On the evening of December 25th Krissy and I loaded up the car and started driving to Steele, Alabama. We left Fredericton at around 8pm after two great Christmas's with each of our families. This meant opening gifts twice, and best of all, two Christmas dinners.
The weather forecast for the drive looked like it could be very bad with 18 plus inches of snow predicted for the North East USA. Incredibly we managed to stay just ahead of the snow storm basically the whole 24 hours we were in the car. Exhausted after doing the drive in one shot we found a motel just outside of Steele, and crashed there. At this point it was actually snowing and blowing quite hard in Alabama - the thought of setting up a tent was not too appealing....
The next morning we woke up at what we thought was about 9am (more on this in a second), had breakfast and slowly began packing up our stuff. The hotel desk person kept calling the room asking if we were going to be checking out, each time I had the same reply - "yes". On about the third or fourth phone call I was starting to get a little annoyed - I asked him why he kept calling and said that I was told check-out was 11am (our clock said something like 10:45am). It turns out the clock in our room was off by an hour which explained the lack of breakfast availability at the motel and the pressuring desk person....
We arrived at Horse Pens 40, set up camp and immediately headed out to the boulders. The stone is remarkably similar to Fontainbleau, France. I would say that it is probably some of the best rock I have climbed on anywhere. HP 40 was a unique area in that the coolest problems (most aesthetic, fun movement, etc) were the easier problems. There were not a lot of V9+ problems to choose from, but the quality of the easier stuff more than made up for that. I had a blast climbing problem after problem on the unique sandstone features. Krissy was also able to find and send some mini projects in the few days we got in climbing. Krissy had not really spent any serious amount of time climbing since we were in Rumney during the summer due to her school work, so this was mainly a trip to get back in shape for her.
A couple of climbing highlights for myself would be climbing Slider (v9) and Skywalker (V9). Slider is probably one of the best V9's I have ever climbed. Before we arrived it was my goal to flash Slider. My first try was going great - sticking the crux deadpoint, but I chickened out shortly after (the problem was much bigger than I expected)...I was lucky enough to send it on my second go.
Krissy's climbing highlight (in my mind anyway) would have to be her battle with the uber classic Bumboy (V3/4). This might be the hardest V3/4ish on the planet! Krissy's battle was epic. I think it has to be close to the best fight she has ever put up on a boulder. She has the battle woulds to prove it - bruises, scrapes, and pink tips. In the end Bumboy won, but it was still very inspiring and entertaining to watch the battle. You win some and you loose some - that is bouldering.
While in HP 40 we ran into a crew from Ontario/Montreal/New Zealand. One of the climbers, Dustin, I had climbed with at several competitions and outside in Halifax. Dustin is a great guy to have around the boulders - he has a great attitude towards climbing, is friendly to everyone, and is fun to have around climbing. Hopefully he does not break too many more problems there with his power....
Another climber we met was Ana Burgos. She is a very talented climber from the South East US. Anyone who complains about being too short to climb certain problems needs to watch this woman climb! She is probably 4.5ft tall and cranks! I saw her on some of the problems I was on and it was very impressive - I'm sure she climbs V10+.
We left HP 40 quite happy with our climbing and time spent there. On our way home we got into a groove of searching for great coffee in each of the major towns we drove through - we had some hits and some misses. The best we found was in Knoxville, Tennessee of all places - Old Town Java.
Other random highlights:
-Mullets rule
-It does snow in Alabama...
-It does thunder, lightning, and blow in the 'bama
-Krissy picking up a southern accent and actually using by accident talking to someone!
-Cracker Barrel restraunt portions
-Waffle House = Tim Hortons
-friendly southerners
Krissy on Slice (v2)
Krissy on Genesis (v3)
Slider (v9)
Krissy warming up
The Fridge
Relaxing in the hammock in less than ideal temperatures
The awesome campsite
Making coffee
Too much Christmas dinner?
Krissy checking out Mariachi (v4)
Spooke Eye (v2)
Ben on Slider (v9)
WASP (v2) - tops of my list of problems at this grade
Redneck (v6)
Redneck (v6)
Redneck (v6)
Night Session
The Crown (v3)
Krissy topping out The Kind Flake (v3)
The Kind Flake (v3)
Skywalker (v9)
Hammerhead (v5)
The Crew
Ben on Bumboy (V4) and Dustin on Centipede (V5)
Ben on Muletino (V6) - very high top out after a long roof section
The Bumboy (v3) - epic battle!
Getting ready for war...
