personal favorite climbs: Portside, Taliban Soup, Sonny Jim, Big Top, Lavender Eye, Boronocus, Commodus/Maximus, Mixed Max, Mexican Sac Pull, Ride the Short Bus
• Weather around Thanksgiving is sometimes good ~60 degrees but can occasionally drop to 30 so pack sufficient layers
• Watch out for ranch poop everywhere  
• 10/10 would recommend going to HCR - hit me up if you do

https://www.mountainproject.com/v/pere-marquette-state-park/112240918

​Callout weekend got rescheduled due to rain, so I (Marshal Herrmann), Shao, Ansel, and Melanie checked out Illinois’ newest crag on Sunday, April 23. Summarized into quick facts, the good, the bad, the (driving) beta, the verdict, and an outline of our day.

Quick facts about the park
​

• On the Missouri/Illinois border along the Mississippi River; about 3 hours from Champaign and 1 hour from St. Louis
• Opened November 2016
• Limestone rock
• Titanium anchors
• We agreed routes were generally one to two letter grades softer than Jackson
• Climbing development was encouraged by the Park to increase visitors (it is a very touristy area). Hopefully it’s a sign of future public-private partnerships which benefit climbers and local communities :) 

The good

• Short approach (less than 5 minutes)
• All walls are along same trail and close together
• Well bolted (no stick clip needed), but not excessive
• Very beginner friendly (excellent place to learn to lead/clean, lot of easier routes with great clipping positions)
• Some routes have a trail that runs above them, so can create a top rope without leading (the park doesn’t allow trees for an anchor, but some chains are accessible from trail).
• Ample parking (and the entire drive is on pavement!)
• New fixed gear (obviously since its newly developed)
• Dries quickly (we went day after consecutive rainfall and everything was dry)
• LTE signal at the wall (maybe a bad thing?)
• Some killer views

The bad

• Even highly starred climbs were full of cobwebs and dirt
• Very few routes and may be crowded if other crags are wet (it does not have enough capacity to accommodate many “displaced” climbers who would otherwise be at the Red or Jackson); most people we met had other weekend plans that got canceled, and went to PM last minute – just like us. It’s probably not a first-choice or repeat-visit crag
• Average climb is like 40 feet
• Limestone can be very polished, not much grip
• Bugs were annoying in the morning (bring bug spray!

The (driving) beta

Google Maps gave me 3 pretty different routes with virtually the same driving time. Taking I 72 past Springfield would definitely be the fastest way – you could go 90 mph if you wanted (pretty empty country roads). I57 and I70 is much more scenic however (follows Mississippi River, see something other than cows and cornfields); pictures below. This route also passes through Alton, IL which is a bigger tourist town on the river just past the park. Alton has a variety of restaurants and other accommodations. We took the quicker way in and the scenic way out, which is my recommendation. 

The climbing lot actually shows up on Google Maps - click here for link. It is unmarked in person. If you look at satellite mode, you’ll notice there’s a much larger parking lot just down the road (it has a sign saying “Day Use Parking” – probably an extra minute hike). 

We stopped at O Jans Fish Stand, a sketchy fish stand along the river with big portions for cheap! If you like greasy food and no frills, come here. Otherwise, drive into Alton for more restaurant options (fast food, ethnic, diners, burger stands, nicer places, etc). 

The verdict 

You could do 75% of the park in a day with a 10c leader, a 35m rope, and 6 quickdraws. Maybe 95% if you bring a trad rack. It’s probably best for bringing newbs or single day trips. I would not recommend spending more than a day here, but it’s worth checking out if you can only climb for 1 day. The routes are fun and have some variety – it’s certainly a change of pace from Jackson.

Our day

I picked everyone up at 5am, and off we went! We arrived at the crag around 8am with just 1 other group already there. I had a GoPro I rented from the library to play with, and will probably add the video as an addendum to this later. We first walked into the Meadow Slab wall and warmed up on a 5.6 and 5.7+. I was feeling adventurous and along with Ansel, free soloed a 5.2. We found a solo climber with 2 dogs; coincidentally, also a UIUC student. We climbed with him for the majority of the day. 

After this area, we kept following the trail and kept finding bolts. So we kept climbing! I didn’t keep good track of what we climbed, or what we liked, because well we climbed almost everything the place had. Shao estimates he climbed 14 routes (and we left with 2 hours of daylight left!). I can’t provide any recommendations on routes, just do all of them. 
​​
We were getting a bit confused about which route was what since there is no guidebook (but not a huge deal since everything sans a few routes are 10s or lower). The routes are well depicted and logged on Mountain Project though; any confusion was definitely user error. Case in point: Shao led a 5.11d, The Father's Gift, without knowing the grade until afterwards. Other people did tell us it was the best route in the park. I followed it on top rope like a true champ, so there’s my recommendation afterall: climb this route. 

The last wall we visited was pretty crowded, but because of the short routes, it cleared out pretty quick (routes have high turnover). This area also has a nice picnic area. 

We left fairly early since we experienced most of what the park offers (5pm or so, my guess). While the crag was very clean, the highway is full of litter: we packed out half a trash bag of cans and bottles on the way to the parking lot. 

We voted on fish for dinner, and headed to the aforementioned O Jans Fish Stand (5 minutes from the crag). This place epitomizes no frills. I asked the lady at the counter what she recommended. She laughed at me, quipping that she eats everything. It didn’t help narrow down the menu options, but gave me a laugh. The lady was very obese and I can see why: the fish stand serves up huge portions of greasy fish for cheap! It would be dangerous living near here, and especially working here. To keep a balanced climber’s diet, you can round out the fat and protein from the fried fish with some carbs from their huge variety of pies. Somehow I managed to avoid that sugary goodness temptation. You better climb hard to earn dinner at this place.

​Afterwards we were on the road again. We took a 3 minute detour (calculated by Google at the time) and followed the Mississippi River for a bit eastward instead of heading straight north. Pretty nice views, breaks up the traditional Illinois interstate monotony. We were home by 10pm.

Be sure to check out Melanie’s quality photo album (featuring high res pics and not stills from a GoPro, like my report). My GoPro video montage to be released at a later date (gotta make it gnarly!)

Marshal Hermann - April 2017

​This weekend was the Badass Bitches Climber Crew climbing trip.  We went out to Jackson Falls for the weekend with a crew of nearly a dozen women.  We stayed up at the campsite near the dog walk which was a first for me.  We arrived Friday night and just passed out.

Saturday we went down the dog walk to Snakes Roof where several of the ladies stayed to climb.  My friends Lena, Natalie, and I went over to Spleef Peak to get on some different climbs.  We started out on the 5.8 Blue Spark which was an okay climb.  Followed up an okay crack in the wall but didn’t have much in regards to feet.

Next we did Through the Smoke (5.9).  This was a tough one to the left of Blue Spark.  I got two bolts up and was going for the third when I fell.  I unfortunately swung and caught my leg on the side of the rope and got a bad rope burn on my leg.

​Beautiful right? But I got back up and finished the route with no other issues.  The top part was more pleasant than the bottom part.  There is a frequent occurence in Jackson that the bottom part of the routes are tougher than the rest of the climb.  (Not always though.)

Next we tackled the 10a to the right of Blue Spark.  This route was probably my favorite of the three we did on Spleef Peak.  It had a lot of interesting foot holds and the hand holds were clear to see.  The moves were challenging enough for it to be enjoyable though.  It was also my first on-sight 10 outside.  So I was pretty excited.  You can also see that there is a pleasant little sitting area at the top to enjoy the views of Jackson.

Paige Mundy on top of The Garden Route.  Photo by Katie Konocel

​Paige Mundy on top of The Garden Route.  Photo by Katie Konocel

​(Only photos of me during the trip.  Enjoyed the view at the top though.)

After that Lena and I went to meet up with my friend Peggy who was crushing it on Feed the Rat.  Our friend James Fran made the FA of this huge off-width that required Cams the size of your head and a lot of courage.

Peggy Flavin climbing Feeding the Rat.

​At this point my leg was not in the mood to do anything else for the day.  I had intentions of trying Wild at Heart (5.11a) which was opposite wall of Feeding the Rat.  I had TR it the fall before but I just wasn’t feeling 100% for it.  So I chilled for the rest of the day in hopes that I’d feel better.

We went back to camp and went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant about 30 min from our campsite.  After stuffing ourselves full of delicious food we went back to meet up with some other friends who happened to be at Jackson that weekend.  When we got there we saw glowing Easter eggs around the campsite and people wearing bunny ears around the campfire.   I got to meet some UIUC alumni that are currently living in Chattanooga.  There were great stories and company.  Probably one of my happiest nights around a campfire I’ve ever had.

That night I tried my new blow up mattress and slept in my car.  It was so much better than the dinky sleeping pad I had been using.

The next day we got up and went to go watch Peggy climb Off-Width Exam.  Our buddy Alex crashed our girls weekend and joined us.  Peggy has the energy of a goddess.  It took her about an hour but after several dozen tough moves, two pigeons flying out of the crack at her, and some serious bad ass persistence she topped out of the climb.

Alex Bragg climbing Off-Width Exam.

Peggy Flavin on Off-Width Exam

​After that three of the girls wanted to head home but I decided to stay.  So I followed them to the falls where they climbed out on a 5.8 called Lovin’ Lizards after one last foot dip to the falls.  Then I headed back to Exam Wall area to meet back up with Alex, Peggy and some of the people from the campfire the night before.  Alex was trying to finish a route called Eminent Domain (5.12D) that had a bail beaner left behind.  After several valiant attempts he switched out with Peggy who also gave it a go.

After that we could tell it was going to start raining soon so I wanted to get in one more climb really quick before we had to head back.  So I did The Dagger (5.8) a few routes over and my leg was throbbing from the rope burn so I wasn’t on the top of my mental game.  I managed to finish and get to the top where I found a tiny painting about 2″ x 3.5″ on a tiny easle.  It was a nice scene of a forest, lake, and a little sun.  I have seen several of these around Jackson now.  They are apparently left behind by the cancer society.  It’s super inspiring.  I’d love to figure out the stories of those who put them there.  Anyway…I finished the route and then Alex decided he wanted to give it a go too.  I gave him a belay where he practically ran up the face of the wal, then we decided to head out due to the growing thunder.

We headed out of the canyon and went to clean the anchor for Off-Width Exam.  It was then that the rain started to pour.  The others told me to go on ahead to get out of the rain.  So I literally RAN all the way back to the parking lot and threw my stuff in the car.  First off…I haven’t ran in the rain in years.  It made me feel so refreshed and like a kid.  (Plus it kind of washed off the grims and sweat of the last two days of climbing.) It felt so amazing.  Alex and Peggy came shortly after and after briefly saying we were going for food.  We headed out of Jackson and stopped at Tequillas in Marion where we had well deserved Margaritas and food.

One of the best trips I’ve ever been on.

- Trip report by Paige Mundy, April 2017

It’s time for a well overdue trip report that all of us were too lazy to write about!
​
During the last week of winter break, a good number of us went out west in search of good climbing, less than freezing rocks, lots of good food, and maybe a chance to get lucky. 

So now it’s time for some fun facts:

1. The sandstone formations at Red Rocks are, well, red (Cause of iron oxidization. Fuck yea geology)
2. Red Rocks gets on average 4 days of rain a month
3. The sandstone in Red Rocks are fragile and are easily damaged when wet, and remain unclimbable for 2-3 days
4. Apparently the 4 days of rain a month all happened during the week of our trip.

So when our car was finally ready to go, we found out that we would not be able to climb at Red Rocks for the next few days. With the rain derailing our plans, our trip took a detour down South towards Joshua Tree National Park (JTree). We needed a place to camp out, and the group ahead of us found a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campsite, which was free. 

The catch? It’s in the middle of a dried up lake.

There are quite literally no roads there, so driving in at near 2am and shining our headlights in hopes of finding our group was a huge pain in the ass. After half an hour of aimless wandering at other groups of parked cars, watching the GPS jump around, and leaving tire tracks over half the damn lake, we found our group and finally caught some sleep.

With the sun setting in Arizona, we headed back to Vegas and caught our flights out of Sin City, marking the end of our climbing trip. Our grand plans for the week in Vegas never happened (I never got to eat my ramen), but I’m kind of glad we ended up straying so far from our original plans. The highlight for me was definitely New Jack City, which I would never have found had we not detoured all the way down to Southern California.
​
Special shoutout to Kyle for coordinating and taking charge of things with our car, always looking out for us, to Noah and Kirsten for being awesome car buddies, and Eric and Amanda for helping me get sketchy van back home from Oklahoma City. It was a fantastic trip, and I can’t wait to get back outdoors for more climbing. 

Sup people! So it's been a long time since trip reports were formally recorded so I'll get the ball rolling! ***WARNING*** I’m really long winded so you can scroll to the bottom for a Too Long Didn’t Read Summary.

A group of 9 of us went to the Red River Gorge (the Red) over Fall break and it was freaking awesome. We had two cars and my campervan to get down from campus, which took about 6 hours. Stopped by Lexington for a quick meal before camping at Miguel's* on Friday night. It was forecast to rain at 3am on Saturday so we ended up car camping, a very wise decision on hindsight. Unfortunately for us, the rain caused the summer weather the Red was getting the whole week to drop to like 40 degrees in the morning, warming up probably to 50 during the day. Piss cold, but we sucked it up and got some great climbs in.
*Miguel's is a pizza shop that offers outdoor camping and unstable wifi. For $2 a night per person, you get to camp there, park, use the restrooms, get potable water, $1.50 for showers, and meet awesome people there. There's also a gear shop that you can visit for guidebooks, souvenirs and well, gear. 

And just to get it out of the way, for accommodations, we stayed in a 8 person hostel style cabin* that was like 10 minutes from Miguel’s which was pretty nice. It came with hot showers and air conditioning/heating, and for sleeping there were 2 bunk beds (4 people total), two little ‘attics’ with one mattress each, and a sofa (which I think was a sofa bed but with very questionable cleanliness). We managed to squeeze some extra sleeping bags and mattresses to put all 9 of us in which was nice. The was rather bare; it didn’t come with pillows or sheets, it had no kitchen (only a microwave, mini fridge, coffee maker and toaster), and a TV which we didn’t use. But for the price we paid, we couldn’t really complain much. I brought a stove in and we managed to cook dinner using the two pots we had. There was a grocery store that was decently far away but it was still reasonable to drive there to buy food for dinners. But honestly with the company, the place was great cause it was really nice and cozy for some Cards Against Humanity and hearty conversations.
*Check out Camping Cabin A or C at https://www.redrivergorgecabinrentals.com/. You can consider staying in an actual nice cabin like what another larger group did. ​

First day of climbing we headed to Muir Valley*! Driving to Muir Valley is about 30 minutes from Miguel's with a relatively simple drive there. Parked our cars** at the entrance and got started on our first climb of the trip! Started out pretty chill cause we had some first time outdoor climbers, so we began at Practice Wall. Really nice short climbs to get people on their first climb (Acrophobiacs Anonymous, 5.4, 25 feet high with like literally 2 bolts, and to the right is Yu Stin Kin Pu (that’s the actual name of the climb), a 5.6 of similar nature). It was a good place get people to practice cleaning, lead belaying, lead climbing, and just general feel of climbing outdoors, but if you’re experienced with outdoor climbing then pass on coming here. There are other climbs in the 5.9 and 10 range but in general they're pretty short climbs. I got on a 5.10b called Beta Spewer which was a short overhung route, a decent climb if you’re in the area. I think I could have sent it but god it was really really cold that day. Generally if you’re familiar with outdoor climbing you can pass on coming to this wall. Special mention goes to Peter's route Ai Bang Mai Fa Kin Ni, which is a 5.7 that is exactly what it sounds like. 
*Muir Valley is a really established sport climbing area and it has nice guidebooks with plenty of info (supplemented by plenty of Mountain Project inputs). We used the Muir Valley Pocket Guide, a small book with maps, aerial outlines of each wall, and the names, grades and rating of each route. Little to no info on individual climbs but it’s sufficient to get you around. Approaches are decently long but well paved, though the uphill at the end of the day may not be to your liking (ain’t that right Mat)
1) It’s really well maintained, the paths are well marked and easy to navigate and there are vault toilets in the area. There is a fire escape road you can use which is less tiring than some of the other approaches if it’s applicable. 
2) The climbs are mostly marked with a small circular plate at the base of each climb so it’s easy to find what route you want
3) Rappel rings are replaced often and from what I understand it is recommended to lower rather than rappel for safety reasons (do double check this claim)
4) Stick clips are available for the day if they are available, don’t hesistate to if you think you need it, some routes do have decently high first bolts.
5) Just take note that there are rules such as filling up a waiver that you need to take note of. Check out more info on Mountain Project and the official Muir Valley website (http://www.muirvalley.com/)
**Parking at Muir Valley is $10 a day (CASH), you will pay for a little tag you leave on your dashboard as proof of payment. 

We tried to go to Bruise Brother Wall which we heard was really good, but there were way too many people (literally every climb had a rope or someone already on it). So we ended up in Sunnyside, which was as implied pretty sunny and nice. The climbs there are mostly in the 5.10 range and not overly beginner friendly, but there are some really good climbs there. Kokepeli’s Dream is a great 5.9 slab. **Spoiler beta** (Watch out for the first bolt cause it’s the crux and falling there wouldn’t be fun, as I almost did). Another really good climb is Machete which is a great 5.10b, lots of fun on a relatively sustained route. Ended the day at Miguel’s eating some delicious pizza and I’d highly recommend just going to eat there at least once (though it can be a little pricey for us college students).

Day 2 started out at The Hideout and I absolutely loved that place. It got some nice morning sun which gave us a good start to a cold day. I got on 3 great climbs there in the 10 range. First was Boltergeist, a pretty long but well protected 5.10a (105 feet, 13 bolts). There wasn’t exactly a crux per say and honestly most of the climb was probably a 5.8 or 9, but still a fun climb, one of the classics there based on Mountain Project. While climbing there we met some students from West Virginia University (I think) and so we swapped our routes with them for convenience, and so I got on Crusin’ for a Brusin’, which was probably one of my favourite 5.10 climbs. It’s a 10d on the guidebook but it’s not sustained, only a few moves are pretty challenging especially if you’re a shorter climber like me. I’m pretty grateful that they suggested swapping our routes of I wouldn’t have given the 10d a shot, but thanks to that I became a little more confident about climbing the full range of 10s in Muir Valley. Last climb I did there was Pre-emptive Strike, a 5.10c which was really fun as well. Can’t remember too much but I’d say it’s not as challenging as I expected. Also fun fact I think my Gopro fell like 50 feet from the wall onto the soil from here but it’s working well so +1 for Gopro quality.

We then moved on to Animal Cracker Wall which is a section of slab. The routes are mostly 5.7s or 8s, including one called Harvey which is a 2 pitch climb if you want to get a little experience on multipitch, though we didn’t do that. I got on Sam which was a nice 5.10b slab, the hardest climb at the wall. Much more technical than I gave it credit for, and while softer than Jackson, it was still a decently challenging slab climb especially near the top. I believe that the others also got on Rikki Tikki Tavi and Panda Bear which I heard were not bad either. 

Finished off the cold cold evening at The Boneyard. Unfortunately Peter didn’t manage to get his lead climb in, but I managed to get on Hijacked Project, a 5.9 which started out with an easy but pretty cool roof problem (which if you’re worried about falling, can take the ledge on the side), then onto some really big, juggy, but sharp holds which hurt like hell when your hands are freezing. Didn’t particularly enjoy the climb due to the cold. 

​Third day our group shrank to just Mat, Lena, Poh and myself, and we left Muir Valley for Graining Fork Nature Preserve (aka Roadside). It’s called Roadside probably cause the approach from the roadside parking area* to the crag is like a 5 minute uphill approach. The routes at Roadside are probably still softer than Jackson but definitely harder than Muir Valley, but no doubt there are some pretty damn good sustained overhung climbs in the crag**. Started off all the way out right of the crag with probably my favourite name of a climb, You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish, a rather soft 5.10b that’s mostly slab. Couldn’t remember too much about this route other than the name but I enjoyed it. We then went to the middle for some classics. First was Pulling Pockets, a 5.10d that despite what it sounds like had more crimps than pockets than I remembered. At this point of the trip I was really pumped out (typical climber excuse heard at the Red “If only I had more endurance I could totally send this”) so I pretty much bolt to bolt the route. Would definitely head back to try and send that. Next was AWOL which was a 5.10a that I got stuck on at the end because I was being stupid and not finding a good hold further up at the anchor to secure myself for clipping in. Note to self, being a short climber doesn’t give you excuses not to reach far up to find good holds. But it was still a great climb and I’d recommend doing it. In my opinion, this route was pretty fairly graded. The last climb was Crazy Fingers, a 5.10c which I managed to do with I think two takes (a personal achievement considering I was expecting to bolt to bolt most of it). We had plenty of beta from a lady who climbed this route multiple times which really helped. It felt like a better climb than Pulling Pockets and I thoroughly enjoyed this climb despite not being able to send it. Ended off the day with a 5.9 top rope that Mat and Lena set up, Jump for Joy. You can recognize it by the lock in the first bolt, which leaves the second bolt (now the first) pretty high up. Lena and I both top roped it but it was clear that her having almost an extra foot of reach was pretty useful, cause I definitely found my beta to be more challenging than hers. Managed to get my Gopro up at the top for some nice panoramic views. 
*There is a DAILY permit to fill up online, do that with stable internet (not Miguel’s). For money, there is no parking fee, nor is there a daily cost when filling permit, but there is a recommended donation and for maintaining such a great crag I think it’s only worthwhile that we make a fair donation to keep such climbing accessible and maintained for the community. 
**Roadside has some really high first bolts and we only managed to get by because some nice people lent us their stick clips. I would highly recommend bringing a stick clip because taking a fall from the first bolts can be quite dangerous. 

Poh on Crazy Fingers (5.10c)

Our final day was at Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Area (PMRP). We didn’t have a guidebook for this and got lost along the way but we eventually found the carpark* to begin our long hike in. By some good stroke of luck we met this pair who were going along the same way and they very kindly brought us to The Gallery where we spent the day. We didn’t really recognize which part of the wall we were due to the lack of the guide book (we wandered off way too far), but the furthest left climb in the main area is The King Lives On, a nice 5.10b on the left of the arete which Lena and I got on, while Poh and Mat did Murano, a 5.10c. We didn’t exchange routes but it seemed like we all liked the climbs we did so I would recommend them. Next up was 27 Years of Climbing, a 5.8 classic with plenty of amazing jugs up the route and good stances for clipping, great for a first lead climb. I then got on A Brief History of Climb, another classic that starts out with a easy run-out scramble of sorts, to quite literally a stair of jugs towards the top. I thought it was really softly graded for a 5.10b but nonetheless I enjoyed it thoroughly. And to finish off the trip, Poh and I got on Johnny B. Good, my first 5.11a which unfortunately did not manage to send (because I was at the anchors but my draws were on the wrong side, and I took a 30 foot fall when trying to match hands…). It’s mostly a 5.8 except for the roof which is rated 5.11a, though personally I think it was a 5.10b or c. A really fun climb and if you wanna feel good about saying you did a 5.11, this is it. 
*Try to get a proper map for PMRP as we had troubles with Google maps directions. Also parking there is free, but there are two areas. The first is up on the hill which is probably where you’ll park. The second area is actually all the way downhill, past some really steep and pot-hole filled road that you should not take if you don’t have an AWD or 4WD. Though this means a long and annoying uphill hike at the end, it sure beats having your vehicle stuck in a ditch. Also parking at PMRP is free which is great. 

And that concluded the end of our 4 day climbing trip! Lots of fun and laughter, with plenty of good climbing. For me it was a first for both being mostly in charge of a group of climbers, and also climbing for more than 2 days in a row. Honestly I think 3 days of sustained climbing is probably my limit, before I’d need a day with 3 or less climbs or even a rest day. But honestly I enjoyed the trip with The Red Squad, and I’m really glad that they trusted me to plan and lead this trip. Thanks again to Adam, Lis, Arif, Muffaddal, Peter, Mat, Poh and Lena for coming on this trip and I look forward to climbing with you guys again!

Shao Hao

TL:DR
- The Red is freaking awesome for sport climbing, but by mid November it can also be freaking cold
- Miguel’s has great pizza and is a great place to camp if you’re intending to do so
- Muir Valley is super well maintained and easy to navigate. Highly recommend Practice Wall for beginners, and The Hideout for some 5.10 climbs (notable climbs: Boltergeist, Kokepeli’s Dream, Crusin’ for a Brusin’)
- Roadside is easy to access and there are some super cool overhung 5.10 climbs in the middle section (notable climbs: AWOL, Pulling Pockets, Crazy Fingers)
- PMRP is a massive pain in the ass to navigate especially cause of parking, but the Gallery packs some seriously good climbs (notable climbs, 27 Years of Climbing, A Brief History of Climb, Johnny B. Good)

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen an all-encompassing climbing trip report so I wanted to create one for my past month and a half climbing around China. The first section is just an all around guide for anyone who wants to go to China in terms of general know-how (what I’ve gathered from my stint here) while the next couple pages are my personal climbing report. Read what you want or not fools! (You can view the original document in this link)

China General Know-how

1. China is the center of the universe...when you’re in China. Few things are in english unless you’re in a big city where signs (mainly for tourists) can be in Chinese characters and english words. 
2. The Great Chinese Firewall- You will NEED a VPN client if you’re going to do anything on the net in China. Most/all (.com) sites are blocked including Google, Facebook, etc. The only english search engine I found that works is Yahoo. Download a VPN before you enter China (pay for one...it’s worth it) on both your phone and laptop so you aren’t stranded in the airport asking everyone if they speak english so you can get where you need to go.
3. Don’t count on finding currency exchanges. Exchange money into the local RMB (local slang is pronounced “yuan” or “kwai”...they mean the same thing) before leaving the States or take money out of an ATM. Most banks have ATM’s like in the States, however the only ATM that worked for me was the national bank: The Bank of China. After visiting seven other banks my first two days trying to get local currency from my card, I finally got this saving grace piece of info. 
4. Memorize and plan everything to the last detail when it comes to travel. Because everything is in chinese characters, you can’t BS your planning. For example, if you get to the train station and have to get to a city, you can’t read the signs and figure out which ticket to buy from noticing the word “Yangshuo.” It’ll instead look like this
5. Download translation apps like Pleco or Google Translate. Paying for the apps is worth it to get all the features so you don’t get screwed if you need to use a feature in a pinch that isn’t included in the free version. 
6. You won’t have access to service with an american SIM card. Plan accordingly. WiFi is available in many places (hostels, restaurants, bars, etc...especially western-geared ones) but in other places (airports, government institutions, etc.) you might need a chinese phone number to get online because your american sim won’t work there.
7. “WeChat” is the nation-wide application for everything under the sun in China from anything social like Facebook-ing, to paying people, to ordering meals the day before at a restaurant. It’s crazy. For communication with other people while in China, use it. Instant Messaging is great for organizing trips, meeting up with friends, and finding places to stay, even if only applicable when you have WiFi.
8. Buy a scooter if you’re going to be in one area for a while. Scooters can cost anywhere from $80-$200+ for keeps. Totally worth the price for getting around without a taxi, walking all the time, bus, etc. Sell the scooter to a friend or back to the mechanic for a bit less at the end of your stay. Having the freedom to get around whenever you want is priceless. Other options are renting pedal bikes. 
9. Learn basic words. Numbers up to 10, food items (eggs, meat, buns, etc.), and things like “I don’t want” “Do you have?” “too expensive” and the like. Because Mandarin is a tonal language, certain words can have many meanings so practice beforehand or learn a bit online before heading out.
10. Don’t plan on bargaining too much with locals. Chinese will often charge westerners more than Chinese. Can’t really get around it too much except to accept it or go buy elsewhere. They may even charge you more one day than another or vice versa. It’s because we have money and the difference in a few RMB for us isn’t much and they know that. Especially in tourist spots. 
11. Flights, train, bullet-train, and taxi are the main forms of transport in China. With those you can get pretty much anywhere you want. Buses are a bit confusing
12. Traveling is an adventure! Go for it and have fun!

Geography and Geology: Yangshuo is a city within the Guangxi region of China. This region lies on the southern border of China’s mainland with the ocean. The place is off the walls with scenery. Giant formations called “Karsts” are everywhere. This type of landscape runs for hundreds of kilometres. Impressive to say the least. And yes, you climb them...a lot.

Travel: Fly into Guilin or Guangzhou. From Guilin...take a DiDi (Chinese Uber), taxi, or bus to Yangshuo proper. From Guangzhou, take the subway to the Guangzhou South Train Station, then a bullet train to Yangshuo Train Station, then two buses to the city proper. China has really nice high-speed railways. Take advantage of them if it’s cheaper.

Where to Stay: 

1. Stay at the Climbers Inn if staying in Yangshuo for a short time. The owner’s name is Lilly and she’s a sweetheart and speaks English. She can help you out with everything under the sun from renting a bike/scooter, advising you on places to climb in sun/shade, and arranging taxi’s to and from the climbing areas. This is also the gathering spot for climbers in the morning (circa 10am) to organize where to go with whom. Although kind of located in an alley, it’s a fairly inexpensive spot to stay where you can make a ton of connections.
   
2. For longer stays, check out “yangshuocrashpad.com” for an apartment. After staying a few days and getting settled in Yangshuo at the Climber’s Inn, I moved out to an apartment building owned by a woman named Julie. She is also a sweetheart and even helped navigate through the chinese web when booking train and flight tickets to another area of China. Apartments cost between $100-$150 per month depending on which room you get (they all have different dimensions, bathroom styles, etc.) See what she has available and decide on it. You pay for a week, two weeks, three weeks, or a month at a time. For extended stays longer than a month, you can get deals as well. 

Staying in an apartment was ideal when living in Yangshuo. Not only did it save me cash, but it let me spread out, do laundry, have my own bathroom, have my own heater/AC, and put me on the same floor as some people who became my climbing crew for the next month and a half. 

Scooter-ing Details: Ask around for where the gas station is. You can walk from anywhere you stay in town and if you continue past the gas station on the main road you’ll see a ton of scooter shops...some new and some used which are mechanic shops most likely. In my first week I went with a friend and a piece of paper that said “I want a scooter for $800 (in RMB ~ $120 USD)” on it in Mandarin and went around to shops that looked like mechanic shops with lots of dinky scooters in front until one of them agreed and sold me a bike. #Moto4Life This thing lasted me the entire time I was in Yangshuo and despite a wreck, the only thing I had to fix was a new battery ($20 USD) and a fixed gas line ($2 USD). At the end of my trip I sold the moto for the same I bought it for to a girl I found on the local’s WeChat group. All in all, buying a scooter probably saved me $100 USD between the costs I saved from taxis and other transport. 

Food: Food was pretty great by my standards. Breakfast consisted of WonTon soup at a place near the Climbers Inn or oatmeal I bought at the supermarket and bananas/passionfruit I got at one of the hundreds of fruit stands around town. It was all super fresh and tasted awesome. Lunch turned into either steamed pork buns….or steamed pork buns. When they cost 30 cents each you can’t really beat them. Dinner was almost always stir fry. Lots of places let you pick your own veggies and you get rice when it’s all stirfried together...all for like $3 max. Needless to say, I ate a ton while I was there because I fucking love food and this stuff was prime. 

If you go, make sure you get the scoop on 10 RMB stir fry from Lilly. If you go with a bunch of people you pick a bunch of dishes and have family-style dinner. I can proudly say I went there too often. 

Water: Yea, don’t drink the tap water. I never got sick because I bought bottled water and there was a kettle in my room where I boiled the tap water and let it cool to refill my bottles. Other options are to get a huge drum of water with a spout to refill bottles each day. It wasn’t bad and boiling the tap water in Yangshuo was fine. 

Hang out Spots: There were pretty much four different climber/westerner bars to go to after climbing for the day. Most of them have foosball tables and a couple have other things (bouldering wall, pool table, darts, etc.) Rock Abond bar is owned by one of the strongest sport climbers in China and has the bouldering wall in it. They’ve got cheap beer, a great scene, and a super nice owner although whenever I went there I was with some more white people. The usual hang outs for me was the white climber bar “Rusty Bolt”, and the westerner bars “Bad Panda” and “Mojos.” The last two can sell you some green but it’s expensive even by American standards. 

Not too much of the booze is strong and certainly not any of the Chinese stuff. Tsingtao is the local cheap beer around. I drank my fair share but I preferred some of the foreign beers like Beerlao. On nights when you want to get weird, ask for the Bijou. Still don’t know what kind of alcohol it is, but put it in a jar and infuse it with random shit. Anything from snakes, scorpions, birds, roots, and more can be sitting in the jar with the alcohol. Don’t think about it though, just drink up!

THE CLIMBING

Yangshuo is home to a stupid amount of climbing at any of the thousands of karsts sitting around. The guide uses the French System for grading so get used to things labeled “7a” as 11d. Also the entirety of the area is bolted so no need for the cams or other trad gear. Bring your draws, rope, and try hard. Areas like White Mountain (home to China’s hardest sport route at 5.14d), Moon Hill, Lei Pi Shan, Dragon City, and Riverside are where you can find a lot of the harder climbs that are in the area. Also because they’ve got tons in the 5.11-5.12 range, they’re where I spent much of my time when it wasn’t raining. An english guidebook for the area exists but isn’t very good. By the time anyone else goes Yangshuo, a new guidebook will be out by a friend a met there who’s been developing there for around 10 years. It’ll hopefully have better topos, directions for crags, and descriptions than the last book. 

Altogether, I stayed in Yangshuo exactly one month and for the first time in my life spent it projecting routes trying to get really strong. I kind of regret it because I couldn’t experience the total variety of Yangshuo’s climbing scene, but I accomplished some pretty awesome goals of mine and climbed at what many say are the best crags (which I listed above.) During my stay, I was able to send my very 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th climb rated 7b (5.12b) and got my first send at 7b+ (5.12c). Moonhill and Lei Pi Shan are hands down the best sport crags in the entire area in my opinion for climbs in the 7a-7c range (5.12 range). Moonhill not only for the climbing but also for the aesthetic beauty of it. A huge arch on top of a hill with stalactites and 3D overhung climbing isn’t something that you get everyday! Although I was there for so long, it did rain about ½ the time. Sure you can climb in the rain at the overhung crags, but getting there would be a slog and then you’d freeze. That said, most rain days were spent training on a bouldering wall next to my apartment building, drinking, watching movies, drinking, and sleeping. Oh and drinking. 

One of the super cool things I got to do while in Yangshuo was meet Killian Fischhuber, one of the most recognized world class competition climbers of all time. He was there with a crew of Austrians and they were absolutely crushing. I not only got to see him work Spicy Noodle (5.14c), but got to hang out with him and Abond (owner of the bar and badass climber) as they bolted some insane looking routes at a new area my friend Andrew brought us to. These lines were heinous looking and expected to go somewhere in the 5.13+ or 5.14 range. It was impressive and inspiring  to see them piece together sequences on walls with no holds on them.
  
Routes to get on: 

• Over the Moon, Moonhill (7b) - Pumpfest on stalactites across the arch of Moon Hill. Amazing
  
• Red Dragon, Moonhill (8a+) - A Todd Skinner route. The hardest climb in China for nearly 20 years. Can be done to the top of pitch 1 at 7b and inspiring as fuck. 
  
• Yangshuo Hotel, White Mountain (7b) - Another pumpfest with many distinct cruxes. 35m of overhanging fun!
  
• Grandfathered In, Tuo Bei Shan (6b) - I never did this route but I heard it’s one of the best multi pitches in the area with 6 pitches. Goes through a sick prow and tops out on a karst formation.
  
• Tunnel Vision, Treasure Cave (6c+) - Sweet 3D climbing on stalactites through a huge cave.
  
• Waiting for Sophy, Lei Pi Shan (7a) - Possibly my favorite climb in Yangshuo. Follows an angling crack with crazy lay-backing and cruxes that make you think!
  
• Singularity, Lei Pi Shan (7b) - Stellar slightly overhung technical climbing through pinches to huge tufas. Complete with knee bars, no hands rests, and even finger locks at the top!
  
• Thunder, Lei Pi Shan (7b+) - This thing is long, sustained, and amazing. Hard, thin crux in the middle that takes a minute to figure out and then sustained crimping to a heart-breaking finish.

Yangshuo has all kinds of routes of all kinds of grades. From 4 (5.7) to 9a+ (5.14d), single-pitch to multi-pitch, technical to jug hauls, overhanging to vertical, this to that, but altogether great to great. I can’t wait to get back there now and experience more of the rock for a longer period of time. I’d like to return for at least two months next time I visit and try to experience more variety than I got while I was there this time projecting. For climbers of any strength or experience, Yangshuo is the place to go. And like me, if you go there partner-less there are no shortages of people to hook up with.

Geography & Geology: Li Ming is located in the Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar in Southwestern China. The park lies in a valley with giant sandstone formations littering the top. While not exactly cliffs or monoliths, they still extend upwards of 300m bottom to top and contain a ridiculous amount of climbing. Bring your tape gloves though...you’ll need them to jam your way up these desert-like cracks. At a higher elevation the weather is usually cooler so be sure to bring your warm clothes, hats, and gloves.

Travel: Get yourself to Lijiang somehow, the city with the nearest domestic/international airport to Li Ming. You can fly here internationally or domestically. Check out the option of flying into Kunming first, then Lijiang if it’s cheaper. Next take a shared taxi, bus, or other wheels to the town of Li Ming. Once in town, there’s one road that goes through and all the hostels, shops, and restaurants are along this road. Getting back to Lijiang on your return is a bit trickier because you’ll have to take a bus that leaves at 7:30am, or overpay for something else, and then walk to the airport shuttle. Travel tip: If your flight leaves the following morning, you’ll have to get an airport hotel. Don’t get kicked out of the Lijiang airport for trying to sleep overnight like I did. This particular airport doesn’t allow for it.

Where to Stay: 

1. The Faraway Hostel. This hostel is located on the main road and very distinguishing from the painted doorway. The bossman of the hostel is awesome, speaks a bit of english, and has decked the place out in handmade items and widgets. Two dogs live here: Jerry and Dingdong. Jerry is the biggest dog in town and has to stay on the leash because he once killed someone’s goat. Other than that he’s super needy and always needs to be petted. At the end of a week you’ll want to throw burning logs at him to make him shut up. I like dogs but he was a giant pain in the ass. Dingdong is a little white dog who’ll follow the first one out of the hostel in the morning to the crag. Feel free to take Jerry out with as well. Don’t have to ask the bossman, he doesn’t really care. Rooms range from $3-20 per night. You can pick from an assortment of double rooms with attached bathrooms, dorm-style, or luxury rooms if you’ve got money to spend.
2. The Youth Hostel. This place is within the tourism building and has similar amenities to Faraway. Although not centered around the climbing scene nearly as much, it does have similar amenities and gets sun earlier in the morning which is a HUGE DEAL. Difference in sun means a difference in below freezing temps and hanging out with a T-shirt on. You don’t get the nice wood burning stove/furnace to hang out around like at Faraway as well. 

I never stayed here and opted for the Faraway hostel instead. I enjoyed the atmosphere and dirtbag-feel of it and also had a nice rooftop to hang out on when it was sunny and I was on a rest day. Moreover, there were a few times when we got pretty rowdy at night and got the bossman to pour us some homemade bijou. He even helped me arrange return travel and didn’t mind when we switched rooms to cheaper options when they became available. There’s also a “new route” book there that has a ton of info on routes not in the current guide-book.

Food: There’s a few places to eat in town but we really only went to two of them. The Wagon Wheel is owned by a super sweet little chinese lady and she cooks amazing soup, called “tong.” Go with a small group after a day of climbing and for 20 RMB you get an absolutely massive pot of soup with tons of veggies, and a bowl of white rice (costs 10 RMB if you don’t get meat). Anyone who knows my appetite can attest that I eat a lot and even I had trouble finishing this meal some days. The Yak Shack is located next to the school and paired with a mini-market. This is the place for noodle soup and fried rice. Also the Yak has the better breakfast in town making their own buns (monto). Pair the buns with a fried egg and you’ve got yourself a McMuffin-rural chinese style. Take something with you from the restaurants for lunch or get some preserved eggs for easy and cheap protein (1 RMB ea.) from a convenient store. 

Water: Purchase water at the store or boil it yourself at the hostels with kettles. At Faraway, the bossman has big thermos’ of hot water he boils all day long so feel free to use those as well. Refilling my plastic bottles was still the best way I found to store water and stay hydrated.

Hang Out Spots: Hah. good luck finding those. Come 10:00pm, the town shuts down and the cold eats everyone’s souls away. Go to the Faraway if you want anyone to hang out with around the fire. Dali beers cost 2 RMB each at the stores…but they’re 2.5% abv. Otherwise get some Jin Jao for something harder at 36 RMB per bottle. I never drank too much cuz I was low on funds but it didn’t seem like I missed out a lot. Li Ming is for dirtbags and dirtbags only. When you aren’t climbing and only 2% beers are available...chances are you’ll just go to bed and say screw it.

THE CLIMBING
    Li MIng is a flashback to my past experiences climbing in the Utah desert. Take bits and pieces from Indian Creek, Moab, other desert towers...mash them together and out pops Li Ming’s sandstone cracks. This is the spot for your trad gear...and bring tons. And for god’s sake somebody bring a #5 and #6. Lots of the routes here need big gear although you’ll rarely have to do too much offwidth technique (but there are definitely some you’ll grovel up). There’s no gear store in the area so bring lots of tape or jammies for your hands. If you need gear, there’s always the option to buy gear from someone who’s leaving the area and doesn’t want to travel with it anymore. Multi-pitch routes are almost as plentiful as single-pitch routes and range from 2-9 pitches in length at all difficulties. You can buy a paper copy of the guidebook from the bossman at the Faraway hostel, or you can purchase an online and consistently updated copy as a PDF from the author. You’ll need some sort of book to get around for sure however because you can’t count on people always telling you where stuffs at...there just isn’t that many. Li Ming is surprisingly new as well with the first ascents going up in the last 10 years. However over 1,300 routes make up this trad climbing mecca which spans countless areas. In short...trad climbing in china = Li Ming. Period. Oh! And they use the YDS grades so you don’t need to worry about converting French grades to understand anymore. And the grading is really soft so don’t be afraid to push yourself!

I traveled here and climbed for two weeks with my buds I met while in Yangshuo. Luckily, they all had racks so my lack thereof was no biggie. I’d say that’s the strategy: go with people who have the gear so you don’t have to bring your own. I can safely say as well that two weeks in Li Ming was nowhere near long enough to even get a taste for the areas. Out of my nine or so actual climbing days, seven of them were spent at the same area climbing different routes each day. Part of the reason for this was the ease of access and quantity of stellar routes. These areas were the Pillars and Primitive areas which are accessible by foot from the hostels. You’ve just gotta be willing to hike up the 646 stairs to the base of the cliffs. Personally, I’d take steps over the dirty and steep trails to many other crags but that’s just me. For farther away areas, the bossman has a passenger van and can drop you off wherever you’d like for a small cost. Areas like the Guardian and Dinner wall host a multitude of climbs of all difficulties. 

During my time here, I was able to send my first 12a on gear and flailed on a variety of other difficult routes. Furthermore, we met a group of guys who had been living in Li Ming for the past two months and establishing new cracks. When we got to Li Ming they had just completed a perfect 70’ dihedral seam at the Primitive area and I was able to nab the 2nd free ascent of it. Going at 10d, this thing was stupid cool, and utilized tons of stemming because much of the seam was too small to use. The absolute best climb I attempted while in Li Ming by far. Named “Lajiao” for spicy red pepper. The final climb I did while in China was one of the best multi-pitches in Li Ming and called “Back to the Primitive” and goes at 11d. Although it was the softest 11+ I’ve ever attempted, the climb reached the top of the Primitive area formation and had tons of variety throughout. From delicate fingery sections to easy offwidth to smeary slab at the top the route had it all. It was definitely worth the time for a nice, chill day at height.

Routes to get on: 

• Faraway Corner, Pillars Area (5.10b) - A fingers lieback corner for 50’. Smeary and burly but there’s tons of great locks for ya!
  
• Clamdigger, Pillars Area (5.11b) - Grovel up this acute corner with a crack in the back. Chimney and knee scum to the top 25m up!
  
• Funky Dan, Pillars Area (5.12a) - Super thin fingers dihedral that leaves you super pumped at the easy top portion! Bring seven #.3s
  
• Back to the Primitive, Primitive Area (8 pitch 5.11b) - Amazing multi that gets you high, and has tons of variety. A must do before leaving.
  
• The Raven, Primitive Area (5.11a) - Terrific hands crack going through a short roof
  
• Scarface, Primitive Area (5.10b) - Beautiful arching hands to wide hands crack for 70’
  
• The Lorax, Primitive Area (5.11d) - A wildly overhung fingers and hands dihedral crack 5 pitches up. Climbs a 5.10c super fun multi to reach the crack. This thing was amazing!
  
• Lajiao, Primitive Area (5.10d) - The best gear climb in all of Li Ming. 
  
• Ding Dong’s Crack, Dinner Wall (5.12a) - Slowly widening crack into off-width before it pinches down to fingers and off fingers at the top. Short but so pumpy!
  
• Nosferatu, Uncensored Wall (5.11d) - One hell of a climb. 30m of fun with some run outs, a big layback roof, heinous start making good use of knee jams, and a techy sport-style finish.

​While Yangshuo is the sport climbing mecca of China, Li Ming is for sure the gear climbing mecca. Climbers of all backgrounds and skill levels will be able to climb here for any amount of time. I don’t think an entire year would be enough to even reach all the different areas in Li Ming let alone climb as much as you’d want to. Hopefully I’ll be able to visit this place again when I’m stronger and try more things in more areas. Two weeks just wasn’t enough....and I can’t wait to go back and eat some more Tong. Holy crap that stuff was delicious.

Keketouhai - This place is big granite trad climbing. “The Yosemite of China,” I’d love to go here and experience what it’s all about. What I’ve heard is that it’s amazing and has potential all over the place for FA’s. Check it out.
https://www.mountainproject.com/v/keketuohai/108223977

Zhangjiajie - I don’t know too much about this place except my friend (Ting, featured in the video on the link) is from a nearby town and its rock formations are what those floating rock pillars from Avatar are based on. That alone makes me want to see it next trip. It looks sick!!!!
http://www.behindmagazine.com/mag/rock-climbing-zhangjiajie/

This started out as a long Trip Report. Then I realized that there were enough things that happened that I could expound on, that I could make this a Very Long- but instructional- Trip Report.

Note that most the links wrapped. Do this: right click, then "open in new window". Then you can cut and paste the rest of the link into that new window. Werks fer me.

If you are new to climbing, there are multiple things in here that might be of interest to you. Feel free to read up, and ask questions about anything at tomorrow's meeting (Tuesday, 7pm, DKH).

If you aren't new, you can read anyway.

If wordy TR's aren't your thing, feel free to skip straight to the images. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/Page.html -Andy.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Mit-tens! Mit-tens!" We were planning for a chilly weekend in Southern Illinois. We had stopped by Rob's garage to pick up some club gear that he had set out for us. After grabbing the stove and tent, I recommended that Amanda grab the club's ridge rest that was laying across the wooden canoe that Rob had constructed by hand. After all, the closed cell foam pads insulate better than the inflatable therm-a-rests, and not having one could mean long cold nights. Since we had two nights ahead of us, we came prepared.

We'd even stopped at Champaign surplus so Amanda could pick up a new pair of gloves. I mentioned that mittens were actually warmer by nature, so she found a pair that fit her well and shelled out the forty dollars. Forty Dollars??! Jeez...

By the time Chris (Majerczyk) had picked us up and the three of us drove down to Jackson, it was about 10:30. We pulled into one of the lesser known, nicer camping areas at Jackson with time enough to set up a tent and crash. It was rather chilly already, so we bundled up before getting out of the car. Amanda proudly declared to noone at all, "I have new mit-tens." As we were planning to be there for two nights, I brought my climbing pack in the tent and unloaded the cache of cold weather clothes I had brought. Chris slept in the bed of his truck atop his ingenious construction that created a loft above two long drawers that carried all of his climbing gear. Amanda and I set the closed cell pad on top of the thermarests to create the most comfortable cold weather camping solution possible.

The next morning, everyone was feeling pretty lazy. We each woke up a few times, listened carefully for movement from others, and after hearing no sound, went back to sleep. By the time we got out and stretched in the brisk morning, grabbed some food, and were ready to go, it was 9:30am. I hate early mornings, so that was fine by me.

I was expecting the day to be frigid, but by the time we had walked to "the Vow", abandoned it as a waterfall, and back over to "Group Therapy" to warm up our arms, the sun was already shining bright and warming up the morning. Part of the art of being warm is heat maintainence. I remember Nathaniel expounding on this topic thoroughly when we were climbing in North Carolina. While on a NOLS trip, he informed me that when you feel yourself even start to sweat, even if it's cold outside, you need to unzip your coat a little. If you sweat, you'll moisten your clothes. When you stop working, and need warmth, you need to prepare for your body cooling off by adding a layer. If you've allowed yourself to sweat profusely due to too many layers, you'll only have cold wet clothes to put on. There is a delicate balance between too warm and too cold, and it takes some careful planning and layering to be able to regulate between them efficiently.

Chris climbed first, and hung the draws for me. He was quick to notice that climbing routes requires more endurance than bouldering sessions are likely to build. On my turn, I milked the rest at the fourth bolt as I always do, finishing the route and lowering off. The rope was running through the monster lobster claws that dangle at the end of the chains, as those are suitable enough to Toprope directly through. (Had there only been chains hanging, I would have needed to leave carabiners clipped to the chains, as excessive toproping through chains wears on them rapidly.) I left a couple quickdraws midroute, clipped to the rope Amanda was about to toprope on. This allowed her to fall off the overhanging wall without having to fight her way back to the climb. She would unclip those as she passed them. (Although she would also try climbing past one of them without unclipping, which doesn't work so well.)

As group therapy would prove not to be Amanda's "style" of climbing ;) she lowered off to let the quickly forming masses have a run, a most kind gesture. One of the guys volunteered to retrieve our draws for us, so we pulled the rope. He led the route, clipped the lobster claws, and proceeded to downclimb the route, cleaning his gear as he went. Downclimbing routes is a great technique builder. Downclimbing group therapy is just plain hard. He gave us our Quickdraws back and we headed over towards Railroad.

We ran into friends of Chris' all the way. He happened to know a guy named Kipp who was busy bolting a new route. Evidently, Kipp had found another rope to use since another one he was using for this had gotten stolen. It is common practice for people to leave ropes hanging as they are estabolishing new routes. These static ropes were likely fixed (ie, tied to the anchor with a knot) but somehow someone managed to swipe the rope and cam that was being used to protect a portion of the route as it was being worked. If that person were to be found, bad things would happen. Swiping fixed gear is not advised.

I immediately thought of one of my first times climbing at Jackson Falls. Someone had quickdraws hanging all the way up a hard route (Read: 5.13). That someone, who I'm now indebted to, though I never discovered their identity, was nowhere to be seen. My young climber's mind immediately assumed those draws had been abandoned. I reasoned that the climber had gotten in over his or her head, and was unable to retrieve the quickdraws. So another climber with the group and I began to stick clip our way up the route. I managed to swipe two draws, which I proudly proclaimed as "booty" before deciding that even stick clipping 5.13 was too much work and abandoned the efforts. It was some time before I realized that the draws were intentionally left hanging because the route was someone else's project. That someone else intended to come back and attempt the route on a day when they were feeling fresh and strong. I am forever guilty of snagging someone else's gear, an ethicly poor decision that is truly deserving of a butt-whooping. Unfortunately, I have been Unable to find the owner of that gear. Bad form Andy, bad form.

Our Trio pursued onward to Railroad rock. Amanda wanted to lead a route today, so we walked through the hallway to the 5.8 route (name unknown) that ascends flakes to the anchor. She was a bit uneasy about heading up the route straight-away so for the second time, Chris played the role of ropegun.

After lowering off the two quickdraws he had clipped to the chains (with the rope end biners opposite and opposed) he untied the figure eight follow through and pulled the rope out of his harness. He then proceeded to sit down to take of his shoes, as Amanda began pulling the rope.

I looked more than halfway up to the route to see the tail of the rope dangling, with the first half of a figure eight still tied in the rope. "Ack! Stop!!" I blurted, fully realizing that at that point, there isn't anything you can really do. We all shared a still silence and our glances met as we all knew that this was not right. "Maybe we can just pull it through anyway," Chris offered. We tried, but to no avail. Now Amanda had to lead on the end of the rope that was coiled in the rope bag. She would have to unclip the snagged rope as she led, before she could clip her lead end of the rope into the quickdraw. In this case, it wasn't a terribly awful situation, but in other circumstances (like multipitch or climbs taller than half the length of the rope) this would have turned into an epic nightmare. Here are some pictures of amanda leading over the other rope. Notice how the other rope is clipped above her, while she has unclipped it before clipping her lead rope below her: http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/amanda% 20leading.jpg http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/amanda% 20leading1.jpg This one shows the knotted rope at the anchor: http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/amanda% 20leading2.jpg Here is Chris's look of "I can't believe we pulled the rope with a knot still in it, the sun is in my eyes, and you're taking pictures of me": http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/chris% 20belaying.jpg

While Amanda was on that climb, I was looking slightly askance at one of Jeff Frizzle's new climbs on the arete to the right of "Wild at heart." I pondered that route while cutting slices off of my enormous sausage (which for some reason bore the brunt of numerous jovial retorts this weekend).

I offered to hang the draws on that one. The sequence screwed me up a bit, and I ended up doing a powerful tall highstep arete move to get around it. Chris, on the other hand, being much wiser, evaded that little maneuver by discovering more delicate, yet surmountable face moves. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Chris% 20leading%2011%20railroad.jpg However, he took a long fall near the top, which left him hanging near the bottom. He tried again, but the memory of that fall got the best of him and he favored saving energy for some great routes at the promised land. I was then honored with leading it again, and, upon using Chris's face climbing variation, redpointed the little bugger. Amanda got on it as well, and with the security of the Toprope, found the strength to push through its cruxes and get to the chains.

Then we bundled up for the hike to Promised land, and again Amanda got excited about her "Mit-tens! Mit-tens!"

After a stroll along the train tracks, we found the trail to the Promised land. I had no idea there was this much rock around here. It certainly is something to be seen. We hopped on one of the first two routes we saw. It began with some face climbing on positive holds, until it leans back 50 degrees to the 5.11 moves that Chris described as "Jug, crimp, cross through crimp, Jug" It is certainly worth repeating. Chris gave it a go as well: http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Chris% 20Promised%20land.jpg http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Chris% 20Promised%20land2.jpg However, Chris noted that the beta he was giving me has since required alteration. The "Jug" had broken off, and was now a marvellous crimp. He was sharp enough to notice "Yeah- that changes things." He was pumped from not having climbed routes in a long time (like a month) and lowered off the last draw. We left the rope hanging and would deal with it later.

I turned around the corner to find a 5.10 route that tends rightward, and also kicks back near the top. I read some of these moves well, hit the sequence, and nailed the dynamic throw. However, I was making noise on the rock, and it wasn't long before I heard, "ooh! ooh! Birds! Look at the birds!!" Apparently I had startled some wildlife that took up inhabitance on one of the ledges near this climb. Then Amanda looked more closely- "No! They're squirrels! Flying Squirrels!!" I glanced down to see her walking closer to get a better look, and Chris (my belayer) following her. "Hey!! Could at least One of you Please watch me?!!" The route finally fell, and I lowered off to untie, and quickly grab my camera. This is what a flying squirrel looks like when it isn't flying: http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Flying% 20squirrels.jpg

Amanda tackled that route after me, and began cleaning it. Meanwhile, I belayed Chris on the previous route, toproping through the last draw. His plan was to Down-Lead the climb, but after climbing the whole bugger, the plan didn't sound so cherry. While he was considering why it would be dumb to unclip the draw, and then fall onto the next one, I started to hear yelps coming from Amanda. As it turns out, she had clipped into the anchor (via cowtails) and threaded the rope. Only, she threaded the rope around one of her cowtails, and upon weighting the rope (on rappel), the cow tail was now pinched through the two strands of rope. She couldn't get it out. However, through all the cluster frigs, Amanda figured out whatever she was exactly doing up there, and Chris summoned the strength to pull the last couple moves and get to the anchors. Even though he clipped in to the rope with a quickdraw in order to "Tram" his way down, since the route was so overhung, that turned into an episode itself. Yet, all told, we escaped the climbing that day unharmed.

We still had to hike out. It was dusk by now, and Chris told us it would be quicker to hike out past Groovy Marcia and up the dog walk, so we pursued that venture. I pulled on my hat and gloves, and Amanda donned her "mit-tens." The hike out was pretty straight forward, even though we weren't exactly always on a "trail" per-say, because two of the three of us had thought to bring headlamps. Otherwise, it would have been epic. Our second narrow escape.

When we got back to the parking lot, we saw that Tony's car was still there. I was shining my headlamp in it, commenting on how it didn't look disturbed from this morning, when I heard Tony shout, "Andy??" We were supposed to meet up with them that morning, and saw their car, but no sign of them. They had toured most of Jackson Falls looking for us and climbing whatever routes they encountered (though I doubt they quite had the cicumferential experience we did).

"I lost my mit-ten." What? "My mit-ten! I lost it!" No Way.

So as Amanda and I hiked back to the dogwalk to look for a "mit- ten", Chris, Tony, and Gabe, headed towards where we had left the tent that morning. I went down the dogwalk, but to no avail. The Mit-ten was gone. Amanda and I sat down and listened to somebody playing an acoustic guitar while the glow of their campfire bounced off the wall between the East falls and Yosemite Slab. I was bummed that we couldn't find Amanda's Mit-ten, but she said it was okay because, "We saw flying squirrels!"

And so we hiked down the road towards the campsite. We were walking along, everything being cool, when we saw a truck with a car close behind coming towards us. Certain it was the trio to supplement our quintet, we stepped aside and waited for them to pull up. Chris rolled down the window, and with angry incredulous eyes managed to spit the words out: "Someone stole our site!" What?!! "We got there and there were 7 cars there. There were tents on both sides of your tent. They didn't just take our site, they swallowed it!!" Squatting another's camping ground, like stealing someone's gear off a climb, is taboo. Dirtbag. Not.Cool.

Chris and Tony and Gabe had walked over, and picked up our tent from their midst, with all our belongings in it, and crammed it into the back of Chris's truck. They were kind enough, however, to take the poles out first.

We were going to find another campsite, when Chris asked if we wanted to just go to the bouldering area he would be showing us the next day. Sure. So we went through Murphysboro, stopping at the 17th street BBQ as recommended by Tony, a food connoisseur if there ever was one. When asked what was good on the menu, he said, "The sides are really good. I like the baked beans, but don't eat the chicken."

We camped at a campground in Murphysboro, but because we had another lazy morning (despite some goose honking at all retarded hours of the morning) the ranger found us before we got out of there. $10. Bummer.

Then, we went Bouldering.

Chris was the only one who had been to this area before, so he took the lead and showed us what it had to offer. It was some pretty decent bouldering. Chris showed us one problem that he'd been working on, and so we grabbed our shoes and gave it a go. On one of his later attempts, Chris fell off and struck his big toe directly into the ground. Through the rest of the day, he gave us reports on how green it was turning. I really felt bad, not because of his toe but because I sent the project on about my fourth try. We didn't have the camera out, so I got back on it and sent it again. It was one of those problems where you just really enjoy doing the moves. It just felt Good.

Most of the rest of the day went relatively incident free. Perhaps the one last thing worthy of commenting on was the presence of bad spotting. I didn't do this intentionally, but I've captured images of Good and Bad spotting. So for those who don't know, I'll walk through it..

Good Spotting: Here is one of me spotting Chris. My hands are open, I'm looking at his center of mass, and I'm ready to control his fall softly into the mat. I'm not trying to catch him, just slow him down. Notice that my fingers are open. Having closed hands will get your fingers Jammed, I've seen it happen. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Chris%20(the% 20Red%20sea).jpg

Good (but weird looking) Spotting: Tony is spotting me here by watching my shoulders. This climb is close enough to the ground that there is no way he could support my hips in the event of a fall. Here, he can only try to stop my shoulders from striking and my head slapping into the rock. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Andy%20(the% 20Red%20sea)1.jpg

Bad spotting: Here, Amanda has her arms in the air. Though beautiful, she looks ready to jam her fingers while catching me with her face. This angle doesn't show it well, but she's spotting a fall towards the right- the one direction I won't fall. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Andy%20V2.jpg

Bad spotting: Gabe is not spotting. He should be. Amanda is 12 feet in the air. While he is behind her, for her safety from a fall, he should offer to spot. For his safety from me, he should stop staring at her butt. http://ice.prohosting.com/thebud/november2004/original/Amanda% 20bouldering3.jpg

Through it all, this was probably one of the most fun weekends of climbing ever. Perhaps even the best. Times like this are the very reason I climb. It was excellent.