Angela and I blasted across the southwest heading towards Hueco Tanks. This was supposedly America’s best bouldering and I couldn’t wait to find out for myself. We knew there would be red tape and hoops to jump through but I didn’t expect as many as we encountered. After we had signed all the forms, paid all the fees, watched all the movies, and answered all the questions, we couldn’t wait to get out and climb.
However I had not rested enough since J-tree so the first day we decided to check out the trad climbing. While I am sure some would like it I found lines that were hard to follow, rock that broke easily, and sketchy pro. I guess one shouldn’t expect much if they go to a world class bouldering and then trad climb.
The next day we were psyched for the bouldering and thought, what better place to start than the Mushroom Boulder. Again we were disappointed. The rock was as slick as glass and the problems were hard and tendon intensive. Angela was getting frustrated. So far we had had much more fun in Bishop.
However things started to look up after that. We found areas with better friction and wider range of problems. The New Meadows had some awesome problems and the Lunch Rock Boulders were filled with gems. Just as I started to get psyched on the bouldering it was time to move on.
While I liked Hueco, I didn’t think it had bouldering that was as good as people said it was. But this has just made me want to come back and explore some more to try to find the Hueco that everyone talks so fondly of.
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