Our first trip to Hueco was in December of 2002. It was a really fun trip, but I was lazy and didn’t take many pictures, and because there weren’t many pictures, I never created a trip report/web page. That’s too bad since there were some memorable events like the Whataburger (with Whatafries and Whatadrinks), the grunting little girl (I don’t think we’ll ever forget her!), cool climbing (where we met a friendly bunch from Arizona and the girl with the very, very long-term V4 project), our Hueco guide Patty, our first trip to the now-famous Cattleman’s Steak House, and probably a bunch of other things that I can’t remember anymore.

Dave Da Man
We had such a great time that another trip was planned for the weekend of March 08. Aaron, Sean, and Ryan wanted to get three days of climbing in so they headed out on Thursday night while Patty, Kate, Judy, and myself headed out one day later on Friday. Our flight was around 4:30 so I ended up taking a half-day off on Friday. Dave was nice enough to not only drive us to the airport and pick us up when we returned, but also to give Latte her medicine while we were gone. Since we wouldn’t quite fit everyone plus their gear in Dave’s car, we decided to take my 4-Runner instead.

Is Snowboarding Season Really Over?
You never know what kind of security might be at the airport these days so it’s better to play it safe. We got to the airport just past 2:45 PM or so and were able to check our bags in and get through the security screenings with no issues. We had a good hour and a half to kill. Coincidentally, we ran into Doug at the airport who was on his way to Utah for a week of snowboarding. He has a friend in Salt Lake who offers him free lodging whenever Doug wants, even if his friend isn’t there. What a deal! A combination of free lodging, a passion for snowboarding, and a good amount of PTO enable Doug to get in 20-25 days of riding a year! Sweet! Our snowboards had pretty much been retired for the season after the last Powder Mountain/Snowbasin trip, but with all this talk of snow . . .

Long Flight - Who Picked Delta Anyway?
We ended up on a Delta flight and boy was that a mistake. We first went to Salt Lake City where we had about an hour layover, and then from there, we headed to El Paso. If you look on a map, it is a very roundabout way from Point A (San Diego) to Point B (El Paso). We had dinner during our layover at the SLC airport.

When we finally got to El Paso, we quickly retrieved our luggage, jumped in our Blazer rental and drove the few short miles to the Hampton Inn, where we had stayed the last time we were in there. It took a bit to find our room because we didn’t realize that the building was split with even rooms on one side and odd rooms on the other. Huh? Whaddup widdat? Upon finding our room, we unloaded our stuff and cruised on over to the other room to say hi.

Considerable “Shoulders”, Aaron Does Larry
Sean, Ryan, and Aaron had a good day of climbing. They recounted the day’s climbs for us and how they met Lisa Rands, a well-known climber (apparently not that well known since I had never heard of her). Lisa Rands had, according to Sean, ginormous hands. Apparently, she also had some really big shoulders, although it’s not quite certain whether those were shoulders in the literal sense or the Ryan metaphorical sense. Aaron boasted to everyone about how he did Larry. “First I did Larry fast, then I did Larry slow.” Kate was a bit threatened by Aaron doing this Larry character in her absence, but was consoled by the fact that she would have the opportunity to do Larry the next day. Indeed, we would all have the chance to do Larry.

Sweet Dreams of Chicken and Rice
Patty, Judy, and I headed back to our room. After showering, we lay in our beds and watched some TV before falling asleep. Somehow, we turned to an infomercial about this air cooker thingamabob. It seemed pretty cool. It was like a big crock pot in which you could throw uncooked rice and frozen chicken into. You’d then heat it until the indicator got to a certain level at which point you’d turn off the heat. Because of its insulative air design, the food inside would continue cooking despite the lack of a heat source. In fact, you could even put the pot into the freezer and it would continue cooking! You could fully cook things even if they take different amounts of time to cook (not sure how it does this), and because you are not applying direct heat, you couldn’t burn the food. It seemed like a neat device, which is why we kept on watching. Unfortunately, the pictures of the cooked chicken and rice made us all hungry.

Up and At ‘Em
The decision was made to meet up at 7 AM for breakfast. One of the perks of staying at the Hampton Inn is the complimentary breakfast. After eating, we got ready to go climbing. A quick stop was made at the grocery store to get some lunch food for Ryan and Sean. Judy and I just snagged some bagels and peanut butter from the free breakfast.

After we had already made plans to go to Hueco, Ryan found out that a bouldering contest was going to be held the Saturday that we were there. We were a bit concerned because we didn’t want to have to climb among hoards of people. On our way to Hueco, we drove past the check-in point for the contest. Since this was Patty and Kate’s first time to Hueco, they would have to sit through a 20-minute video. Actually, I thought that I would also have to sit through it since I had forgotten my Hueco card from the last trip which proved that I already watched the video. Fortunately, they had my name in their records so I didn’t have to be subjected to the video another time.

How About Some Mustard with Your Backpack?
While we waited for the video to start, Ryan decided to make his sandwiches. As he tried to pull the mustard bottle from his pack, the cap came off, splurting mustard all over his pack. It was amusing (and kind of gross at the same time) watching Ryan slurp the mustard off of his pack.
Senility

As the Ryan show was in progress, I began packing my stuff up and realized that I had forgotten my climbing shoes back at the hotel! Somebody had packed her shoes from the luggage but neglected to pack mine. I had to drive all the way back to El Paso to retrieve my shoes. What is it about forgetting things these days? This is the third straight trip where somebody has forgotten something. It was Sean forgetting his snowboard boots in Telluride, Ryan forgetting his club lock key during the same trip, Aaron forgetting his ski boots and then wrist watch at Powder Mountain/Snowbasin, and now me forgetting my climbing shoes in Hueco. We must all be going senile!

Since I was going back to the hotel, I might as well bring Sean and Ryan’s groceries that they had just bought and put it in the fridge. It took around 1.5 hours to get my shoes and come back to Hueco. Fortunately, I didn’t miss much. I met up with the group at the Warm-Up Wall, did a quick traverse along it, and then finished warming up on Thunderbird, a classic V1.

Everybody Gets to Do Larry
Next, it was off to do Larry, Mo, and Curly. Larry is supposedly a quintessential V1, the very definition of what a V1 is supposed to be like. It was a really fun climb, although several had a hard time figuring out the proper technique to do it.

Ryan’s Near Decapitation in the Gymnasium
We decided to hit the Gymnasium next. Ryan, Sean, Judy, and myself had been there during our last trip, and remembered it being a lot of fun. There was something for everybody there. Kate made it up a somewhat scary V1, and Aaron, Ryan, and myself spent a bunch of time trying this V2 dyno move. After a while, we figured out the best technique. Despite knowing this, however, we were too spent to be able to do it.

Near the end of the day, one of the competitors from the contest appeared. He was really good at doing dynos and easily did the dyno that we were struggling on. While climbing a high V2, he came off the climb from maybe 7 feet up and almost landed on Ryan’s head. Ryan was bent over trying to move the crash pad into a better position, but couldn’t because Sean’s foot was on it. It was a close call as the dude’s foot grazed Ryan’s nose on the way down. If Ryan’s head was a few more inches forward, the results could have been catastrophic.

Jackie Chan Wannabes
Before heading to dinner, however, we needed to buy some tape. We first checked at the local grocery store but came up empty. We were informed that there was a sporting goods store nearby so we decided to check it out. On the way to the sporting goods store, we saw a Walgreen’s and decided to see if they had any tape. Sure enough they did and we got a big value pack with 4 rolls of tape. On our way out of the store, we loitered for a bit at the entrance waiting for Ryan. Aaron thought it would be fun to try a Jackie Chan style push-off of the wall to reach a steel bar that was running across the ceiling. He did it and shortly afterwards I gave it a shot as well. By this time, Ryan had come out and was easily convinced to give it a try. Jackie Chan Ryan is certainly not as his attempt was woefully pathetic. His foot slipped off the wall and his face nearly crashed into it. We hadn’t had that good of a laugh in a long time. I definitely regret not being able to catch the moment on video.

Cattleman’s and Olive Garden
With a hard day of climbing under our belts, we looked forward to dinner. We decided it would be best to split up for dinner since several of us were set on going to Cattleman’s Steak House which has, according to Judy, “the best steak in the world.” So Patty, Ryan, Judy, and myself headed for Cattleman’s while Aaron, Kate, and Sean hit the Olive Garden.

After all the climbing, my body was craving protein so I went all out and got the 32 oz. Cowboy steak. That’s 32 oz not including the bone and fat mind you. At least it was supposed to be according to the menu. I planned on only eating most of it and wrapping the rest for lunch the next day. However, I was hungrier than I thought and easily devoured the whole thing.

We retired back to our respective hotel rooms. This time, we did not watch any food channels, although if we had, we probably wouldn’t have gotten hungry like the previous night since we were all pretty stuffed from our meals. Judy konked out pretty quickly, while Patty and I slowly drifted to sleep while watching some show on African animals. They showed a mother cheetah catch a baby gazelle. The interesting thing was that the cheetah did not kill the gazelle but instead kept it alive so that her cubs could practice running it down. That was just a teaser though. The show host kept saying that they would show the cheetah cubs practice on the gazelle, but they never would actually show it. We figured it was just to keep people watching until the very end where they would finally show the cheetah cubs in action. We both fell asleep and never found out whether they ever did show it.

Slacker Wilder
The next day, Ryan had reserved a guide for our group. Typically, groups consist of 10 people and the first people who make reservations get to decide where to climb. During our last trip to Hueco, we were not the primary group and therefore had to go where the primary group wanted. It wasn’t a problem really, but several times we would have liked to stay in a certain area longer than the primary group wanted.

This trip, we were the primary group and a guide by the name of Wilson Wilder was assigned to us. Unfortunately for us, there was quite a rager party the night before because of the competition. Apparently, Wilder partied a bit too hard and couldn’t show up. From talking with some of the other people there including a guide, we got the impression that Wilder had a reputation for being a slacker. So we were without a guide and therefore couldn’t go to the areas that we had planned. Next time, we’ll know to specifically request someone other than this Wilson Wilder character.

Ghetto Simulator
We decided to head on over to Ghetto Simulator, another classic V1. Ryan, Sean, Judy, and I had tried the climb the last time we were here. The beginning move is kind of difficult, especially if you don’t have a long enough reach. The rest of it is not technically hard, but it’s very pumpy and challenges your climbing endurance. We spent most of the morning there. Kate and Sean both got the first move and continued a short distance past it. Judy unfortunately just couldn’t get the first move primarily because of her reach limitations. It was particularly frustrating because we remember her doing something the last time we were there that enabled her to get really close to pulling off that first move.

Core and New Meadow
We had lunch at the top of Ghetto Simulator and then moved on. On our way to New Meadow, we passed roof boulder that had a really fun V2 on it. It also had a V4 which Ryan pretty much flashed. The V2 had a pretty tough first move that used a lot of core strength. While the rest of us struggled with the first move, Judy did it very smoothly and consistently. The rest of the climb was a lot of fun, but since it was a roof, it was very pumpy.

After that climb (which wasn’t in the book so we didn’t even know the names of them!) we headed towards New Meadow. It was a bit difficult to find but Ryan and Patty’s superior scouting abilities finally located the area. We had to squeeze through some narrow passages of rock to get there, but it turned out to be a really cool area. Unfortunately, time was running out and we wouldn’t be able to spend much time there.

Our trip was rapidly coming to a close. We hiked back down to the cars, packed up, and headed back towards the airport. We did a quick fill-up at the Chevron (gas was cheap at $1.59. SD prices at the time were over $2.00) and then returned the rental cars. Dinner was at a Mexican place in the airport (our only choice for food). On the plane ride back, Judy wasted no time and began planning another trip. Along with Patty and Ryan, they scanned through our Arizona mountain biking book looking for potential trails to ride when we go out there for the Phoenix Bouldering Competition.

Dave Rocks!
Dave met us at the airport with my 4-Runner to take us home. Thanks Dave! You rock! Yet another great trip with a bunch of great pics!

Posted by Roger at 8:32 pm.