What 7 Weeks of Travel Looks & Feels Like

The beginning of my year has been amazing so far. I've gone on 7 consecutive trips to climbing destinations across Texas and the southern United States. It can be tiring to constantly go go go, but I take my opportunities when they arise because I never know if they'll show themselves again. Because of this I plan on being gone every weekend usually, and I tell people I'm not free from Friday - Sunday night, simply because I delegate that time for myself. Something new this year is the importance i've put on photography and using it to help tell my stories in a way that people can appreciate from a quick glance, and I'm loving it so far. 

Denis and our guide checking out a "Hueco" (an indentation in the rock) 

Traveling at the beginning of the year usually means grabbing your lowest degree sleeping bag but this year the south has seemingly skipped our winter haha. It's made my travels to Oklahoma, New Mexico, and El Paso (All more cold than my native Dallas) not so bad temperature wise. Last year this time I was freezing my toes off in a 40 degree bag in Horseshoe canyon ranch with temps as low as 22 degrees...AND it rained on us! Needless to say God has smiled on the south this year and the coldest I've endured so far has been low 40s and maybe some high 30s at night. 

"Trent, don't you ever get tired??" something my friend Mo said to me while we were hiking through the massive boulder field on the side of upper Mt. Scott. I replied like Bruce Banner (The Hulk in Avengers) "That's my secret Mo....I'm always tired" as I turned into the incredible human hiking machine. All jokes aside, yes I do feel fatigue hahah.. It can be exhausting to hike to a climb, climb all day, and then hike back up the mountain to the camp site, like we did in New Mexico. The key is to not let it consume you, a lot of the time before I leave on a trip, I'm feeling exhausted from the week at work and school. I'll attribute making myself push thru usually to already having solid plans in place, but also to the fact that I keep my psych level HIGH!!!! I'm always hyped to get outside. 

Feeling a little tired after a 70 foot 5.12b at Sitting Bull Falls, NM

Partially what I look forward to on these trips is the connections that are made. On the way to New Mexico, Doland, mentioned that he was interested in Rope Access work, and Denis just happened to know a guy who owned a company who need Rope Access workers. I kid you not, Doland called the guy as we shopped for food in a Carlsbad, NM Walmart and got hired on the spot. Later on in the trip when we went to Hueco Tanks, Doland and I would find ourselves sat around a campfire with two other guys. We sat and talked about the "soul of rock climbing" and a bunch of other hippie stuff haha. As we talked with the guys we found out that our plan to "walk on" to Hueco Tanks wouldn't work because all the spots would be filled before we could talk to the rangers. As luck would have it one of the guys we were talking to was a certified guide for Hueco Tanks, and would end up being our guide the next day. The guy was super awesome, and actually knew Denis from Baltimore when Denis worked at the climbing gym there. It was really cool to see how we're all connected in ways we don't even know, unless we connect with others.

Doland (Left) Denis (Center) and our Guide, looking at a few warm up routes in Hueco Tanks.

Alec feeling good after a full day on the wall.

The whole purpose of this website and me writing is to inspire people to get outside and be bold. I want to inspire adventure, because I've seen what it does for me and how rewarding it is. So far i've taken 4 people out this year who have never climbed outside before, and we had a blast. You don't need to be on my climbing level to enjoy climbing outside with me, or for anyone for that matter. A good attitude, willingness to learn, and persistence is all it takes to enjoy climbing or doing anything really. 

I love the life I live. I love sharing my passion with others through my writing and photos. If you ever want to learn how to climb, go camping, take cool photos, plan a trip, or just talk, we have a "Contact Us" page or you can just message us on Facebook!

Onto the next adventure!

Establishing Boulders in Oklahoma

Hueco Tanks, TX is the world standard for bouldering grading. AKA a V5 at hueco is how difficult a V5 everywhere should be. 

The past 5 weekends (6 with Oklahoma) I've been off living the dream climbing around the southern United states and taking pics as I go of myself and friends crushing rocks. I had planned to go to Oklahoma with Evan, Jack, and Moe the weekend after I came back from Hueco Tanks to possibly establish some new boulders on Mount Scott. Myself having the most experience with outdoor climbing and having visited the Standard for bouldering (Hueco Tanks) the previous weekend, I had a pretty good idea on how the routes should be graded. 

We set up camp after the quick 3ish hour drive to the Wichita Wildlife preserve camp area, and messed around climbing on some trees lit by head-lamps. The psych was high, none of us had ever gotten an "FA" (First Ascent) on any rock climb, so we didn't really know what to expect. Basically the basics of establishing an outdoor boulder are: 

• Clean off the route: Remove any branches or other foliage and brush off dirt and loose rock
• Climb every move of the route from start to finish and "Top Out" the boulder meaning stand on top of it when finished 
• Name & Grade the route: The person who gets FA on a route also gets the privilege to name it. Then hopefully he has friends around to also climb it, and they all agree on a "V Scale" grade such as V3
• Lastly you take pictures of the boulder and GPS mark it for when you put it's location on "Mountain Project" (a website of all the climbing routes that exist). 

With this knowledge in hand and pop-tarts in our bellies we set off up the road to Upper Mt. Scott. We pulled over at the first possible area for cars to pull off on, and take a gander up towards the top of the mountain. We notice several large boulders on the hill and set off on some recon to see if there was anything climbable on the lower section. Having been bouldering outside a few times I knew what to look for; Boulder height, hand holds, loose rock, fall zone, even foot holds are important to identifying if a boulder is possible to be climbed. 

We found 3 boulders after about 10 minutes of hiking up that would eventually yield 4 actual rock climbs. We decided as a group we wanted to find 4 actual boulders before heading back down to the car and grabbing the crash pads and gear, so we headed further up the mountain towards some larger rocks. We found what we would later call "The Rook" boulder, and that single boulder would yield 3 rock climbs. With our 4 boulders located we grabbed our gear and headed back to the first boulder. 

This Boulder had a very unique ledge like feature that came up to about the nipple area on us (We're all roughly 5'11"). Because of the high ledge it meant we would have to "Mantle", meaning use very upper body heavy move to get on top of the ledge. Jack hit it first and got it with no issue. The mantle is quite easy, followed up by some high hands to a crimp towards the top, some high feet follow that and you hug the top of the boulder while walking your feet up the side eventually leading to the top out. Jack got the "FA" and named it "Mantle to Greatness", and we all decided it would be a V2 in difficulty. Made a great warm up route. 

The next boulder is located directly behind the "Mantle to Greatness" climb on a small, long, boulder behind a large tree/bush thing. It caught my eye when we were scouting around because of the very defined top of the boulder that had a very nice edge. It would prove very good while climbing as we threw heel & toe hooks on it as we traversed it's 7-10 foot length to a semi-hard, small, mantle at the end. Evan got the FA on the route and named it "College", since he felt it mimic'd the College experience (Easy until the end, when it gets real). We rated the route at V3.

Jack throwing a heel hook at the finish of "College" V3

Jack getting ready for the final move off the sketchy foot jib. 

Satisfied with our first two climbs of the day we folded up the crash pads and headed up to our next boulder, "The Rook". Moe named the actual boulder since it was very square he felt it resembled the chess piece. We determined from the initial recon that these routes would be fairly easy based off very obvious hand holds. Moe, not wanting to miss the chance on getting an easy FA, laced his shoes up and hopped on the first one. The route rides the "arete" (corner of the boulder) starting on two side pulls, working it's way up to another nice side pull with the finish being EXTRA committing with 1 horrible foot to push yourself to the top of the boulder. Needless to say pushing off 1 sub-optimal foot with the consequence of slipping off being "Cheese Grating" down the 5 feet of boulder below you is never ideal! Like the boss he is Moe reaches to the finish with no fear, Aptly naming the route "The Pawn" rated V1. 

The next route would be on "The Rook" boulder again. This one on the left side of the face staring sitting low on a side pull and firing up to a right hand crimp. You work your way towards the left of the route grabbing a sub-optimal side pull and smearing feet on nothing and doing a quick but precise power move to the top. Jack got the FA on this one too naming it "Footloose" based off the lack of feet the further up the route you went. We rated it V1 as well. 

Jack sits on top and watches as Evan sets his eyes on the next move of "Footloose" V1

The third Climb on "The Rook" boulder is on the backside in relation to the first two, distinguishable by the pronounced low ledge. The climb starts sitting on low smear feet and hands on a sloper-crimp left hand up high and a right on a lower crimp. You work your left hand out further onto the downward sloping ledge, matching it while throwing a high heel hook, then throw your right hand up to a pretty decent side pull, finishing with a left hand at the top of the climb. Jack would get the FA on this one as well and named it "Ladybug Central" based off of the insane amount of lady bugs living behind a gigantic flake we pulled off. The climb went at V3. 

At this point we had realized we miscalculated the amount of water we would need for 4 people and accidentally consumed all of it... This compounded with the fact we had not eaten yet the dudes were leaning towards heading back down the hill. Sadly for Jack, Moe, and Evan, I had my eyes on these two protruding boulders a few hundred feet up the Mountain all day, and I was going to climb them damnit! So I forced us further up the Mountain side, luckily it would pay off with the best climb of the day. 

We get to the area I had dragged us to, and we see a green speckled flat face that I think spoke to Evan and I from the distance, whispering "Climb me"... in a non creepy way.

We set up our pads under it and get working on the beta for this climb. The climb starts hanging low on some decent sloper hands, followed by bumping a right hand up and bringing your feet up to the start holds. You do a fairly large reach to a left hand side pull located in the middle of the boulder and walk your feet down to the bottom of the boulder. This part would be our first "Crux" as we couldn't figure out a way to go past the left hand side pull as there was nowhere to put our right hand on the face of the boulder. We tried matching the side pull, throwing an insanely low undercling, even toe hooking the start of the climb in an attempt to gently place a right hand on a garbage crimp. Luckily for us in all our attempts to figure the route out, we broke off a decent sized flake and it made exactly what we needed...a right hand crimp side pull. It wasn't much but it was all we needed, We grabbed the left hand side pull and brought the right hand down to a crimp about shoulder level. Then we entered into the 2nd Crux zone.. the GIGANTIC right hand cross to a sloper. Unlike the last issue, we weren't struggling with lack of holds, rather a lack in technique that required us to get smarter in order to complete the problem. We walked both feet further over left following a low crack and bumped our left hand to a sloper side pull, setting up for the crux. Bumping right hand into a "Gaston" on the originally left hand side pull and then throwing for the far right hand sloper. After about 5-10 attempts each we finally all nailed the move and topped out the boulder easily. Super rewarding to discover a beautiful boulder, figure out that it has a climb on it, and then project it into submission. Evan got the FA and named it "Life Force" and we decided to rate it V5-V6 since it was right on the edge. 

All in all we had an excellent day bouldering, better than I think we all expected. There are zero boulders established on Mt. Scott itself meaning everything we climbing was a legitimate First Ascent. The community usually expects super strong crushers to go out and establish routes but they forget about the lower end routes that get established by regular dudes. Jack, Evan, and I all climb roughly V7-V8 in the gym, by no means "expert" or insanely strong at bouldering. I encourage anyone who wants to go out and try out our boulders to do so, message me if you feel like you need a better idea of where they're located and I'll give you some good directions on how to hike up to them. 

The crew feeling tired and satisfied after the full day of bouldering. 

Evan also made a pretty great video of our short trip and you should check it out! 

Overcoming Fear.

I first started rock climbing in a gym. Gym climbing can be scary at first. A lot of people have issues with the auto belay systems, but it’s an easy fear to overcome. I never had an issue with rock climbing being “scary” for me in a gym. The environment feels super safe mostly. The floors are these thick pads that cushion any kind of fall, the entire place feels like a foam house. When I started to get into lead climbing or “sport climbing” is when I got my first taste of fear.     

    I had been in my “Climb Fit” class for about 6 months, when my coach Mario put me on lead for the first time. A quick break down of “Top Rope" vs "Lead / Sport Climbing”: on top rope the rope is fixed either to anchors at the top of your climb or wrapped around a tube in a gym. Lead climbing is when you clip your rope to “quick draws” that attach to the wall. It’s still super safe, there’s just a small chance that you could fall and scare yourself. On my first time I was super clumsy with my clipping, but I was able to make it to the top. I got to the top and yelled “TAKE!” down to my belay partner which was Mario. “Take” is the universal word for the belayer to take up the extra slack. Mario however yelled back up “Nope!” in return. This turned into my first ever lead fall from the top of a route. I let go of the wall and fell about 10 feet before I felt the rope catch and I met Mario in mid air. This may sound scary and even reckless on Mario’s behalf, but in reality it was all very controlled and not nearly as crazy as I thought it was at the time. This is a tactic used to get over the fear of falling, because once you know how to fall you’re not afraid to go for big moves on lead climbs. It makes you a better climber in the end, it’s just the initial scare that sucks. 

    Fast forward 6 more months and my first chance to lead climb outside comes up in a trip with my friend Alec. We were headed out to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas. I went into the trip with the mind set that I would do awesome leading outside, because I had been crushing in the gym for 6 months. When it came down to it, I was petrified to leave the safety of the second clip and go 5 more feet to the 3rd clip on a 5.10a. It was heart breaking, not only was my confidence in my climbing severely diminished, but I had gone into this trip with a group who all thought I would be able to lead climb. I got through the rest of the Arkansas trip on top rope doing nothing harder than a 5.10c probably, and headed home with Alec and his family.     

    I got home and had to re-evaluate my climbing. I had finally realized the distinction between gym climbing and real rock climbing. I told myself that I was either going to get over my lead climbing anxiety or give up rock climbing as a whole. So I kept training in the gym on lead climbing with my coach. Three months later I had a short trip planned with him to get back outside and try leading another time. 

    We got out to the wall, and he tells me to warm up on a 5.9 before we do any hard stuff. Before I got on the wall, Mario told me to go through a mental check list of anything and everything that COULD go wrong in this climb, and I did. Broken legs, broken arms, getting knocked out, falling to the ground, literally everything I could think of. After I had named off everything that could go wrong he told me to say “That’s fine” to myself. After that, I hopped on the route and froze up on the second clip, but instead of freaking out and letting my mind wander from what I had to focus on, I just said “whatever” (Which is my version of "that's fine"). After that I was able to move my feet up and go onto the next holds. It’s kind of crazy when I think about it, that I can say “I could break my legs, and that’s ok”, but that’s the attitude that I think you need. I love what I do. I love the risk involved. And I love the feeling I get when I can overcome what my mind tells me is impossible with the word “whatever”. 

    These situations can be found in a lot of different scenarios besides rock climbing. If you’re trying to ask a girl (or guy) out on a date, and your mind is like “No way dude, are you kidding me? She could say no, or worse!”. But if you were to lay out all the negative things that COULD happen, and say “these aren’t that bad”, or just that you accept them, then you can overcome the fear you have. I think overcoming fear is necessary to grow as a person. If I hadn’t been able to overcome my fear of falling while lead climbing I wouldn’t be climbing right now, and I wouldn’t have this awesome web site that you’re reading this on now. From seemingly small internal victories come larger outward accomplishments.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

— Ambrose Redmoon

Balancing "Real Life" & an Adventure Lifestyle

For this post it will require some background on myself, because what I experience in my life may be far different from others in different places in their own. I am a 20 year old guy, I work full time, I rock climb at a gym anywhere from 3-6 times a week, I'm a student at a community college, and I am currently living at home.

A lot of my adventures in the year revolve around rock climbing, mainly because you can do it almost year round and it's usually pretty cheap (Excluding initial gear purchases). If I could I would do 50 trips a year to different places, but that costs money and I don't have that much vacation time, so I have to plan where I go and what I choose to spend money on carefully to maximize my experience. The other problem with having a "real life" outside my adventures is that I am always wanting more adventure and less "real life". This can cause drag in my day to day activities and make them feel less important or non purposed. I find it very frustrating that I have to cram a years worth of trips and experiences into 1 week of vacation time and even more frustrating that most the places I want to go cost more than I can currently afford.

How do I combat these issues in my current life? I do lots of weekend trips, where I leave on friday night and come back on sunday night, it usually limits my distance of travel to an area within 6-10 hours of where I live. That solves the vacation time problem and I usually camp whenever I do these trips so it keeps the costs down to Food and Gas. I also try to find locations where I have family members already living and I ask them if I can crash at their place while I'm in town, if you have a nice family this solution isn't too bad and they usually buy food for you, so win win. Also luckily outdoor activities are rarely a solo thing! Split a trip cost with the buddies that you bring with you that way everyone benefits and encourages you to extend invites to more people to lessen the costs on yourself. The week of vacation can be a hard thing to work around. Five days isn't a lot of time, and if you blow it all at once you can regret it later in the year. It's best to spread it out almost Seasonally or quarterly that way to really feel as though you've travelled the whole year. The spacing of these five days is key, you can take off 5 fridays through the year and give yourself five, three day weekend trips. But the way I usually do it is pair the vacation days with a holiday. Some years Thanksgiving or Christmas will fall on Fridays which allows a 4 day weekend trip. Finding ways to work the system always ends in your favor. In the end very few of us are professional athletes who have our trips funded for us and infinite travel time. I've learned that my trips make me appreciate my hard work in my "real life" more because it allows me to go on these trips and afford the things I wouldn't be able to otherwise. 

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Prepare for Liftoff!

A lot has happened this week. I got to work with a graphic artist and I finally got my logo nailed down and I can't wait to share it with everyone. I also got some initial designs for the T-shirts and even though these are early ideas of what we can do with them I am so thrilled about how they're turning out, it's all coming together! On top of all of that I think myself and some friends will be going to Austin either late July or early August to go Deep Water Soloing on Lake Travis, if you've never heard of it or never seen it before check it out because it's possibly one of the coolest climbing things you can do in my opinion. 

I'm super excited about how well everything is going so far, it seems as though everything is falling into place at the right time. Email me with adventure ideas, trips you've been on, tips on how I can improve the brand, wanting to go with us to Austin, literally anything you send will make my day.