First days in Hueco Tanks

The SKLaDventures crew is at Hueco Tanks! After a long drive by Kilian and Li and a short flight by Sarah and Danny, our group was re-united! We spent our first night eating Mexican burritos–the fuel that powers all Hueco Tanks climbers! We then spent 2 days climbing on North Mountain with much success!

Li, a grad student from China/race car driver, spent his undergrad years in New Mexico and could get to Hueco Tanks park in just over an hour! Having years of experience in the park he is the natural choice for group guide–plus he inexplicably knows the beta to absolutely everything. We have begun to suspect that he didn’t really attend university and instead spent years living in the mountains of Hueco. Alas, one super long climb has alluded Li, the wonder Asian, for all these years: Baby Martini (V6). But, during our first day climbing, he harnessed the force of the Chinese power grunt and fantastically sent the climb! In our next couple of days, Li went on to send Short Order Cook (V6), Stegasaur (V8).

Li working El Techo V11

Kilian is our resident backpacking expert, having spent summers as a guide at the boy scout camp Philmont. He is also one of the most dedicated people I’ve met! Kilian spent at least an hour working out the moves on King Cobra (V6), falling on the last move several times. The group decided it was time to move on to other climbs, like Stegasaur (V8), which Li and Danny sent, but Kilian couldn’t let go of King Cobra. After a few hours watching Li project, he returned to KC for the send! In a similar fashion he pushed hard at the end of our first day working Short Order Cook (V6), managing to cut open his finger, forcing him to rest. But he came back to it at the end of our next day and sent the problem in less than 10 minutes! Congrats to Kilian for getting his hardest grade in Hueco twice in one trip!

Kilian on King Cobra V6

Danny has also had a very successful couple of days, sending many notable climbs without breaking a sweat–partially because it’s 40 degrees and partially because he’s just that good. He onsighted a V9 yesterday, the name of which I can’t say in this blog because its gross and my grandma is supposed to be reading this (hey grandma!). He also finished Stegasaur(V8) in 2 attempts, a V7 with another gross name, Rudy (V7), and many many more.

Danny sending Short Order Cook V6

The crew is resting today, which means blogging at Starbucks, a movie, salsa dancing/drug running in Juarez, the mall, dinner at a real restaurant, and whining about being sore. Tomorrow we plan to go on a guided climbing tour of East Mountain, and we look forward to more exciting sends! Updates to come.

 

Posted with Blogsy–on an iPad, so forgive any typing mistakes

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