Bishop

We left Red Rocks in mid-March to meet up with our friends Deyo (who had joined us in Hueco, see post!) and Cassidy from Seattle, who were heading down for their spring bouldering trip. We were also able to connect with Sydney and Kyle (our awesome New Hampshire hosts, see post), who were in the middle of their own multi-month winter climbing trip. Sydney and Kyle were doing the reverse of our trip – heading from Bishop to Red Rocks right around the time we were leaving for Bishop – but we planned to hang out in Bishop before they left town.

Beautiful Sunset on our first day in the Buttermilks.

 

After putting camp together with Deyo and Cassidy at the Pit on our first day, we headed up to the Buttermilks, the higher-elevation field of glacially deposited granite boulders that Bishop is so famous for. Syd and Kyle were camped up there in the Blueberry, Kyle’s blue short-bus home-on-the-road. After catching up and getting some warm-ups in, we ran into Jeremy and Aleks, another couple on a long-term road trip. We’d met them briefly in the Red, and Jeremy and Kyle knew each other from routesetting gigs. We joined groups, and we wound up camping and climbing with Jeremy and Aleks for the rest of our time in Bishop, even as other friends came and left. That first day, we were all inspired by Sydney’s many successful sends!

In addition to climbing in the Buttermilks with Sydney/Kyle/Deyo/Cassidy/Aleks/Jeremy, we spent a day exploring Dale’s Camp, a less developed sector in the Buttermilk Country with a few hard, classic problems. The road in was a little precarious, and though a number of the boulders were pretty gritty Kyle in particular kept stoke high. Dale’s highlights include stacking pads on the Element during the drive to the area and playing on Xavier’s Roof, one of the hard classics with some crazy movement.

 

 Safety!

We also took advantage of our huge group during a day at the Sads, which along with the Happy Boulders is a lower-elevation area with volcanic tuff boulders. Deyo casually cleaned up her long-standing projects in the area (as well as everywhere else during her trip - again, nice work!), and we put together an awesome landing at Strength in Numbers, the classic highball V5.

Aleks on Morning Dove White (V7), Happy Boulders.

 

 

Seth topping out Son of Claudius Rufus (V5).



After a few days of climbing together, Syd and Kyle continued onto the next stage of their road trip. It was great to spend time with them, and thanks again you guys for being such great hosts last fall! We spent the rest of the week with Aleks/Jeremy/Deyo/Cassidy, during which Deyo proved again that she is one of the most good-natured and positive people ever. She woke up with pink-eye about halfway through our trip, and instead of getting bummed or even complaining about how much it hurt (it looked like her eye must have been pretty painful), she stayed cheerful and relatively upbeat. After a trip to the Bishop clinic for meds, Deyo even carried pads pretty far up into the Sads to support Cassidy as she finished her project when everyone else stayed in town for a rest day – definitely worthy of the best-friend award! Overall, our week with Deyo and Cassidy was super fun.

Shannon and Matt, more friends from Seattle, joined us for a few days the following week. Both Shannon and Matt are super strong, and this was their first trip to Bishop. We had a great time climbing with them in the Buttermilks and dragging them to the Happys/Sads, which they’d been told to avoid. They pulled some inspiringly quick sends of the classic problems, and we wish you guys could have stayed longer! Aleks and Jeremy also had friends roll through during our time in Bishop – special thanks to Andy for all the Stumptown! Good coffee is critical J.

 

 

Andy on Norwegian (V4).

 

Seth’s friend Cici later drove in from LA for a weekend, just in time for the onset of bad weather aka WINDPOCALYPSE. After getting knocked over by pads, pushed off the rocks, and almost literally blown down from the Buttermilks, we spend a calm half-day in town and a fun evening at the Banff mountain film festival. When we got back to camp later than night, we were blown away (...but actually) by the destruction. The picnic table where we kept our cookwear was completely empty, to the point that we were afraid that we’d been robbed. Then we slowly started recovering our things, which we found strewn all the way across the Pit. Aleks and Jeremy’s French press, our camp stoves (which we found ~30ft from the table), and our chairs (found all the way across the Pit) sustained the worst damage, but everything was pretty torn up and dusty. We put together some MacGyver fixes for the stoves, laid the French Press and other glasswear to rest, and cleaned up in the morning, before getting back to climbing.

 

 

Chelsea and Aleks doing their best to cook as the wind blows the fire flat.

 

As with the other areas we’ve stayed at for a while, we developed a routine for our rest days in Bishop. Our highlights included touring the gear shop and trying on all the shoes a couple times, fighting for plugs and with the internet at Black Sheep coffee, wandering around the Galen Rowell photo gallery for about a million years, stopping by the Great Basin Bakery for cookies, lunch at the “best lunch in Bishop” sandwich place and spending a few hours watching Ridiculousness on MTV there, doing laundry and taking a shower AT THE SAME PLACE, and the hot springs (we liked the natural ones a lot, but Keough was also ok). We tried a lot of the restaurants in town but kept coming back to Amigos, which has fantastic veggie burritos that are big enough for dinner and lunch the next day, Mango Jarritos (mind-blown), and enough chips and salsa that everyone in our sizeable dinner groups could get enough. We DON’T recommend driving up to Mammoth for rest days – we’d hoped for a ski town, but all we found were condos. The Black Velvet coffeeshop on Main St was a decent consolation discovery, though.

We loved the varied and technical climbing in Bishop. We both enjoyed the granite boulders in the Buttermilks the most, but we had a lot of fun in the Happys and Sads, and a couple memorably awesome days at the Druid Stones and Rock Creek. This has also been Chelsea’s most successful bouldering trip yet, with favorite/proudest climbs including Soul Slinger (1^st official V9), Junior’s Achievement (V7/8), another lesser-traveled V8-ish in the Checkerboard area, Rave (V7), flash of Bowling Pin Sit (V6), Seven Spanish Angels (V6), Milk the Milks (V6), Rio’s Crack (V6), Strength in Numbers (V5), and many repeats of China Doll, which she thinks is the best warm-up ever! Seth enjoyed measured success with Bowling Pin (V4), Son of Claudius Rufus (V5), The Fang (V4), Solarium (V4), a flash of Norwegian (V4) and was painfully close at least a dozen times to climbing Go Granny Go (V5) and Bowling Pin Sit (V6, figured out the moves then didn't have enough skin, next year).



 

Aleks on Soul Slinger (V9).

Seth on Bowling Pin Sit (V6).

Crossing the river at Rock Creek.

V4 on Campground Boulder, Rock Creek.

 



We had a great time with everyone as well, and even as the weather gets hotter we’re bummed to leave. Luckily we have plans to climb with Aleks and Jeremy at Joe’s Valley… Coming soon!

Back in the game: Mt. Lemmon, Cochise, and Red Rocks

After our much needed holiday break from traveling and camping we flew back to where the car waited in Albuquerque, and enjoyed the hospitality of Seth's family. We loved the company and the famous NM green chili during our time there, and Seth also got his first introduction to cross country skiing at the local Sandia Crest. He felt a bit awkward on the different skis, but had a great time! Soon after arriving in Albuquerque, Chelsea flew out again to visit Yale, which marked the first of our many grad school visits. (Remember that earlier in the trip we spent a lot of our non-climbing time applying to grad school; now we began the equally hard work of deciding where to go.)

View from the Crest Tram

 

Sherry and Mike - you guys are amazing, thanks for everything!

After Seth finished his skiing and Chelsea got back to Albuquerque, we headed straight to Tucson AZ to visit another one of Chelsea's graduate schools and to sample the local climbing. Overall we liked Tucson, especially the cheap food/drinks. We particularly liked Sky Bar, a local pub run on solar energy, which featured great beer at the standard cheap Tucson prices.

We also scoped out the climbing gym (a critical part of Chelsea's grad school visit). There, we ran into Chelsea's friend Eric and made plans for climbing later in the week.

Once all of our school related business was completed in Tucson, we spent a few days climbing on Mt. Lemmon. The crags were hard for us to find as out-of-towners, but luckily Eric was able to help put us on the right track, and we had a great day of climbing with his AZ crew (thanks again for the directions!). The camping on Lemmon was pretty convenient, and the San Catalinas were a beautiful place to stay.

Cochise Stronghold was next on our AZ destination list, where we met up with some U of Arizona graduate students that Chelsea met during her visit. Our drive from Tucson to Cochise was our first long drive in Arizona, and it proved to be an odd one. Alongside the freeway we were amused by a number of gas stations who advertised the change to shoot various assault rifles and even a fifty-caliber machine gun, in addition the normal gas station services.

The adventure didn't stop once we finally found our way into the Stronghold, where we ran into the Rainbow Gathering - an enormous group of modern day hippies doing all kinds of crazy stuff in the Arizona desert. When we pulled up to a crew of people to check whether our friend was at the camp fire, a tye-dyed man named Leif stuck his head in the car, welcome us home, told us he loved us, and then offered "free food from the woods!" ....which we respectfully declined. These Rainbow Gathering hippies were definitely friendly, but maybe not the kind of folks we'd trust not to "borrow" some of the stuff in our car, so we high-tailed it away and luckily found our friends soon after.

We were a bit nervous about the reputation Cochise has as an "adventurous" (read: terrifying and committing) climbing spot, but we spent our day there climbing single pitch sport with our new U of AZ friends and had an awesome time. Our highlights include Seth's accidental 10a onsight, which we thought was a 5.7 from the less-than-accurate book description of the wall, and of course our friend's adorable puppy Queso. Lower points include the tire blowout/flat spare tire some of our friends had to deal with. After a solid day, we negotiated our way back through the sea of drum circles and rainbows and headed out.

Queso the puppy!

We rolled into Red Rocks the next day, and were blown away by the huge, brightly colored sandstone walls and smaller Calico Hills in the park. The campsite, which we heard lovingly referred to as Campganistan, was expensive but is the only game in town. Eventually we grew to like it despite the dust and lack of a view, and cut costs by sharing the site first with our friend Mike Foley and with Mike's friend Heather and yet another (different) Mike. During our first week or so in Red Rocks, we climbed with our campmates a lot, and were also able to meet up with fellow Seattleite Brian Smith during his Vegas trip.

Red Rocks at it's finest

 

View from the Calico Hills

Mike on Meadowlark Lemon

 

Mike and Heather at Kraft

 

Making dinner at camp

After a week or so of hanging out, we made our last grad school visits. Seth headed east to Columbia, where he was able to sample the sophistication an Ivy League education would allow him: boat cruise on the Hudson and a symphony at Yale. He also flew home to tour the University of Washington. During a complicated exchange of airport dropoffs, car parking, and pickup - during which we may or may not have kinda misplaced the car in the airport parking lot for a bit - Chelsea visited UT Austin between Seth's tours.

Once our graduate school visits were finished the climbing began in earnest. We did a lot of diverse climbing while in Red Rocks, focusing mostly on sport climbing and bouldering. Almost all of our sport climbing was at the Gallery, Red Rocks most popular sport crag. That wall bakes in the sun for most of the day, so we had pretty hot conditions, but overall we enjoyed the climbing. We also spent a day at the Sandstone Quarry, which was a lot more sandy/chossy. Our sport climbing highlights include Chelsea's onsight of Minstrels in the Gallery 5.12b, and sends of The Gift (5.12d), The Glitch (5.12c) and Fear and Loathing (the classic Vegas 12a). Seth onsighted a cruxy 5.10c and also sent his hardest route on a rope, A Day in The Life (5.11c). We also (unsuccessfully) tried to find Mt. Potosi with our friend and now Vegas local Sam Johnson, but made up for getting lost with an afternoon of bouldering followed by the best pizza Vegas has to offer (thanks for the intro, Sam!).



The Gift, photo cred Jo Banner/Instacred Sethman

 



Seth's 10c onsight

 

A Day in the Life, 11c!!!

 

Fear and Loathing 12a

The boulders in Red Rocks are super good overall, but some of the best climbing is pretty spread out. As a result, we spent most of our time in Gateway Canyon and at The Kraft boulders, where the boulder density/development is greater.  Our favorite boulders were The Monkey Bars Boulder (Monkey Bars Right/Traverse etc.), Pork Chop (V4), and the Dead Heart (V4).

Monkey Bars Right V6

 

Pork Chop V4

We had originally planned to do a few longer multi-pitch routes, but our time got away from us and we only managed to do one: the classic and incredible Birdland, a five pitch 5.7 on the Brass Wall. We dealt with some of the lines/waiting/unsticking people's ropes that can be commonplace on the classics in Red Rocks, but the route was outstanding.

Stoked on Birdland!

 

As we got to the end of our time in Vegas, we decided to get a room on the strip with Heather and Mike. We stayed at Excalibur, much to Seth's excitement. We were stoked to go out on the strip that night, but struggled to find a club open on a Tuesday (who'd think there are days when the strip isn't crazy?!). Once we did find our club, though, we got our cover's worth. A lot of our fellow club-goers were pretty concerned with looking cool or whatever, but we were ready to dance like crazy. It got to the point where we were either forcing people to dance with us or to clear out of the way if they didn't want to get trampled! We had a fantastic night, and a great send-off for our time climbing with Heather and Mike, who were leaving the next day. We spent a few more days at the now spring-break packed campground, and then headed off to the incredible boulders and scenery of Bishop California.

 

Strip shenanigans (jean jacket $5000, coyote vest $2500 - don't break it...)

With Great Powder Comes Great Responsibilty: How my brother and I decided to back down on a dream trip.

Last week my brother Jake and I set out on a much anticipated trip to Roger's Pass in British Columbia's Glacier National Park. The plan was to spend four days skiing out of the famous Asulkan Cabin 8km into the backcountry. We started the ski up to the hut with a layer of fog and a light snow falling. By the time we got to the hut it was foggier and snowier and the wind had picked up dramatically. This became a serious worry.

Jake skinning in to the cabin.

When wind rips over a ridge it deposits more snow on the opposite side and forms a wave like feature called a cornice on the leeward side. It also weights the snow pack dramatically on the leeward side as well. This added weight weakens the snow pack and increases the likelihood of a slab avalanche. We watched this wind loading happen at an alarming pace. This was compounded by the position of the cabin. It sits on top of a huge terrain trap called the Mouse Trap, a tight choke in the valley where three large avalanche paths meet and where any slide in the area will funnel into  and bury anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it deeper than it would otherwise.

A view of the cabin and the deteriorating conditions.

A view of the Asulkan Valley. The cabin sits above the stand of trees in the center of the picture.

The increasing avalanche danger was our main objective hazard but this was further complicated by the decreasing visibility and our lack of knowledge of the local terrain. Eventually, everyone in the cabin was concerned with the mounting danger and started talking of going down before things got too dangerous. We all huddled around one small black and white photo of the slopes below us and talked about which slopes might have the least wind loaded snow.

It was clear that no one wanted to bail but everyone knew we needed to. All kinds of ideas flew around about why maybe the snow would stay safe. Everyone in the cabin had a great base of knowledge about snow and terrain so there were all kinds of ideas trying to convince ourselves we could stay when everyone knew we shouldn't.

The next morning one group had left and the rest of us started looking around at our options. Eventually we all decided to head down to the lower Wheeler Cabin and ski trees and powder there away from the dangerous wind loading.

This required us giving up a night in the backcountry and abandoning our goals for skiing high alpine lines. We accepted this and spent the next two days skiing incredible snow with new friends. The decision was a hard one even though the correct decision was so obvious.

Trips are usually planned with an objective of some kind and success or failure in achieving this objective is often the lens through which we look at our trips. The anticipation and excitement made it hard to really accept that we were going to have to abandon our objective we had looked forward to for so long. I think this focus on achievement and specific objectives is what gets people into trouble.

All was not lost.

I am not always free of this mindset. I thought at first that my trip was going to be over but actually, it only changed. While the plan was to ski the alpine lines above the Asulkan Valley it became clear to me that was merely a surface objective. The real goal was to go skiing in a badass place with my brother regardless of which specific slope or line we skied. I think in planning backcountry trips, and not just skiing ones, it is important to be more focused on experiencing of the wild places we go to and not on whether or not the summit or whatever other objective is reached. Its an old cliché but the important part really is the journey. Which do you remember better, the five minutes you sat on top of a summit or the obstacles you and your partners overcame in getting there?

This trip to Roger's Pass drove this message home hard for me because we got shut down so early. It felt like it was over before it started. We weren't even in the hut for twenty four hours. I like to think of myself as focused on the experience over the objective but it was hard for me to let go even when the right choice was so clear. Part of it may have been how far we had come and how long I had anticipated the trip. It is easy to back off when it is a day trip in your backyard but we drove for a day to get there and carried heavy packs (we had a fairly luxurious food stock) 3,000 vertical feet in crumby weather to get there. I had to let go of the previous ideas I had about the trip and just experience the radness that is tree skiing on Roger's Pass.

Jake blasting through the deep.

The real lesson here is to step back and look at what really motivates you to do what you do. Is the summit really the only thing that is driving you to venture out or is it the adventure and the camaraderie that comes with going outside? My guess is if you really think about it you would say the second. One of my good friends and frequent ski partner in back Wyoming, Maciej, used to say that you should never go backcountry skiing expecting to go skiing. I think this no expectations idea translates to all outdoor pursuits. If you remove the objective you see why you really want to go.

This is not to say I will never have a specific objective, I love making goals and chasing after them, I just don't want it to be the only defining factor of a trip. Once we got to the lower hut we had no objectives, we just skied out looking for good snow. We found a ton of it and had a great time. That being said I think it would be really hard to find bad skiing on Roger's Pass. The point is, when the focus is on experiences first and objectives second a trip will be safer, its participants happier, and overall more satisfying. After all for the vast majority of us these trips are recreation and whether or not you complete a specific objective may not change your life but the experiences offered by the wild surely can.

-Seth

Hueco Tanks

After spending the last few months climbing primarily on ropes, we were looking forward to the simplicity of bouldering, and were very excited for the warmer temperatures the forecasts promised at Hueco Tanks.  We had planned to get to El Paso in time to meet up and climb with Deyo and Kevin (our visiting friends from Seattle and Albuquerque) on their first day in town, but as we found on our endless drive across Texas our extra day in Asheville had made that ETA unrealistically tight and we rolled into El Paso fairly late at night. 

Our introduction to the complicated system of park entry, visitor passes, camping, and sustainability at Hueco Tanks started the next morning.  Hueco Tanks is made up of several granite-like mountains and is famous for round "huecos" (pockets or cavities in the rock that range from a couple inches across to the size of swimming pools) that both make awesome climbing holds and hold rainwater for long time periods in the otherwise arid desert.  There are a number of Native American rock paintings and other cultural artifacts at this park and there are rare critters that live in the water-filled huecos, so in an effort to preserve these natural and cultural artifacts the park limits the number of people allowed in every day.  We had heard a lot about the park restrictions and preservation efforts at Hueco before we arrived and were a little confused by the system, but we got up early, were the first people at the park gate, and easily picked up our day passes for our first day of bouldering in a long time.

Morning in the park

We caught up with Deyo and Kevin at their campsite in the park and then headed to North Mountain, the only bouldering area in Hueco that climbers can access without a guide.  We loved the crazy rock formations and the bomber rock, and though Deyo and Kevin were only able to be away from their jobs for a week we tried a lot of awesome lines during that time.  Our first few days were definitely a learning process.  We weren't used to using as many toe hooks, heel-toe cams, knee bars, and feet-first climbing techniques as the problems at Hueco require.  It took us a few sessions to work out the style, but once we did it was incredibly fun to unleash all of these three-dimensional techniques.

The group, hanging out

Hueco is notorious for its sexual and raunchy route names, and we found some R-rated projects fairly quickly.    Chelsea and Deyo were excited to get their Daily Dick Dose (V7), a classic Hueco roof with small edges, while Kevin worked on getting Pumped Full of Semen (V9).  We also spent some time trying high-quality, PG-rated problems throughout the week including Girls of Texas (V5), Free Willy, Baby Martini (V6) and Big Iron (V7) in the Martini Roof, Chblanke and Choir Boys (V-craziness), and Lobster Claw (V5).

Seth on a highball (V2)

Chelsea on Daily Dick Dose (V7)

  

Chelsea on Baby Martini (V6)

 

Kevin on Baby Martini

 

In addition to the park access restrictions for climbers, the Hueco Tanks park gate is also closed from 6pm to 8am this time of year, which means that we had a strict curfew for our nights at the park campground.  With the four of us (Chelsea, Seth, Kevin, and Deyo) sharing a campsite, though, we found a pretty good daily rhythm.  We would wake up early, pick up our day passes when the office opened to ensure our park access, and then head back to camp and make breakfast while we waited for the desert to warm up.  We'd climb until 4 or 5 in the afternoon before heading back to the car.  Dinner was either at Pasitos, the small taco-truck style Mexican restaurant near the park entrance, or cooked family-style at camp.  The sun went down right around 5:30, so we spent a lot of time hanging out and playing cards before heading to bed and repeating everything the next day.

Kevin had to head back to Albuquerque on our first rainy day in the desert.  Deyo had one more day before her flight back to Seattle, so we headed into El Paso and took advantage of the best rest-day activities the town has to offer: a couple hours using Starbucks internet and an afternoon at the movie theater.  This rest day served us incredibly well.  On Deyo's last day at Hueco, both she and Chelsea finished Daily Dick Dose, and Seth also finished the V4 variation of Paleozoic, his first Hueco project - triple sends!  We finished the day at Hershey Symphony, which is sold as one of the best highball V1s in the US, before driving Deyo to the airport and making plans to get together once we get back to Seattle for the middle of winter.

 

Seth on Paleozoic, V4 version

 

Deyo on Daily Dick Dose (V7)

 

 

Hueco in the evening

  

Even after Deyo left, we weren't alone for long.  Our friend Mike Foley, who we'd spent a lot of time hanging with in the Red, got in touch to let us know that he'd been rained out of Chattanooga and was heading to Hueco as well.  We spent the rest of our time in Texas climbing with Mike.  It was great to have company, and though we all climb at super different levels our climbing days worked very smoothly - plus we got some ridiculous cardio in while hiking from boulder to boulder.

 

Chelsea had one of her best days of bouldering performance ever on the first day we climbed with Mike.  We started at the famous Fern Roof where she had been working Mexican Chicken (V6) the day before - until it got so windy that the pads would blow across the North Mountain meadow as soon as we stepped off of them.  Chelsea and Mike made quick work of the route in the calm morning air.  We then headed around the corner to Barefoot on Sacred Ground, a famous V12 that Mike wanted to repeat.  Barefoot is right next to See Spot Run, another V6 highball.  Mike put in some solid work on Barefoot, Seth worked out a crazy knee bar start on See Spot Run (but decided to stop before he totally bruised his leg), and Chelsea worked through her second scary top out of the day to finish the route.  Next we started looking for Bloodline (V7), a newer Hueco line that is pretty well hidden from the rest of the mountain.  Luckily a friendly UK climber we'd kept bumping into showed us where to find the problem so we didn't have too much trouble.  Bloodline is a very aesthetic problem - a water carved feature in a narrow canyon with a tufa about 3/4 of the way up the route.  The climb is pretty technical; Mike said that it requires the right "order of operations," meaning that movements needed to happen at the right place and time.  Mike quickly figured out the beta and sent, and after some valiant efforts from both Seth and Chelsea, Chelsea was able to finish her third hard (for her) climb of the day.

 

Chels topping out Mexican Chicken (V6)

 

Mike on Barefoot on Sacred Ground (V12)

 

Chelsea on Bloodline (V7)

 

Seth did work the next day, which we spent on the other side of North Mountain.  We started at the Warm Up boulders and then made our way uphill to T-Bone Shuffle, a classic and committing V4.  Seth made quick work of the climb using drop-knee beta that his height makes impressively casual, and it is one of his favorite Hueco boulders.  We spent the middle of the day trying Mopboys and watching Mike work some hard roof problems in the same area.  At the end of the day Seth tried another V4 in the Warm Up area.  He found it to be a really fun line with some extreme toe hooking and a large cross move that played well to his strengths.

 

Seth on T-Bone Shuffle (V4)

 

Ping! Downward bound on the V4 in the Warm Up area

 

We all decided to take a rest day the following day.  We headed to our usual Starbucks (with Mike it felt like a return to Kentucky rest days), and then spent a surprisingly long time trolling one of the El Paso malls. After our options for entertainment in the mall were exhausted we said goodbye to Mike and headed back to our campsite to brave the cold and rest up for our last day in Hueco.

 

We needed to get to Albuquerque by that evening, so we spent our short day trying the climbs we were most psyched on.  Seth finished his toe hook V4 his first try of the day, and Chelsea finished Stegosaur (V8), a unique lowball with a sweet 180 transition from the feet-first start (she'd been wanting to try it since our second or third day in Hueco).  After we got our sends in, we packed up the car, picked up our last victory burritos from the Mexican market, and headed north to visit Seth's family and to get ready to fly home for the holidays.

 

Overall, Hueco is an amazing place. We loved the climbing, the reasonable approaches, and the hot showers provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  We weren't big fans of the 6pm - 8am campground curfew imposed by the park hours, which in combination with the early sunset got pretty boring and cold.  That being said, we forgot all about this as soon as we picked up our park passes in the morning and headed out to climb amazing rock all day.  We didn't have reservations for this trip, but we didn't have any trouble climbing the days we wanted to - though we'd like to have reservations and the option to stay outside the park with assured entry in the future.

  

We'll miss you Hueco Tanks! 

 

 





Thanksgiving in Asheville

It was hard to leave the Red, especially for Chelsea with her new mini-project in the Madness cave.  The weather was getting colder, though, and snow was forecast for the week of Thanksgiving.  As such, when the time rolled around we were ready to drive the few hours to Asheville NC, spend some time in a nice, climate-controlled environment, and catch up with Chelsea’s family.
Most of our trip plans have been fairly fluid, with only a couple pre-planned location deadlines.  Spending Thanksgiving in Asheville with Chelsea’s aunts and sister was one of the plans we were really looking forward to.  Situated just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville is a hippie town and a foodies’ paradise, with way more high quality restaurants, breweries, coffee/chocolate shops, etc. per capita than we’d yet experienced.  Chelsea’s Aunt Janet moved there from Tampa FL last year, and Janet’s description of the town and dedicated Facebook updates of her food/drink/farmers market/etc. experiences have kept us drooling since we made our Thanksgiving plans.  Chelsea’s aunts Billie and Judy were visiting for the holiday and – as we found out when we sat down to catch up with everyone – recently signed a lease and are planning to move from Tampa to the same townhome complex as Janet in the new year.  Chelsea’s sister Kiki was also going to fly into town from NYC on Thanksgiving day to stay through the start of the weekend, so our week promised to be a good time with great people.

We rolled in late Monday night.  Billie, Judy, and Janet stayed up late to welcome us and catch up, and we got a short tour of Janet’s townhome.  Janet is an eBay-based used bookseller, focusing on historical and particularly on family history books.  She uses her living room as her warehouse, and as such the room is covered in wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with old, impressive volumes.  The result is incredibly cozy, like the most welcoming bookstore/coffeeshop imaginable.  We also met Janet’s beagle Wally, who as Billie warned us before we arrived is “a great dog… but can get a bit over-excited if people make a big deal over him.”  We were too tired to make a big deal that evening, but later in the week Seth especially had a good time playing with him.

Seth works on grad apps at Janet's. Note bookshelves, fire,

dark beer, and Miracle on 34th Street - it doesn't get cozier.



Our highly tasteful (no pun intended) food and drink tour started at breakfast the next morning.  We had delicious, locally roasted artisan coffee and Home Free Bagels.  The bagel company provides work opportunities for the unemployed and homeless, and instead of using their own kitchen and storefront they use the local community kitchen and sell at the farmer’s market and through distributors.  We then headed into town.  It was raining super hard, so after a brief tour from the car we went to lunch at The Wicked Weed, one of the many Asheville breweries (we had to get our brewery tour out of the way before Kiki got into town).  As it turns out, hops are the “wicked weed” as described by Henry VIII, who said that hops ruined beer.  Both Chelsea and Seth enjoy hoppy beer, so we thought the extensive selection was wicked (erm..).  Lunch was followed by a trip to the local co-op for Thanksgiving dinner supplies, then the bakery next door, REI, and finally the Whole-Foods-esque supermarket.  When we headed back to Janet’s to escape the rain, we were treated to selections from Janet’s impressive in-home beer collection and introduced to Foyle’s War, a quality Masterpiece Theater production.

On Wednesday we woke up to snow on the ground.  Wally had some trouble deciding where to take his morning pee since all of his bushes were covered, but everyone else was pretty excited.  After we finished our breakfast of more wonderful coffee and Janet’s homemade granola (again, delicious) and the snow had cleared up a bit, we went back downtown for more exploring.  We started with another great lunch at The Laughing Leaf, a vegetarian restaurant affiliated with the Jack of the Wood pub and Green Man brewery.  We then toured the downtown shops and Chelsea’s aunts told us about the history of Asheville.  Judy lived in Asheville during the 70’s, and she described how it has changed from a nondescript Appalachian town into the cultural hub that it is now.  We visited an open, warehouse-style art gallery/collective, the Asheville Arcade (a 1920’s-era building with impressive architecture that now hosts a number of shops and businesses) and several new and used bookstores.  After exploring the sights and shops, we headed across the river to West Asheville to pick up our Thanksgiving pies from the cupcake and pie-shop there, and then crossed the street to Urban Orchard Cider for more libations.  We ended the day with dinner at the Thirsty Monk, one of Janet’s favorite pubs.  The Thirsty Monk is a two-story bar with a large selection of local and high-quality beer on tap on the ground floor, and a basement bar that serves Belgian-style beer (as well as some other interesting selections, like an “ancient IPA” which we should have tried but didn’t).  The bar tacos, pizza, pasties etc. are also very good.

 

Morning snow!

 

 

 

Billie, Judy, Chelsea and Seth at the Thirsty Monk.

 

Billie and Chelsea take Wally for his evening walk.

Thanksgiving Day, we drove to the airport to pick Kiki up with Billie and Judy.  Chelsea spent most of the drive back and the rest of the afternoon chatting and catching up with everyone while Seth put more time into his grad school applications.  Janet’s friends arrived later in the evening, and after introductions we settled down to eat.  Dinner was, like every other meal we had in Asheville, absolutely delicious.  Janet also provided an essentially bottomless selection of great beers, including the best pumpkin beer Chelsea has ever had (basically pumpkin pie in a glass) and Kentucky bourbon cream.  We had originally planned to start driving to Hueco the next morning, but it didn’t take much convincing for us to decide to stay through Friday and continue exploring now that Kiki was also in town.

 

Kiki waiting for dinnertime.

 

Candid shot of dinner and table prep.

 

Wally gets tormented by cat lovers (don't worry, he probably enjoyed it).

Like everyone else in Asheville (or at least the number of people made it seem that way), we went back downtown on Friday.  We returned to the Arcade, the warehouse-gallery, and the bookstores to show Kiki, and also visited a number of other boutiques and shops.  It was a beautiful, crisp sunny day, so we were able to spend more time walking around outside viewing the buildings and fairly extensive graffiti gallery that Asheville hosts.  We again visited one of Janet’s top breweries, which was celebrating Black Friday by serving only dark beers and is famous for a “coffee and doughnut stout” that tastes like sweet coffee mixed with dark beer (sounds weird, tastes good).  We finished the day at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, which had a line out the door for most of the day.  When we finally arrived at the counter and received our chocolates, it was well worth the wait.  In addition to fabulous chocolate bars and truffles, French Broad also has to-die-for drinking chocolate, brownies, cakes, and locally-made (of course) ice cream. 

 

Asheville street art - RIP Lou!

 

Kiki, Billie, Seth and Chelsea outside the Asheville Arcade.

After all of this indulgence, it wasn’t hard to get to bed early in preparation for our long drive to El Paso.  When we woke up, we said thanks and goodbye to everyone, and got back on the road…

Many, many thanks to Billie, Judy, Janet, and Kiki for such a great time, and for all of the treats.  We had a wonderful visit.  It was great to see you all and catch up, and you gave us a fantastic introduction to the town.  Additionally, good luck to Billie and Judy as they pack up and get ready to move; we are super excited for you!

 

Asheville HIGHLIGHTS (in the foodie style):

Chelsea – Blue Ridge scenery, Wicked Weed hoppy red ale, Dogfish Head 61 (their 60-minute with added Syrah grape must), walking around town, Good Gourd Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Thirsty Monk tempeh tacos, Janet’s persimmon pudding, French Broad Chocolates (duh), walking Wally, sharing all of the above with great company J

Seth – A warm, cozy place to work on grad apps, seeing my cousin Bob and his wife Katie (Our gracious hosts in D.C), the Hopcecutioner IPA, Asheville's quality bookstores, Thirsty Monk's pizza, French Broad Chocolate, and last but not least that a dog from the toy group did NOT win the AKC National Dog Show.