Peru - 1 Week In

So I made it to Peru safely and have been having a great time so far. The first few days were a bit tiring with all the traveling but now we're getting in our groove. I'm here with my wife Sandy, my 1 year old son Bayes, and our friend Adam Markert. Quick synopsis for those that would rather not read much and just look at the pictures: at first we were skeptical and then we started finding amazing boulders. Now we are on a first ascent spree putting up some amazing lines in an extraordinary location. 

The day of travel to Lima was long and interesting as it was my first flight with my son… I guess I just jumped right into that. We woke up at 4 am, missed the bus to the airport and drove instead. Then a 1.5hr flight to Salt Lake, 4 hour flight to Mexico City, 5 hour flight to Lima. We arrived in Lima around 11:20 and waited in an hour plus line at customs. Surprisingly, Adam who had a totally different flight was just a bit ahead of us in the customs line. We all got our luggage (none missing thankfully) and found the driver from the hostel we had reserved waiting for us. A 30min crazy drive through Lima got us to the hostel and we were in bed shortly after 1am. All in all, Bayes did as well as anyone else… I'm sure that if I didn't have the ability to mute my emotions, I would have been a lot worse than him. 

The next morning, we hooked up with our friend Omar who lives in Huaraz, Peru and bussed down to Lima to join us on our Huayllay adventure. We passed the day in Lima and made plans to get to the city of Huayllay where a vast boulderscape awaited us. The next day we caught an 9 hour bus ride through the mountains to the city of Cerro de Pasco. We went from sea level to 14,000 feet in the city and went over a 15,000 ft pass. The drive was beautiful, but rugged and a bit sketchy with lots of truck passing. We arrived so late that we decided to stay the night in Cerro de Pasco and do the 1hr taxi drive to Huayllay the next morning. 

Finally after lots of travel, we arrived in the town of Canchocucho just outside of Huayllay and right in the center of the Bosque de Piedras (the stone forest of Huayllay). We got lodging right next to the boulders and set out to explore. With no beta on any areas, we just had to go out and find boulders that looked good. The problem was that there is about an infinite amount of rock there so where do we start. After a bunch of roaming, we were a bit disappointed to not have found too much good bouldering. Lots of the rock was too juggy and low angled and there weren't as many stand alone boulders as we had hoped. Still we found some cool stuff to climb on the next day. That following day, we went out and had a great day cleaning and climbing new lines on a cool boulder. The highlight was a fun V5 up a really cool vertical rail feature. We also did a nice steep V9 with a super technical heel hook. Best of all, it was just nice to be out climbing and to have all the travel behind us. However, with this first taste, we were beginning to question how long we'd stay in Huayllay. It didn't seem like we'd find great climbing here. 

With uncertainty in the air, we decided to do more exploring. We headed to the town of Huayllay and hiked into the boulder field above the city and below a huge cliff. Unlike the volcanic rock we found in the rock forest, the rock up here was a more solid, medium-grained granite. We hiked around the talus and saw a bunch of cool lines that got us psyched to come back. We found a few things that looked like they had been cleaned, but there wasn't chalk on anything. There were a few attractive lines that looked to be untouched as well. This mission got our stoke up and returned our confidence in the decision to come to Huayllay. The decision became even better when we realized that there was a hot springs facility nearby where you could dip for less than $1US. Not that we needed extra motivation to go to the hot springs, but there was conveniently a cool looking boulder field right near there that we wanted to check out. We went and had a dip and then Adam and I cruised down to check out the boulders. 

DAMN! These blocks were amazing! Huge granite boulders with crazy pockets and edges with line after potential line. We saw a bit of chalk on a really hard looking line in a short cave and a few other signs that people had climbed there, but most of the obvious big lines looked untouched. There was potential for rad, scary highballs as well as fun medium-sized problems and the difficulty looked to range from easy to quite hard. We were super psyched. We became even more psyched when we realized there was a hotel (albeit somewhat cold and loud) and a restaurant next to the hot springs ($10US per night and about $3US for a big dinner). We decided to move camp and focus our efforts on these boulders. 

So far we've had 2 days of climbing and cleaning out there and it's been a blast. We've put up about 15 problems some of which are super classic. Yesterday I did an amazing line up cool pockets on a huge face which clocked in at V5 (easier up high too). We decided to call it "On the Edge of Scary". I also did a tall V9 perfect face that was quite scary. After giving it a good clean on a rope, I pulled on to just feel some of the moves and ended up climbing though the crux and through the topout with a totally different sequence than planned. It was a great experience climbing on the fly and being in the zone in a situation that could have become dangerous if I wasn't confident. Today is a rest day in Huayllay with the extremely slow internet. It'll be tough to post a lot of updates, but here are some pics from the trip so far. I'm excited for tomorrow because we'll be getting on the gem project of the area. A tall, slightly overhanging face with cool pockets and crimps. Sure to be a classic. Can't wait!

At the hostel in Lima with lots of luggage

Our friend Omar flagging a taxi to go to the bus station

Rest stop half way through 9 hour bus ride to Cerro de Pasco

Cerro de Pasco

Yummy food in Cerro de Pasco

This was what our taxi driver was doing on the ride to Huayllay

Arriving at the Bosque de Piedras

Our lodging right next to the rocks

Adam making his first trek out to explore the stone forest

Great V5 vertical rail problem



Sunset on the stone forest



With locals in the town of Huayllay

Boulders above Huayllay (haven't explored these yet)

Big talus field above Huayllay that we did explore

Walking back down to Huayllay from the talus

Rad boulder field near the hot springs

Amazing pocket project (tomorrow will go!)

Great new V8 arete at the Hot Springs boulders

Doing the FA of an amazing V5: On the Edge of Scary

Cogitating Comp Climbing

As I cram in training sessions in preparation for my second world cup bouldering appearance less than 1 week away, I ask myself again, why am I trying to match myself with the monkeys of a younger generation? OK, at 33 I'm not totally old, but I'm likely to be one of the oldest in the comp. The age gap became all more apparant this year at the ABS nationals where I felt like the mean age was probably hovering just above 20. 

Still these comps appeal to me for the challenge they present both physically and mentally. I love the fact that you have to tap into your full potential while at the same time keeping a level head and making smart, quick decisions. In the past, competitions were often just about tossing your body from one sloper to the next like a ragdoll bouncing up a straight forward problem. However, recently the setting style has moved in a more technical, cerebral  direction, especially the European world cup style. Of course there's still going to be one or two thuggy problems to weed out the weak (myself most likely included). But to succeed in these comps, you have to be creative and open to a wide variety of potential sequences. This is probably what appeals to me most and keeps me coming back to these events. 

2012 ABS Nationals, Semifinals, problem #3 (I actually stuck this swing!)

Over my 2 or 3 years of competing in these sorts of high end comps, I've been constantly trying to improve my ability to read sequences and make good decisions while on the wall and in between attempts. An important part of building this skill is acquiring lots of experience with a wide range of comp problems set by many different route setters. However, there is a lot to be learned in the absense of pure experience. Because of this style of competition, where you get 5 minutes to inspect and climb a problem you've never seen before, I've started imposing these rules when I'm at the gym or even at an outdoor bouldering area. I'll walk up to a problem I've never seen before and try to read it as quickly as possible. Then I'll throw myself at it trying to optimize rests between attempts, continually brainstorming different possible sequences, and formulating a plan for the next attempt with built contingencies for when the plan doesn't work out. It's kind of a fun game to play. I also build this skill by watching videos of past world cup comps on the IFSC website. Mostly these videos get me psyched for a training session, but they also give me greater exposure to the extensive library of moves that can be created on artificial walls.

2012 ABS Nationals, Semifinals, problem #2

Ultimately, when it comes to comp day, I'll have to bring this knowledge to the table and mix it with as much power as I can muster up. However, there's another element that is perhaps even more important: confidence. To completely succeed, you need to walk up to every problem with the unwavering belief that you will top the problem on your first attempt with ease. Confidence is tricky though because it's a sort of chicken and egg thing -- you need to perform well to gain confidence, but you need confidence to perform well. I belief it's confidence and intelligence that separates the top world cup competitors from the rest of the pack. I see this for example in Kilian Fischhuber who won last year's Vail world cup (where I made my world cup debut finishing in 29th place). Kilian doesn't strike me as the strongest competitor out there, but he's smart, decisive and super confident and that's what consistently gets him onto the podium. At 28, he's also one of the older competitors in the field which gives me some hope, though I still have 5 years on him... and he doesn't have a 1 year old son.

Check out the video here of me climbing in the semi-finals at the ABS Nationals this February. Also, wish me luck!

Hueco 2.0 (Part II)

Here's the second part of my Hueco 2.0 series sponsored by La Sportiva.

In other news, I competed in the ABS Bouldering Nationals the week before last and fared pretty well. I got 13th in the qualifiers and 19th in the semi's (so a final result of 19th place). I made a few mistakes that I shouldn't have, but that's how it goes for everyone. Nevertheless, the competition was a ton of fun and training for it got me strong (and also minorly tweaked in the shoulder. I'll be uploading a post about the comp and some video of me on the problems.

Better Quality Hueco Video

So there was a bit of a problem with the Hueco video on youTube. The file was first encoded by vimeo and then downloaded and uploaded to youTube where it was compressed again resulting in a lot of digital noise.

Here is the vimeo version which is a lot more pleasurable to watch:

Hueco 2.0 (3 part video series)

So I just uploaded the first video of a 3 part series that's being run on Sportiva LIVE. Check out these two amazing new problems on West Mountain.

Here's the blurb I wrote about it:

It's been almost 8 years since my guidebook for Hueco Tanks was released and a lot has happened since then. Back when the book came out, we were still riding the Fred Nicole years, and there was only a small amount of development going on in the park. Since then, guiding has increased, more people have found ways to make the system work for them, and lots of new problems have gone up. Even more surprising, many of these new classics have the same level of quality of the tried and true oldies. So it's time for a new edition of the guide.

I've been in and out of Hueco this season documenting lots of newly established lines and making preparations for the new edition which will hopefully be available sometime this Fall. One of the nice benefits of this work is that I've been getting to repeat a lot of these new classics and even put up a few of my own as I roam the park seeing new areas. I thought as a little teaser to the book, I'd release three videos through La Sportiva that show some of these great new lines. I'm planning to show problems that range in difficulty too because there are new classics at all grades.

This video is the first of the trio and has footage of two problems I established over New Years. Two great lines that I still find it hard to believe hadn't been done. Hope you enjoy and stay tuned for the next two videos which will be out soon.

Oh yeah, and if you have any new problems you've done and want to alert me about, send an email with problem name, description, grade, how to find, etc. to huecoguide@gmail.com.

Needles Video Finally (Sort of)

So I finished the edit of the footage I got of me climbing Pyromania this summer in the Needles. The video is now up on Deadpoint Magazine (http://www.dpmclimbing.com/). It's in the stash section though so you have to pay the nominal $12 fee to have yearlong access to great videos--definitely worth it. Check it out if you are a DPM Stash subscriber.

Wrap up of East Coast trip

I had some great slideshows and also got some good climbing in at the New River Gorge. Right now it's back to the grind of research.

Check out the blog post I wrote for Mountain Hardwear Sessions blog. There's also a cool video by Pat Goodman that shows some of the projects we were climbing on in the New.

Hardwear Blog