End of part one (almost).

North Mountain

My time here in the good old US of A is nearly over, for the time being at least. I fly out of LAX on Saturday and head to Vancouver. We are having a rest day today partly due to rain and snow overnight, so hopefully 2 days of climbing left in the Tanks and then the long drive back to LA on Friday.

I am pleased with my achievements here although maybe I could have pushed myself a little harder, but as I keep finding as I move to new destinations it takes me time to get accustomed to the styles etc and Hueco was no exception. I have learnt many new techniques and found that I can do a variety of climbs that I would once have thought impossible with some work and perseverance. I happily achieved two V4 climbs, one was called T bone shuffle and the other most recent one, Girls of Juarez. I was extremely pleased with this as it was along a roof and then topped out over a lip. I needed to use a couple of toe hooks and involved what I would consider some tricky moves.

Now that I only have a few days left I am not sure if I will complete any other problems but I started working on a V5 yesterday. It may have to be finished another time!

I am looking forward to my new adventures in Canada, at present I have no particular plans other than try and navigate myself through the Olympics to meet and stay with some old family friends, buy new shoes as my trusty 5.10s now have a rather large hole in the sole and get a hair cut. My hair has not been cut in about 8 months and is looking rather tatty, I need to pretty myself up again!

I have had the most incredible time here and am thankful to all the wonderful people that I have met a long the way. I am especially thankful to Wes for putting up with me for so long. What started out at as a chance meeting at a boulder in Joe's Valley way back in September has turned out to be the making of a very good and hopefully life long friendship. I will treasure many incredible memories of people and places till the day I die. Good times xx

Who knows what Canada will throw at me, hopefully more incredible people, more kick ass climbing and plenty beautiful scenery to photograph.

My Evolves with added rubber for essential Hueco toe hooking.

I had to purchase new headphones as my old ones were only playing through one ear. The instructions made me laugh. I always wondered what the L and R were for ;o)

All photos by Caroline Harvey