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! 

Hitting the Wall

First of all...Pun intended..

In Climbing everyone talks about "The Plateau". In running you might hear it as "hitting the wall" in reference to when you're running a long distance and you hit your breaking point. The two things are different slightly, in climbing your "Wall" is more of this looming number that is seemingly impossible. 

I've had Bouldering Plateaus & Rope Plateaus, for bouldering it was the famous V5-V6 gap that many climbers struggle with as they turn from moderate to serious climbers. On Ropes my first "wall" was the 5.11 - 5.12 chasm that seems impassable to most. 5.12 is the antagonist in most rock climber's push to climbing harder, and it fights back hard for sure. 

When you're first starting off climbing, a 5.12 seems physically impossible, the moves are usually very technical and the holds aren't the best. I have heard countless times "Dude, I don't know how in the world you do those 12's". The answer is that I couldn't and sometimes still can't do them, I have to keep climbing them to get them.  One day I just decided to start climbing 5.12s and I sucked at it, like hardcore... but that's the point. Rock climbing is funny, in that you can climb 5 moves of a 5.13d and fall and have learned more than "On-Siting" fifty 5.11s. My mentor Mario says all the time; "At some point you don't get any stronger, you just get smarter." and it's so true, I mean I train all the time to get stronger of course, but the time I put into falling over and over again on 5.12s made me smart enough to send them now. 

In climbing if you're not failing constantly, then you're not training right. I remember watching Mario climbing a route at Reimers Ranch in Austin on my very first climbing trip, it's called Pay the Pump and it's a 50 foot roof, and I thought to myself "That is absolutely impossible, he is a mutant" and now I've gotten the full roof pieced together (Check the vid). It's not like I waited 5 years to go try out this insane 5.13b, I went out and worked the moves over and over and over and over until I memorized every intricate heel hook and jug hold. 

Basically the morale of the story is nothing in climbing is given to you. The best part of it to me is getting to go out and surprise myself when I try something I think is crazy hard and I get to climb it into submission

Myself sending "Ghost Dancer" 5.12a, a project from 2016 that I came back and sent February 2017

Vanished Moments

By: Christopher Hernandez

      The yearning for a life on the road or in the wild has grappled at me for years now. It seems attainable and I'm sure there's many others who feel the same. But a certain level of "acceptable risk" (what Trent likes to call it) keeps me grounded. I have not yet been in a convenient enough position to make the leap. I know what you're all thinking, "You'll never be in a perfect spot, you have to just go for it!". I hear it all the time, and its true. However, I'm not looking for a perfect spot, just a good one. If I dove every time my heart blew the whistle so far, I'd have failed hundreds of times. I can accept the truth that I'm not ready; my resolve is bright enough to lead me to my goal and along the way I will learn everything I can to prepare for a full life. 

      But that's not what this is about, not entirely. This is about the in-between--the odd jobs and other crap. This is about all of your creativity that's lost, your misplaced ideas, your forgotten perceptions and schemes--vanished moments. Thoughts and intentions you'll probably never get back because of work or school or some other responsibility. It sucks, its frustrating. You have to work to achieve your goals, but amidst you miss out on lots of potential growth. We all try to create some balance: go on a few trips/vacations every year, or at least take some time off, and spend the rest of our time working to make our dreams come true. The problem is, we concentrate most of our life on work/responsibilities, very few actual hours are spent awake either learning or creating. And during the time we're not at work/school/whatever, we have everything scheduled around it. A two week vacation hardly feels like freedom whenever you're scrambling around trying to fit a million things into an itinerary so that you make it back home in time for work. Even simple days off during the week feel manipulated. Have to make sure you're in bed early enough for the morning shift, or you spend the day running errands that you can't do during work days. The bleak reality of our era is that many of us are left to a world of crushed imagination. Most of us yearn for it and spend out entire lives playing "catch-up" trying to at least poke at our dreams.

      I'm sorry to say that I have no real advice for any of you. I'm just a regular guy working a cooking job thirty five hours of the week. I take a few trips out of the year, and live a relatively blessed lifestyle. I'm not rich and I'm not poor, I save what little I can to grasp at my objective. But I won't quit. It's easy to sit back and complain with hope that things will just work out, but who knows if it will. I'll keep marching and take whatever I can along the way. My mind and heart will stay open for any opportunities; all we can do is keep moving forward. 

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Christopher hanging out on La Jolla beach in San Diego - November 2016

Photo shot and edited by Christin Rupert (@naturecat_)

How we did a 3 day 1,200 mile trip

I cannot overstate how much I LOVE last minute plans, the thrill and excitement added with the challenge of planning a dope trip with limited time really gets me pumped. My buddy and Coach Denis and I had been talking about getting outside for a few weeks and had thrown around the idea of Oklahoma or Arkansas for some sport climbing and bouldering. We got a weekend pinned down that worked for Arkansas but the weather was looking like it was going to rain, and I'd rather not drive 6-7hrs to sit in a tent for a weekend haha.. 

On the Tuesday before the planned trip Denis texts me this: 

"Yo bro, lets do frikkin New Mexico. Climb at Last Chance & Sitting Bull Falls" 

and I'm all for getting on world class sport climbing so I was all in, but I remember that Hueco Tanks is only 2.5hrs from Sitting Bull Falls so I added:

"Dude lets do Hueco Tanks too and make it a really great trip" 

He was all for it so we prepped to leave on that Thursday night to drive to Carlsbad, NM thru the night. 

This weekend would fall on what I call a "Low Personal Funds Weekend" or "LPFW" (acronym made up) meaning I had gotten paid the week before and was running low on personal cash (I had roughly $100 left). Right off the bat I'm thinking about costs of the trip: Gas, Food, Guiding, Emergency. 

We would take my 2014 Ford Focus Hatchback that gets roughly 30-35MPG highway so I would get about 300-370 miles per tank and it's 600 miles to New Mexico with about $20ish to fill up my tank. We would have to make food 2 nights of the trip and we would buy food while driving. I also knew we might need a guide for Hueco Tanks which is $25 a person. We ended up with 3 climbers on the trip; Denis, Doland, and Myself so the fuel costs would be split 3 ways which made things way cheaper for all of us. So Roughly my individual costs were these:

• $60 in Gas
• $25 in Guiding
• $10-$15 in food

Being the outdoors manly men that we are, we camped the whole time as well, which saves about $75-$100 a night. That's SUPER cheap, but don't be fooled, we ate good for the first two days but the third day our only food till about 10pm was Granola, Chex Mix, and water (Denis I think just drank water..)

I knew this trip would be a 'tight' trip based on how I usually travel but I was able to swing a 1,200 mile trip for roughly $100-$150 per person which I think is awesome. 

My Adventure Mom

Drake, Kanye West, Tupac, Nas, etc have all written songs about their moms, I've always thought this was a sweet thing to do. Sadly I am not a rapper...would be a VERY different blog, however I still like to show my momma some appreciation, and she deserves a lot. 

When I was a youth (15 years ago) my parents took me on several amazing trips a year, and I literally used to tell people that I had been everywhere because It was easier than telling them where I had been. We used to go to Colorado to visit my grandparents and that's where I learned snowboarding at the age of 6 or 7. We would go to St. Thomas and that's where I learned that transporting a Conch shell was semi illegal. We went to Kansas City to visit my Aunt where I learned how to blow up large piles of fireworks. We Went to Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Canada, California, New Mexico, Old Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, blah blah blah you see what i mean right.. this isn't even all of the places and we went to Hawaii 3 times haha. Needless to say I got around a lot as a kid. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but my Mother spent every extra dime she had on taking me all over the world whenever I had a break from school. I don't know if I can overstate how important she is to my adventurous personality. She taught me to travel often and far, and to chase experiences. I had to be bold and brave sometimes, we've shared many screams and many laughs together. We've done Jamaica's longest Zip line, white water rafted down frigid Canadian rivers, navigated our way thru countless European countries, Climbed mountains, dove into blue oceans, and filled Facebook albums. I think what's most impressive is that my mom always has a camera in hand to capture these moments, and I can't tell you how many times i've complained about "NOT ANOTHER PICTURE MOM...NOT RIGHT NOW!!" but how incredibly grateful I am to look back on these memories and think; dang, we were really badass. 

I don't think I can put into anymore words how awesome our trips were, so I'll just share with you the last 20 years of me and my mother's trips (In no particular order). If she's not pictured, she's behind the camera. 

I won't put how many times we went to some of these places but I will list every State/Country my mom and me went the last 20 years (I might have forgotten some): 

• Texas (obviously) - Austin, San Antonio, Galveston 
• Arkansas - Beavers Lake
• Oklahoma - Beaver's Bend 
• Kansas - Kansas City 
• Missouri - Kansas City Missouri
• Colorado - Durango, Hesperus, La Plata 
• New Mexico - Sante Fe, Albuquerque, Los Alamos
• New York - New York City
• New Jersey - Trenton 
• Massachusetts - Boston, Cape Cod
• Washington - Seattle
• Oregon - Portland, Florence 
• California - San Fransisco 
• Florida - Orlando
• Hawaii - Main Island, Maui, Kauai 
• Alaska - Anchorage, Seward, Portage
• Canada - Whistler, Capilano, 
• Mexico - Cozumel, Mazatlan 
• Jamaica 
• British Virgin Islands
• Saint Thomas
• Saint John
• France - Lyon, Paris, Normandy
• Italy - Rome, Cinque Terre
• Holland (The Netherlands) 
• The Vatican City
• Germany (for a few hours)
• England (for a few hours)

We can't all be rappers who can put their moms in a song, but this is version of that. All photos curtesy of my mom's Facebook..there are about 1,000 more, no exaggeration.

How does Trent Train?

I train like a lot..like 5-7 days a week usually, if there were an 8th day I'd be training on it, that's how much. I'm not like epic strong or anything, but I can walk up to 5.12a and get it in 1-2 tries most the time (most). I've also been known to climb anywhere between 30-50 routes in an hour or two if I really push. I've had a slight dip in training during 2016 because of a weird relationship thing that made me re-prioritize what I wanted to do, and now we're back grinding in the gym. Despite that I've kept pretty good fitness for 2ish years now, and climbing is my main tool. 

I used to get asked a bunch, "How did you get so strong so quick" and I would say "Black Magic...aka Mario's stripper name". Mario is my coach, he's my homie, my bro, my mentor, and the dude who makes me feel the pain 2-4 days out of the week. Mario runs a training program called ClimbFit, and it's basically what the name sounds like; Climbing and Fitness. Mario's been climbing like since forever and is well known in Dallas and every other southern climbing area, he is the climbing dude of Dallas. I met Mario my first day rock climbing and was in ClimbFit on my second day of rock climbing, So my secret to how I got so strong is that I started off my climbing training right off the bat. 

One of the most important parts of climbing is CORE!!!! we all love a good core burn and we focus 40-50% of our workout time to our core training. Crunches, Bicycles, 6 inches, "L" sits, Kings chair, Toe touches, you name it, we do ALL the core, and we do sometimes 2-3 sets of it. It's one of the main reasons everyone in the climbing gym has a six pack. 

The second thing we focus on is upper body strength. Before I started climbing it was laughable if you asked me if I could do a pull up, now I can bust out 50 in 5 min. We focus on what's called "Push-Pull" meaning Pushing and Pulling. We'll do Pushups, Spiderman push-ups, Burpees, Battle Ropes, Plate pushers, Pull ups, Chin Ups, One arm lock offs, Negatives, Frenchies, Dips, and the list can go on and on. 

Climbers usually have to hike to their climbing destination, for example last spring we had to hike 3000 vertical feet up a cliff side back up to our camp site in New Mexico every day, I was dying. Because of this we don't skip leg day. We focus primarily on a lot of squats with weights, but some of our other workouts segue into legs as well, like Burpees & Jumpees. We'll also do Box Jumps, Power Jumps, In-out squats, and a variation of other type of squats. 

Those are the big 3 we train every day, but as a climber you also have to strengthen your fingers. This is a delicate process as you're not actually adding finger muscle (Fingers don't have muscles), but rather strengthening your tendons. Tendons are delicate and amazing at the same time, they can hold your whole body weight off of a few finger tips, but can tear if you over work them. Because of this we train finger strength once a week and sometimes two times if we're feeling good. This usually involves a small wooden board called a "Beast Maker" they're specifically made for making your fingers stronger and they're awesome. The workout varies on the strength of the climber, but i'll usually use the "Beast maker 2000". I'll get all 4 of my fingers on the smallest crimp and do 7 seconds on with 3 seconds of rest in between for a minute and then repeat for 3-5 sets. 

Climbing is one of the those sports that you just get fit no matter what, as long as you climb. It's great because it provides my brain with constant stimulation and new problems to figure out. It's pretty much just play time fitness, and I think that's awesome. 

2017 Personal Goals

I'm a little late for a New Years Resolution, and I don't really like doing things the ordinary way either, but I'm going to list my personal goals for myself in the year of 2017. 

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Climb a 5.13. I got my first 5.12a in late 2016 on my mentor's route, It only took me about 7 or 8 attempts. I've only projected one 5.13 so far and it's the incredible roof route at Reimer's Ranch called "Pay the Pump" and goes at 5.13b (see video here). But other than that I've not even touched another 5.13, so I'd like to send one this year. 

Become a better Videographer/Photographer. I really enjoy taking pictures of people and making videos with cool songs to them, however I am not very good haha. Pretty frustrating when you see an awesome scene and you just can't get the camera to relate what your eyes see in front of you. 

Climb in either Utah or Yosemite. Zion National Park is absolutely gorgeous, and is a fantastic climbing destination, and obviously Yosemite is world class climbing. Either would be a dream come true for me. 

Be able to consistently Project V8 in gym (v6-7 outdoors would be cool too). I can safely say that I am an experienced sport climber and a fairly strong one at that, however when it comes to bouldering I'm not very powerful. I've been training specifically on bouldering for about a month now trying to push my grades past V7, it's tough and frustrating but I think I can push up to V8 this year.

Pay off my debt. I got a credit card, despite me saying I never wanted one, 2 years ago now and it  was cool for about 15min and then I max'd it out and I have $3,000 in debt. Pretty horrible stuff but with what I currently make at my job it shouldn't be too hard to pay it off in a year if not sooner. 

Plan for a major "expedition" type climbing trip to an "alpine environment". I love testing and proving myself, and an Alpine expedition has always stood out in my mind as one of the ultimate test of skill and willpower. Maybe Mt. Whitney or something like that would be cool. 

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That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll let you guys know if something changes and I'll write stories about these things as they happen of course!

Following Mario Thru New Mexico

Mario and I went to Hueco Tanks last January, and our eagerness for climbing got us kicked out on our second day at the park (Parked in a handicap spot). Luckily for us, Mario had heard about this cool climbing spot near Carlsbad, New Mexico. We packed all the gear up in the van and set off on the 2-3 hr drive. If you're not very familiar with Texas geography, Hueco Tanks is pretty much El Paso, which is a border town to Mexico. The state has check points and highway patrolmen that try and spot suspicious activity coming from El Paso, and Mario and I were in a bright Yellow van. The van is important because it is the IDEAL vehicle for transporting people and narcotics thru the border. 

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Mario's narcotic's van.

Glamorous "Van Life"

So as Mario and I drive into New Mexico the speed limit changes from 75 to 70, and we just keep on cruisin' at 75 since 5 miles over the limit isn't usually an issue. About 10 minutes later the red and blue lights go up in the rear view mirror, and our smuggling empire would be found out (Smuggling quickdraws, ropes, and smelly climbing shoes).

Now this isn't supposed to be important to the story but Mario is black and I am white and I also look like i'm a young teenager despite being 20 at the time. The officer walks up to the window and asks Mario to step out of the van and put his hands on the side. Already i'm thinking "wtf he can't do that, what were we possibly doing wrong". After talking with Mario for about 5 min, he walked over to my side and asked me if what we were doing, where we were going, where we came from, and if we had any drugs in the car. "Rock Climbing, New Mexico, Hueco Tanks, and half a pound of Chalk" luckily the guy had a sense of humor. After it became apparent that the officer wasn't going to arrest us, he started asking us about rock climbing in general. One of the cool parts of being a climber is people usually can't imagine going up on high cliffs with a thin rope and your finger tips to keep you from falling. Mario told him about climbing gyms and the Climb Fit program he runs, was actually a pretty chill conversation after all the business had been taken care of. The officer sent us on our way and we went off to Sitting Bull Falls, New Mexico. 

Mario has a unique way of pushing me to be great, basically he goes and climbs something that is incredibly hard even for him, and then leaves his gear all over it and then goes "Hey, you gotta climb this route because all our gear is on the route..." and I get roped (no pun intended) into climbing a 5.13b after climbing 5-10 routes at my max already. So here I am on this 5.13b that is INCREDIBLY overhung, the climb is basically a very large cave or how a huge wave would look.

Mario, about 3/4 of the way up this 5.13b. If you can trace the thin black line back to where it meets the wall, that's about where I fell at.. 

Blood is just finger tears. 

Basically this means that since I am "cleaning" the route (Meaning getting all of our gear off it) that If I fall I'm going to swing out into open space and not be able to get back to the wall. I get to about the 4-5th clip on the wall (20-30 feet up the climb) and I can't grip the rock anymore and I swing into the air. So to dumb it down, I am swinging about 10 feet away from the wall dangling from my next quickdraw which is about 10 feet above me. We tried "Boinking" (me trying to pull my weight up the rope.) for a little while to get me up to the next clip, but it didn't work. We basically rigged up an "ascender" with 2 prussic auto-blocker loops and a long webbing for a foot push. I think this might have been the only time in two years I've been legitimately mad at Mario haha. Here I am at 6pm inching my way up a rope to my next quickdraw, tired, hungry, and bleeding from most of my fingers hahah. 

Obviously I made it to the the next piece of gear and retrieved it and we went home, and the anger went away as soon as my feet touched the ground. I like this story because I can remember knowing the way to fix my problem with previous knowledge and gear on my harness, it just felt really cool. 

I'm going to try and write small stories about things on my trips once a week, I hope you enjoy :)

SunRiser's 2016

SunRiser Adventure was my 4am thought on July 4th morning. I came up with the name, idea, content, created the website, youtube, instagram, twitter, Facebook, and came up with a conceptive logo in the span of a few hours. But this is nothing without the adventures to fill your blogs, and Pictures to fill a gallery, and friends to bounce ideas off and to gain support from. I convinced Chris to come aboard because I saw his fantastic photos, I had no idea he would be an incredible writer and partner for the site. My other partner Alec gave me the Psych to get my idea off the ground. The dude has enough Hype to make any man believe in himself, he's an incredibly unique individual. With my two partners I went into 2016 with a fresh outlook and determination to live my Adventure, and that's what I did. 

I went on 30+ Trips this year, I really think I went on 40+ but I went to Austin so many times I lost count. I pushed my outdoor climbing grade up 2 number grades (From 5.10 to 5.12a). I left my fear and anxiety in the parking lot of every crag and stepped boldly into each and every trip I went on. I got a 2nd ascent on my first 5.12a ever on "I wish I was your Lover". I guided 3 trips with my Mentor and Friend Mario and got paid to photograph 2 of them. I had the honor of having 3 amazing photographers shoot me while rock climbing in Heuco Tanks, TX. I spent my spring break in New Mexico climbing with friends and mentors. I spent my summer climbing and exploring with some of the best friends I'll ever have. I spent my fall reconnecting with old climbing partners and discovering new areas to old crags that I had thought useless. I met wise old men who taught me to climb better. I met kids that gave me back my appreciation of playing around. I turned 21, competed in climbing competitions with my mentor, watched him marry the love of his life, and watched a brand new star wars movie that was FANTASTIC. 

2016 has brought and taken a lot of things from us. We must remember to face every challenge with bravery, determination, and an open mind. Most importantly we must remember to love our fellow man in 2017. I cannot wait to see what 2017 will hold for me and the amazing team at SunRiser Adventure, and I can't wait to share it with all of you. 

Thank you for reading our tales and we hope you continue to do so.

-Trent, Chris, and Alec

Staying Awake on the Adventure

Last summer Chris and I drove 12 hrs straight thru to Durango, Co. I have a 2014 Ford Focus hatch-back with just enough space in the back seat for one of us to pass out in for a few hours while the other takes his turn while driving. I had already a few tricks to stay awake while driving, being that I drove back from climbing in Austin usually pretty late in the days. Chris had a few other tricks to staying awake from his adventures along the Pacific NorthWest. I thought I'd share a few: 

Eating food is an awesome way to stay awake while driving. I have no clue the science as to why it works, but if you keep shoving gummy worms into your face hole you will keep your eye balls open. We used some strange cereal type stuff Chris brought along on the drive to Colorado. Just be careful when storing the food you eat in the car. A dog ran out in front of the car in New Mexico and I slammed on the breaks and the cereal when ALL OVER, mostly the floor. 

Music and Singing to music horribly is my favorite way to stay awake in the car. I'll get down to some Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Coldplay, Drake, but my ABSOLUTE jam is "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind. The song has a great story in it and an EPIC ending where you can scream your heart out at all the sh*t thats going on in life. It's very cathartic, and I always feel wide awake after I've had a good yell sesh to a good song. 

Listening to Comedians on Pandora/Youtube is something Chris and I discovered after Chris got sick of hearing "Ophelia" by The Lumineers for the 500th time or something. There's really nothing like laughing uncontrollably with one of you best pals in the car. Mainly nothing like having your best pal on a road trip, really an awesome time.

Deep thought is something I'll slip into sometimes. I've driven back from Austin with nothing but my mind keeping me awake before. Enthralled in a thought or idea I drive for hours contemplating decisions, or actions that I could've done different. Contemplation on the future or what to write next for the site. Really all things that you can dive your brain into wholly can keep you wide awake even in the dead of night.

Of course if none of these things are working, you're probably just exhausted and need to pull over and take a break. I've pulled into gas stations, Wal-Mart parking lots, residential neighborhoods, and good ole camping spots to rest my eyes and mind during a long drive. No shame in taking a break to keep you alive for your next adventure!