We decided to take Joe’s Honda Passport on its sunset voyage and piled into the car for an all-nighter. We arrived at the Hueco Rock Ranch early Friday morning, ready for a day on North Mountain. Hueco Tanks is an access sensitive area—there are restrictions on how many people can be in an area at any given time. Reservations or guided tours are required, so it can be difficult to navigate on your first visit. After watching an informative video about the history of the park, we were off to Warm Up Boulder.
A few warm-up problems later, we decided to head over to the Potatoes at the top of the chains and ended up at the Grenade boulder to work the classic V2 “Nobody here gets out alive.” This was one of my favorite problems of the trip. The opening moves require intense heel-hooking action on perfect rock.
Leici spots Arun on a big move
We ended our day with a trip to the sunny New Meadow. There were plenty of quality moderates to be found. Joe and Ben even found a project, Lobster Claw (V5), that they’ll return to one day.
Joe traverses a quality V1
We left in search of good Mexican food and margaritas. Unfortunately, we found bad Mexican food and margaritas that were actually just shots of tequila. Lack of sleep caught up with us and we eagerly crawled into our beds at the Rock Ranch.
The next morning, we woke up to warmer weather and headed out to The Morgue on North Mountain. T-Bone Shuffle (V4) caught Joe’s eye. After his attempt at an onsight, Ben and Joe took turns working the classic line.
Ben working the crux
I’d heard good things about the Gymnasium, so we hiked to the top of the chains and squeezed Joe’s new Mondo through a small slot in the rock. The Gym is chock full of highball, hueco-covered warm-ups. We climbed leisurely and soaked up the sun for a few hours.
View of the Gymnasium
Lunch in the sun fueled our search for what most consider one of the best boulder problems in Hueco Tanks—Ghetto Simulator (V2). As Joe said, it was a hike “for a boulderer.”
It’s more like a route
We decided to call it a day and hiked back to the car. Arun volunteered to make yummy Indian food for dinner, so Joe cracked a bottle of wine and we relaxed at the ranch. As Arun was finishing up dinner, Joe decided to force the pressure cooker open because he was too hungry to wait. At least, that’s my version of the story. Lentils and veggies exploded all over the kitchen, covering everyone and everything in sight. Fortunately, Arun forgave Joe (thanks to the chocolate, heart-shaped cake that Joe presented to her earlier in the evening) and there was enough food left in the pot to have an awesome dinner.
Arun and Joe in happier times
A guided tour in East Mountain was on the agenda for Sunday. Our guide, Cory, led us to Kid’s Stuff, where we played around on easy warm-ups with fun heel hooks and big huecos.
Me, being awesome
Cory led us over to Dragon’s Den, where we got on all of the classics—Ostracizer (V3), Hobbit in a Blender (V5), Satan, Satan, Satan (V1), and Dragonfly (V5).
Leici on Ostracizer
Joe’s proud send of Hobbit in a Blender
Ben’s last minute send on Dragonfly
East Mountain is also full of pictographs from Native American tribes that inhabited the area around Hueco Tanks. Cory took us to see a few of the drawings, along with Hueco Tank’s only year-round water source.
A well-preserved pictograph in East Mountain
Before leaving Hueco Tanks, we headed over to Warm-Up Roof and climbed a few more problems. Exhausted, we drove back to the ranch and packed up to head to Albuquerque. On our way out, we finally found amazing (and cheap!!) Mexican food at a tiny little place inside a meat market.
Hilarious group photo
Thanks to Arun and Joe for fun times and an awesome weekend of bouldering in Texas!
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