Hueco Tanks: A Roadtrip

A group of Middlebury College students recently took a roadtrip to Hueco Tanks in El Paso, Texas. Despite the rumors, bouldering is still allowed in most areas of the park, although some areas require a tour guide. Matt Wilder, Dan Knights, Bret Sarnquist, Pete Wall, Alex Spiegel, Ben Wessler, Matt Hommeyer, and Maribeth Long all headed down to Texas for good times and great bouldering.

Matt Wilder sending an unnamed V7 in the North Mountain Meadow.

Matt said, "There were lots of us, but that was ok seeing as how there was basically no one else in the park." The group mostly climbed at North Mountain, but got a few tours and made it to the Gunks Boulder area on East Spur, and The Dragon's Den and Moonshine Roof on East Mountain. All in all, the weather was good and the climbing was great.

Bret Sarnquist sending T-Bone Shuffle, V4.

The first day out, Pete Wall sent an unnamed V6/7 near North Mountain Meadow and then sent Daily Dick Dose, V7. Alex also came close to sending both of these. Two days later, the group hit up a bunch of problems in the New North Mountain Meadow area. Bret, Pete, Dan, and Ben sent a super classic unnamed V5. Dan and Bret were also able to muster up the energy to send The Flame, V6 which involves amazing slap moves up a steep belly. Matt flashed those two problems and also did an awesome unnamed roof problem that went at about V7 (pictured above). The next climbing day, they took a tour out to the Gunks boulder area. The first problem to go down was the dyno, Walrus in a Blender, V5. Bret and Pete sent this and Ben came very close. Maribeth added All of the Idiots to her list of V3 flashes and Matt Hommeyer came agonizingly close to sending the problem. Bret and Pete also came very close to sending New Religion, V7, but the two hour tour time limit cut them short. Matt futilely tried Full Monty, V12, to no avail. After the tour, they headed back up to North Mountain, where Matt sent Flying Marcel, V10.

Matt Wilder sending Flying Marcel, V10.

The next day started with a session on the V6 right next to Rear Burner. Bret, Pete, and Alex all sent this problem and Ben fell off the lip just before the climbing gets easy. The group then went on a tour to the Dragon's Den. Most were tired and got shut down on the things  they were working, but Bret managed to send Dragonfly V5. Then, they headed to Moonshine roof. Bret and Pete sent the V4 variation and Bret came close to sending the V5 variation. Matt managed to pull the V5 variation on my first try but found it quite hard.

Their final day was tough considering they were all spanked from the previous two days. Matt sent left and center El Murray, both V6, on his first tries and was very psyched about them. Matt said that, "By the end of the day, we were all tuckered and ready to go home, though not too psyched about the temperature change that was imminent."

According to Matt, "The best send of the whole trip was definitely when 7 of us managed to all balance at once on a small rock near the Mushroom Boulder. We gave it a rating of V12, but would like other parties input. All in all it was a fun trip." (Thanks to Matt Wilder and Pete Wall for this report).