Texas & New Mexico

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Texas and New Mexico

Austin, TX

Big Skies over Texas

Hi everybody!  It has been about a month since I updated my blog and much has been going on.  I had a great time hanging around Austin, TX eating some really good food and yes some of it did come from food trailers. J  It is part of Austin culture.  The stories are true – Austin has great food!  Not only is the food good but the people are very nice, especially the climbing community.  On another note, I picked up my running again while in the Austin area.  Lots of nice spots to go for a run!  I must build a huge running base to have a serious shot at breaking the record on Long’s Peak.  Of course I also went climbing while hanging out in Austin despite the Mountain Cedar’s best attempt at putting me into an Allergy coma. I still managed to send a wide variety of very cool climbs all the way up to 14c.  In fact I put up the First Ascent of Enero Mariposa 5.14c, named for the beautiful butterfly that flew up to me at the cliff.  I have been trying my friend Rupesh’s line called I, Me, Mine 5.14+?  I hope to complete this line when I return in a few days.  Having a little free time I went and visited some kids at a local charter school and talked to them about climbing, the importance of education, nutrition and answered as many questions as possible.  It was hard to pick which kid had their hand raised to answer a question.  The whole room had hands up J  It was fun!

Fun Times at School with some great kids!

 

Come on by for a fun time!

I strained my hand a bit on I, Me, Mine and decided that going to Hueco would be good for recovery being as crimping did not seem to agitate the injury spot.  It has been a patient process while climbing at Hueco thus far, being as the hand is healing and the humidity has been non-existent.  Which of course is only bad for me.  However I had the great opportunity to take one of my sponsors TruFit out on an adventure in the Organ Mountains.  They made a fun video of our hike. Click on the link below to watch the Video.

Thanks For the fun day TruFit

Gorgeous Day in the Organ Mountains

Looking out over the Tularosa Basin

The Organ Needles looking north towards colorado ;)

Organ Needle

On top of little Square Top

Hueco Tanks

I opted not to participate in the Rodeo and instead went sport climbing at the Tunnel and went for a run in the high Sacramento Mountains.  There was snow, moon shadow, and a spectacular sunset.  I then woke up the next day and headed down to teach a clinic with Paul Robinson.  We had a great group of participants.  Big Thanks to Melissa Strong for the organizing and facilitating of the 2013 Hueco Rock Rodeo.  Later this week I will be giving a talk for the Geography Department.  I’m a little nervous…but I think I can do a good job.  I hope ;)

Nick_Duttle_Talk_Flier_2_22_13

 Now…I’m hoping for rain ;)   I love the smell of rain in the desert!

A short video I shot of Alex Megos sending Sôl Adûnâmentum

 

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Still growing up and out…!

Friday, April 29th, 2011

It has been a little while since I posted.  …So here we go!!  Where I last left off I was super close to sending my long standing project at the Martini Roof in Hueco Tanks.  I tried and tried and tried some more in some unforgiving conditions and came up just short of the finish.  It finally came to a conclusion when I hurt my right arm kind of badly.  It has been over a month now and my arm seems to be coming around.  It was, I’m sure, due to the excessive use and the fact that I was trying to send in 80 degree weather.  Oh well…I grew immensely as a climber and feel I really broke through to another level.
Most importantly, I made it to 30 years young.  Ha!  Turning 30 was freaking me out big time.   I had this arbitrary goal of climbing some level before turning 30 that I deemed to be very important.  As the day neared, I felt more and more frustrated because it became clear it wasn’t going to happen necessarily by a certain date.  This was and has been one of my biggest struggles in climbing – setting goals at certain levels or grades, or in time frames, that are kind of meaningless.  The fact of the matter is I am and always have been an individual who pushes my own limits.  Coming to terms with this while trying to finish my project in Hueco was definitely a big mental process for me as a climber.
The biggest struggle has been in my own head.  Kind of funny how applicable the concept of mind over matter is to me as a climber.  It seems as though all of my projects or projects-to-be are all the same cases in which I have to convince myself that I CAN DO IT and telling myself that I WILL.  With this belief and all of the knowledge of streamlining my training I will return to finish at some point, hopefully with good conditions.  A little rain, perhaps, or something other than dry, warm and windy would be nice for a change in the desert.  One more thing…Whoever was crapping in the huecos over there should really catch an ass kicking for desecrating our climbing areas and potentially endangering access privileges.
On that note – On to the other adventures…!  After leaving Las Cruces, we headed towards Colorado to drop off a car and book it to the Red River Gorge for the spring.   We visited some friends along the way and I tried not to climb too much to allow my arm to heal.   Some skiing, a tiny amount of bouldering, and dinners with friends were all a part of a fun stop-over in Colorado.  Having since arrived here in the Red, I can say that all the cruxes feel pretty easy but the pump as always is an issue.  That, and the 13+ inches of rain that has fallen since we got here.

green spring in appalachia

It is absolutely gorgeous here in the spring though!  Vividly green with waterfalls, flowers, budding trees, and all the other splendid attributes of a place which actually has a spring.  All these april showers will hopefully bring more may flowers.

Since we arrived, I have been on The Shocker, Transworld Depravity, Thanatopsis, 24 Karats, Fifty Words for Pump, Southern Smoke and many more.  Hopefully I can get as many of them as possible done.  …Come on humidity and fitness!! Yee haa!!!

pig is excited... so much climbing, so little time!

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Hueco Tanks 2011

Monday, March 14th, 2011

After some time in the Central Texas area for the holidays, we headed off to the place where I started climbing. Having grown up in Las Cruces, NM, I had never even heard of Hueco Tanks until I started college. Well, technically, I first tried climbing at a birthday party of my friend’s at age 12 or so, but at the time I dismissed it as the dumbest activity I could do with my friction-less hands.

At that age I played soccer, ran track and played just about all other sports. I came back to rock climbing years later, when my good friend Charles Cundiff talked me into heading out to Bear Boulder in the Dona Ana mountains – which just so happens to be one of the first places anybody bouldered. After sucking terribly and fumbling up rock climbs with some running shoes, no chalk, and super pumped-out forearms, I was convinced by Charlie to head into the NMSU climbing gym. I ventured into the gym and was hooked. At first my only interest in climbing was to be able to not just suck. Climbing was the first sport I tried that I had absolutely no ability to perform naturally at. Being as focused as I could possibly be, I emarked on visiting the climbing wall a few times a week. The first time I roped up to attempt to make it to the top of the 25′ wall on top rope, I pulled on straight legged, arms locked off at every hold and with feet flying in every direction only to make it up half way. Having tanked my forearms I tried once again, only to make it nowhere. I was told at that point that I was trying to get up a 5.9! Man was that hard. I came in and tried some more and within a week or so I finally made it to the top of the wall without falling.  ; )

NMSU climbing wall... Where it all started!

I was now becoming friends with the other climbers like Jason Ploss, Walker Kearney, and many more. They were all bouldering around and talking about these V-number things. V such and such this must be V so and so. I came to understand what V0 was, at the bottom of the scale, and how hard just a few moves could be. About a month had passed when I was invited to check out Hueco Tanks. Outdoor bouldering? I was very curious to say the least. Apparently I lived only an hour from one of the best bouldering places in the world. Hmmm…fancy that.

We all stuffed into a couple of cars and headed down. Topped out some climbs at the Potato boulders and then we rolled over to the classic problem Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive. I was all psyched and got right on and managed it on my first try, all 212 lbs of me. I came back down and couldn’t do more than one move at a time. I was cooked – day done!

Hueco Tanks became my rock climbing playground. I remember the good ol’ days when $4.50 and a climbing buddy was all you needed to head down to Hueco for a day. 3 bucks for gas and 1.50 for burritos at the end of the day. As time passed I fell in love with climbing and before I knew it all my spare time in college was spent climbing, usually at Hueco Tanks.

Having so many things to climb at Hueco, the urge to boulder and explore has kept me coming back every year since I graduated and moved to Colorado. I still really love this place and look forward to a visit when the season is right. It truly is a treasure with world class climbing.

Now about my current project. I remember being taken to the Martini cave by my friend Lance Gould and being totally blown away. This was some sort of super cave seemingly built for climbing. I gazed upon all the problems, believing that one day I could climb each of them. Heh heh – and now I have climbed almost all of them except Too Many Martinis. At one time a while back, long before I sent anything in the cave, I imagined it might possible to climb from one side of the cave all the way across the cave to the other side exiting Right Martini. At that time it was only an idea, and one that seemed almost unattainable.

Years ago, after Chris Sharma had sent Esperanza, he came to the cave and thought the same thing. He sent it and named it Too Many Martinis. Good name, Chris. :p It went without too much notice, being as he sent it with one spotter and maybe one other person around. I heard about it and thought, Damit! I wanted that one. Oh well I guess I should have gotten stronger sooner. A year or so ago, James Litz decided to get motivated and he too sent the line. We were actually hanging out while he was trying Luther, a problem I established. James was the second person to send Esperanza after Fred Nicole. Not too suprising that he nabbed the second ascent of Too Many Martinis. As far as I know, Chris never graded the problem and James joked that it was about 5.14b. Real funny James! Since James sent the line, I broke a fairly crucial hold down to not much of anything. In the last two weeks, I have one-fallen the line 25 or more times. I believe the climb is V12/13 into V12 or 5.14b/c, into 5.14b. It is in my opinion much harder than Esperanza, especially since I broke the hold. I think it is V15 or 5.15a. So here I be on the edge of a personal breakthrough at the Martini cave on a climb I once barely deemed possible, pushing myself to the SEND!!!! Soon….

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