Saturday morning I woke up to an ominous sound. A stomach rumbling followed by a bit of nausea. Not so good! I thought I had been doing a good job of staying hydrated, but after yesterday’s heat & sun exposure, maybe not.
Still, I thought I should try and climb. I ate my morning apple and a bagel in an attempt to calm my stomach. We headed for the crag.
We started out on Bloodline (5.9). I insisted we use the stick clip for the start, as it seemed prudent.
In her attempt to get the first bolt clipped using the stick clip, Lauren tripped and ripped the ever living snot out of her elbow. Blood trickled down her arm…
I told her, “Well, *now* you’re ready to do the climb. Don’t you know, you can’t do Bloodline without bleeding!”. It was a ridiculous situation because (of course!) she totally cruised the start, and finished the climb without further incident.
We both agreed that the stick clip is not necessary, once one is familiar with the moves.
The main thing I was concerned with was the jagged boulders one would land on, in the event one *didn’t* successfully clip the first anchor. If one had a crash pad, one could provide further protection to the leader by putting it over the top of the rocks at the base.
We went over to the Route Canal Wall, in between the Gnar Wall and Rad wall. The picture above is looking at the Route Canal Wall with Crest Chewel on the left wall (CC ascends the ramp up to the rooflette, then around to face on the right side).
The photo above was taken in the Route Canal, looking down at the Schoolhouse Slab…the slab was covered with kids the day prior, so we were happy it was void of crowds.
We then climbed Slacker Ken (5.9). We both had dated Ken’s in the past, so we thought it was ironic. Slacker Ken has a balancy top section, which I found challenging & exciting for the grade!
Next up was Crest Chewel (5.9). Lauren cruised it until the 4th bolt (a spinner!). This section gave her pause, but she eventually figured it out and made it to the anchors.
We finished the day on Green Chile Two Step (5.7). I thought this was a fun cool down route. I was feeling pretty weak all day from my stomach acting up, so I was happy we were calling it quits.
After climbing, we packed up the van and headed over to Ojos Caliente, to check out the spa.
After considerable grovelling and begging, they let us take a shower (we couldn’t use the spa because we had Cookie Belle with us and it was way too hot to leave her in the car)! Management was quite suspicious of us, and they were not all that friendly.
We drove from there to Cimarron Canyon State Park, stopping in Taos for dinner at a Thai restaurant called Dara Thai. They stayed open late so we could eat (how nice!). Then, we had an adventure.
We left Taos around 9:30pm and by the time we got to Cimarron Canyon SP, it was nearly 11pm. It is so incredibly dark in the canyon, it is hard to see the signs for the campgrounds. We drove all the way through the park, passing into the town of Cimarron, before we figured we had really missed it! By the time we found the campsite at Maverick Campground, it was midnight.
It was about 1am by the time we fell asleep.
Tags: El Rito, NM, Road Trip, Rock Climbing