Hello from Hueco. I'm sitting outside the headquarters using the free internet now. Today is my first rest day. I arrived on Thursday after a tiring drive and climbed some. First I tried Diabolic V12/13 and felt pretty good even though I was a bit disoriented from the drive. I even managed to get a new high point and came agonizingly close to sending the whole thing. I stuck the crux move and fell on the next move which is probably the last hard move. I think it'll go down tomorrow morning if I can get on North Mountain. Here's a video of my best attempt. I also tried Terre de Sienne and felt good on that too. I didn't do the first move but was hitting the hold without too much extra body movement. It will have to be a really precise deadpoint but I think I can do it. I climbed the rest of the problem first try again so I think it really will just come down to that first move.
Yesterday I went on a volunteer tour to the East Spur Maze. I ended up trying Coeur de Leon V13 a bit and came really close to doing it. I fell after the crux on this one too. The problem is in a hole and thus not too aesthetic but the moves are really interesting. I'm psyched to try to get on another tour out there and finish it off. I think it should go down quickly now that I know the beta which is very intricate and convoluted.
Lots of strong climbers are down here now and there were some solid sends yesterday - I'm sure I don't even know about all of them, but for starters, Nalle and Jon Cardwell both did Coeur de Leon and Nalle flashed Full Monty V12. I think this must be the first flash of the Full Monty - definitely a solid effort. Tim Clifford is down here for a bit more than a week and despite the fact that he's getting over the flu, he climbed Algerita V13 yesterday and is close on El Techo de Los Tres B V12/13 (not sure of the grade because it has apparently changed recently because some stones were pulled out of the crack behind one of the holds making it a bit bigger).
I'll be climbing on North tomorrow and will hopefully get a some sends of my own. I'm really psyched on Diabolic and will head to that first. Then Terre de Sienne will be next on the list. Hopefully I can do Diabolic quickly so that I will still be fresh for Terre. I'd like to try Algerita a bit - Tim told me his beta which is slightly different that what I've tried in the past. It'll probably be unrealistic to have skin left for trying Algerita after a session on Terre. We'll see. Stay tuned for more news from the Hueco front.
