Universal Rhythm: Waaaaccccoooo

Departure from Cincinnati, Ohio: 9:55pm January 26, 2009
Arrive in Louisville, Kentucky 11:40pm January 26, 2009
Arrive in Nashville, Tennessee 2:25am January 27, 2009
Arrive in Memphis, Tennessee 7:00am January 27, 2009 (2hr and 15 min delay)
Arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas 12:40am January 27, 2009
Arrive in Texarkana, Arkansas 2:25pm January 27, 2009
Arrive in Dallas, Texas 6:15pm January 27, 2009 (19 HOUR DELAY)

The rest of the Greyhound trip is not important. What IS important is how long Kathryn and I were delayed in Dallas, Texas. Upon arriving in Dallas we discovered that our bus to our next stop, Abilene, was not just over booked, but over booked by TWICE as many people. The employees could not have been more worthless. One employee, who we later found out was the manager, told Kathryn that she was "the reason for our bus being over booked and she wasn't sorry about it". Not only were we going to have to wait for the next bus but apparently atrocious weather hit the Dallas area causing there to be black ice...either that or people don't know how to drive through winter weather in the South. (I'll leave that up to you) So now on top of missing our bus we were stranded in Dallas because of weather. The employees at the Dallas Greyhound Station made us move THREE DIFFERENT times while we were trying to sleep, finally they pointed us towards one of the abandoned buses where they were sheltering other stranded passengers for the night. Talk about uncomfortable. Very grudgingly they let us (the stranded passengers) have food coupons, but only every 8 hours, and even then they would only give out 10 at a time. Needless to say there were more people stranded than the mere 10. Sometimes the employees would tell us that they weren't going to give us the coupons for an hour just in case a bus came for us so they wouldn't have to give us free food. uuugggghhh But we did eventually make it to El Paso a day later than planned.

Total Hours with Greyhound from Cincinnati to El Paso: 52

Hueco Tanks- an area of low mountains in Texas. It is located in a high-altitude desert basin between the Franklin Mountains to the west and the Hueco Mountains to the east. Hueco is a Spanish word meaning hollows and refers to the many water-holding depressions in the boulders and rock faces throughout the region. Hueco Tanks is thus a redundant phrase.

Hueco is a giant playground for climbers. I have never seen features this unique, nor have had to use heel hooks quite so much. So many of the uber classic problems have the coolest holds and features. The Moonshine Roof is a prime example, there is basically a giant surf board sticking out of the bottom of a roof. Hueco is known for it's highballs, history, and of course huecos!

All of which I experienced:

Climbing a warm-up highball on North Mountain. Notice how small the crash pads are and my super spotters.
Photo: Eric Stevenson

Sending Sign of the Cross- Sherman’s template for all V3's
Photo: Matt Hughes

Jamie lounging on some of the huecos
Photo: Matt Hughes

Hueco is one of those places where spending a week there only begins to scratch the surface of what the bouldering has to offer. I felt like I was only just beginning to understand how to climb there. After sending a few problems the initial feeling that absolutely every hold is super greasy begins to become less of an issue as your body adapts to this unique style of bouldering. That's when you really start to enjoy the climbing. I recommend spending more than a week at Hueco...