Well, for those of you who keep up with our climbing endeavors, you’ll know that about this time last year, we took a trip to Hueco where I fell off a warm up problem and totally busted up my ankle. After missing the pad with my heel, my foot slammed into the rock and I felt a very sharp tingling sensation go up both sides of my leg from my ankle to my calf muscle.  5 minutes later it was the size of a softball.  Honestly, I’m still not sure what I did exactly because I never did go to a doctor. Dumb, I know, but I doubt there’s anything they could have done and they would have told me to stay off of it for a certain amount of time… and we all know that wouldn’t have happened. The reason why that sucked so hard (other than the OBVIOUS ones) was because I was going to try and send a really good problem I had been working the previous trips – and this was our last trip out to Hueco before it got too hot and we had to wait another 8 months to give it another go. Well, of course since I turned into a cripple and had to hobble out of the park, I never did make it out to that problem and that damn rock has been sitting there for a year taunting me from across the desert. Soooo…after almost a year, (and battling to get a freakin’ reservation) we finally made it back out to the park.

 

So this is my nemesis. It’s name is Roughage and the going rate is V7. Tommy HATES this problem with a passion and the reason is because he hates spotting me on it. I can’t blame him – the landing is awful, especially when you get high. However, we had plenty of pads and an extra pair of helping hands from our buddy Stu…who also HATES this problem. I’m not sure why this thing gets such a bad rap. Yes, the landing is horrible, but it’s such an awesome mental and physical challenge that everyone who can climb should try it at some point. =)

 

 

*The truth of the matter is that I never would have been able to complete this climb if it hadn’t been for Tommy and Stu. It’s a testament to them that I fell off this thing several times and didn’t get hurt once. Great spotters make these highballs possible!