Pics

Road Trippin..

I don't really know what it is about the idea of road tripping that appeals to so many climbers. I think it's a subconscious effort to explore the same way our ancestors did, or maybe it's just because road trips are fun as hell. I dunno, but like all climbers I love a good road trip. But after sitting and thinking about it, there really is no reason for myself or any other southeastern climber to ever strive to get away. I mean I can think of at least 30 different amazing climbing crags located within 2 hours driving distant from my house in Huntsville, Alabama, and this is just off the top of my head because there are a shit ton small secret areas and access sensitive places that we try and stay away from. I bet if I sat down with some friends and thought about it we could come up with 100 solid crags located right here in the dirty,maybe more, and this doesn't even include North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the rash but climbable South Carolina.

Now for those of you who are picturing a random boulder here or a chossy face there, you're wrong; every crag I can think of is amazing. Amazing not only because of the quantity, but also the quality. When you go climbing in the south you aren't going out to visit one random face; every area is packed full of rock. Most areas host hundreds of routes and problems, and there are always potential for more.

Over the last 8 years I've climbed a good few places in the country, and to find places with so much potential for new lines is very rare. For example, in a lot of the other popular areas in the country you find the new routes or boulder problems being established are just extensions of old ones, or they're just contrived line of older problems, but not here! If I were a betting man I would be willing to say there are still thousands upon thousands of fresh lines all over the south, even in the most developed areas, just waiting for the right person to come along.

A good example is about 2 years ago my buddy Nathan and I got tired of climbing other people lines at the famous but over developed Horse pens 40 and began picking our own lines. This takes work and a certain eye, which I think come from experience, but every now and then we 'd spot a boulder with some excellent moves stuck right between two classics, and boom there you have a solid FA. Some lines are more beautiful than others, but none the less each one is perfect in the mind of the creator. These problems usually never get named or graded, and will probably get written off never to be published unless one of "the boys" sees the chalk, climbs the line and declares it another one of their FA's, but even that doesn't matter. Sometimes the art is not in the boulder problem itself but in the actual creation of the line. Sort of like a beautiful song played directly from a musician's mind never to be written down or remembered. That musician is creating something so personal and special that the moment doesn't have to last forever, it's perfect as is. Not all art has to be tangible sometimes the act of creation is what is so special.

Next time you're out climbing, take a gander, find a fresh line and climb it, cherish it, love it because it's yours, no one can take that away from you, it's your art, your interpretation of what rock climbing should be. Until next time, here are a fews pics of the southeast.

InSaNe

I injured my finger exactly 18 days ago. I'm not new to this game I know everything there is to know about finger injuries and everything that goes along with it. I been resting for 18 days now no climbing, hardly any pullups pretty much can't do anything that requires pulling. I'm going crazy I usually injure my self during summers trying too hard on plastic, but now I'm missing the season! and I'm only getting older, if you think about it I only prolly got 10 more seasons before I start getting all old and broken.

Anyways..........check out the video of Chris Sharma on his new route Golpe de Estado 5.15b!!!!!!!!!! INSANE and totally inspiring. Next time your working your project and you get a bit down on yourself just remember the mantra "what one man can do another can do" and try just a bit harder.

http://www.bigupproductions.com/#/clips/

Missing in Action..........and a bit of history

For the few buddies who read this: in case you've been wondering where I've been the last couple weeks, the ole finger is still screwed to hell!! Did pull ups on a bar yesterday for the first time in about a month and there was still a lot of pain. I'm thinking it's now gonna be at least a couple more weeks. Just know that I miss you and I may be completely insane soon if I can't get back out.

The MeatLocker II is coming together well. I've had a lot of time to work on it due to lack of actual climbing. As of now I have a 8ft long by 11ft high wall at 45 degrees, an 18ft long by 4ft wide roof that start about 4ft off the ground and runs at a slight angle to the top of my garage door and has a campus box sit start (rad!!), and a 5ft long by 11ft high power enduro wall that isn't quite as overhung as the 45 wall but is still gonna be baller! Next, I'll be building a pretty substantial campus board which will be about 6ft wide by 8ft tall with several different type rungs! I'm hoping to have the whole thing finished in the next couple weeks.

Now for holds??? I have about 150, but am gonna need much more than that to outfit the wall. If anyone out there has some old ones laying around and would like to donate to the Meatlocker II, shoot me an email at henson12@gmail.com. I would really appreciate it and could return the favor with a place to pull when it's raining or even a guided tour of the south. I may even take you to a few secret spots!!

Last but not least, I was reading a very interesting article on Sonnie Trotter's site about the history of training, and it got me thinking about all the time I've spent researching and reading everything I could find about climbing and the history of climbing. I really think it's important to know the history behind anything you're passionate about. I know that majority of climbers are younger now and probably haven't taken the time to sit down and learn about our sport, so I recommend that the next time you're surfing the web to read a bit about the history of rock climbing. It's important to know how we've come so far in a still little known sport, and to pay respect to the pioneers, rebels, free spirits who said fuck society and getting a job, I'm going climbing. They're the reason we have routes and boulder problems. They are the reason we can run to the local shop and grab a rope or crash pad. If it wasn't for them we would be just another group of lost souls searching for their place on this earth. Here are a few sites, you can take it from here. Peace and until next time, Lay off dem holiday carbs your climbing will thank you come January!

http://sonnietrotter.com/history/

http://www.johngill.net/

......

latley i've been addicted to Sonnie Trotter's blog. the guy is awesome and is definitley someone I look up to. check his site at http://sonnietrotter.com/roadlife/. i've decided his blog was so interesting because most entries were short and to the point. not always about climbing but relevant. anyway i am going to start using his style, maybe get a few folks to read my stuff.

ok now that that's out of the way thought I'd let you guys know that the meatlocker II is coming along well. i finished framing the steep wall and the cave, and plan on finishing the power endurance wall and campus board tomorrow. i know there are a bunch of psyched huntsville climbers awaiting the grand opening so I'm working as fast as possible. I been thinking about maybe getting insurance and charging peeps just the bare minimium to pay the insurance. Sort of a non-profit gym with a cardio machines, kettle balls, crossfit equipment etc. anyway if anyone from huntsville reads this let me know what you think of that. I don't plan on charging much maybe $10 a month, just have to see about the insurance. anyway if i could get enough climbers psyched on the meatlocker maybe i would actually move it into an old warehouse and build a propper gym.

I was planning on posting some pics of the gym's progress, but have decided to keep it a secret until i finish it. i promise its gonna be rad, the new spot to breed the next generation southern mutants. if you have any questions about the gym, training, or injuries dont be scared to contact me.

climb on
ben

INJURIES!!!!!

(WARNING: I am not a doctor and have scientific evidence to back to following statements. If you are injured please see a certified sports medicine doctor, and take extreme caution when rehabbing injured fingers. I am in no way responsible for any injury caused by following advice given below. This is how I do it and should be taken as advice only. Again please see a doctor if injured.)

WTF!! I mean I've been injury free for a year and three months. Climbed my ass off over the summer nothing- no tendinitis, no finger issues -nothing. Now the temps drops out the bottom and what happens, I strain my A1 on my right ring finger and my A2 on my left ring finger. PAIN, no crimp no jug hauling, nothing. Makes me sick I'm getting old a ripe 27 years; how much longer am I gonna be able to pull hard? Who knows but it really makes me anxious wasting any cold weather!

DAMN OK so for now here's the a little secret for you guys. If you don't know I been climbing for almost 9 years pretty long compared to some of the kids who are out breaking barriers crushing stone. I may not be breaking barriers but I have picked up a few tricks along the way. For finger injuries I discovered a technique that involves short cold/hot sessions. First get a bowl and fill it with water and a few cubes of ice. It's important to get the water cold but not freezing you want it to hurt a bit but still be able to keep your hand in.(Warning: Do not freeze your fingers. If the water is too cold you can kill the tissue and could potentially give your self frost bite) Start by placing the injured finger/hand into the cold water for five minutes, then have a bowl with hot water, again not boiling, hot enough that it stings but you are able to leave you hand in without extreme pain. Place you hang in the hot water, you should feel the blood rush into you hand and the injury will really tingle. If you can feel the tingle in the injured section of you finger then you are on the right track. Once you finish five minutes in the hot water pull out your hand and massage and stretch the injured finger. Its important to repeat about three times. Do three to five sessions a day and take a very low dose of Advil. I recommend staying off prescription anti-inflammatory. They tend to be too strong and when the inflammation is reduced too drastically you loose the blood which carries the nutrients needed to heal injuries. Plus a lot of them can cause weight gain as well as internal bleeding, liver problems and other harmful side effects. After a couple weeks tape the fingers up and do a few light hangs from the large rails of a finger board. I recommend not climbing anything steep, crimpy, or hard until there is zero pain. If there is pain, there is still an injury. After you can hang from a finger board with no pain tape up and start climbing. Begin slow give it a few weeks to regain strength and in no time you should be healthy.

Triple Crowwnnnn!!!! Part I

One simple word comes to mind when I think back on the Houndears Comp... Debauchery!!!! The weekend started off right with a midnight drive through the foot hills of the Appalachians. My boy Lee and I arrived at Table Rock just in time to catch the sunrise. Well not quite, but we did dock around 3am, a bit late to catch enough ZZZs for the planned alpine start. Our plans were to climb as many multipitch routes as possible and then head over to Grandfather and set the Mammut booth. In true southern form we slept til about 10 and by the time we made it up to the parking for Table Rock the lot was for the most part full.

No worries, so we grabbed our gear and hucked into the forest in search of our first route. After getting lost several times and bush wacking some, we finally made it. We chose a sweet little 4/5 pitch route with runout bolts called Jim Dandy. Lee set off with the first lead and after about a half an hour we were climbing over some of the most beautiful stone with the most amazing views I've ever seen.

The 1st through the 3rd pitchs were all pretty straight forward, except the third pitch was about 50 feet unprotected, but at about 5.4 it was a pretty easy lead for Lee. The 4th pitch was another story. It was about 90-110 feet with two bolts! It was also the hardest climbing of the day at a whopping 5.7! OK, so the climb wasn't that difficult, but being close to 45 feet above the last bolt and not bringing any pro, it was extremely eye opening and I was pretty much scared shitless to say the least. After sending and setting up some shitty protection I yelled for Lee to start climbing. We then proceeded to run up a sketchy and very exposed scramble to the summit.After a few summit photos we booked down the trail to retrieve our gear and then down to the truck for ice cold beer.

Is That Chocolate on Your Face Mother Fucker !!!

After arriving at the camp grounds and saying our hellos, we preceded to set up the booth and begin the party. We partied till everyone was asleep and then turned in ready for the next days comp. Around early as fuck a.m., alarms began going off all over the camp ground. All I wanted was to stay in my warm bag, but was soon annoyed enough to get up. It was freezing!! The coldest it's been since last winter and I was miserable. I jumped in the truck, turned on the heat and waited for everyone to pack in so we could go get coffee and head for the boulderfields. Soon we were warm, and setup and were awaiting instructions from Jim and Chad. The parking lot was full of peeps ready to crush all in the name of free gear. I wasn't psyched as usual so we decided to hang around and chill for a while. After the competitors evacuated into the boulder fields, I slowly made my way in and began warming up. The day was long and the climbing good. I climbed as many problems as I could and damn I was tired and sore! After the comp we jetted back to the camp grounds and cracked open the booze. The awards ceremony was awesome and we killed all the beers, the pint of Makers Mark, the pint of Vodka, and the handle of Jack that Ronnie and Julie brought! Needless to say the crew was a bit unruly and several wrestling matches along with dance offs, tables slides, and bottle kicking ensued. Not long after, ole Lee went missing and was later discovered trying to break into an unknown jeep. We guided to his truck and he decided to cram himself in the back like a sardine. After some photos of the night, we carried Lee to his tent to let him pass out. The party was almost over and after walking around to a few camp fires decided to call it a night. The next morning we were all surprisingly chipper so we headed into downtown Boone for some delicious breakfast. After breakfast we said goodbye to all our friends and pointed the truck south. I'll have to say this may have been the most fun Triple Crown event I've ever attended!! Thanks to all my homeboys and homechicas that participated and congrats to the winners!!! Peace

The Promised

I'm Back!

Ok, so it's been almost forever since I've updated my blog. Just a quick update of what has been going on in my life. Spent the whole summer climbing routes. Didn't boulder much, but now that my hommies are back from Squamish I been bouldering a bit more.

I feel out of shape and am beginning to start back working on my fitness. My goal is a southern 8a by the spring! I am about to dedicate a good bit of time to training and routes to try and accomplish this. I'd also like to boulder southern v9 by the spring as well!

This weekend should be awesome. I'm headed up the Boone for the first leg of the Triple Croooown! Its gonna be a NRR repeat with Mista Lee Means and Ronnie Jenkins!! jeeeyahh and we're gonna start the weekend off right with some multi-pitch stuff at Table Rock!

Aight I'm out, but be on the look out for a trip report soon! I gonna plan on updating this thing more regular. And the post won't all be as damn boring as this one!

Peace

Here a few pics from the Virgin Gorda, The Red, and some sweet spots spread through out the south.

Whoooaaaaa

OK, so much has happened in the last few weeks I can't even begin to explain, but I'll ty anyways.

Ok first and foremost, I got married!! That's right Easy is off the market fo good!! The wedding was the shizznit! Everything went as planned and the after party was superdope!! Courtney looked beautiful and I think she got the wedding she dreamed of, which is awesome!!!!

Now lets back up a bit.

New River Rendezvous!!!!!!!!!!! was the bizomb. I hung with my boys Mista Lee Means and Ronnie the jank super strong Jenkins, Shane the heartbreaker Messer, the Mammut crew Ian, Peter, and the lord of all lords Dean Lord, and the Metolius crew.

The weekend started off right with a trip to The Mix in downtown Chatt to chill and listen to some local song writers, but if you know me then you know I'm not much of a chiller and by 2 am we were dropppin shots of Patrone like hot stones! After which I stumbled my way on stage and sang a few ditties.

The next morning came fast and Jenkins was at the house at 8am! OUCH!!! Never mind the headache or the fact that I could still taste Tequila, we were psyched to be hitting the road! We managed to turn a 5 hour drive into an 8 hour drive, but eventually we arrived to the beautiful New River Gorge.

BUMMER..... it was raining, and it didn't look like it was gonna give up so we set up camp next to the Mammut motor home and headed over to Kenny's, the event organizer's cabin. There we chilled with the "VIP" crowd and grubbed delicious burgers washed down with ice cold keg beer. We hung there most of the night clownin on a certain few individuals--cough cough Charley cough. The next morning we woke to more rain!! Sucked, no climbing to be had so Ronnie, Shane, the Metolius crew and I walked to the overhung boulders at the end of the campground and worked eliminates. I got spanked by Ronnie and Shane's problems which inspired me to train more. After the session was over there wasn't much to do but drink so we popped the bottle of Grey Goose "and got loose". Pretty soon the kegs were tapped and we helped ourselves to some ice cold beverages.

The next morning I awoke to Lee banging on my tent at 6am! We had to head over to the courthouse to set up the Mammut booth and get the demos ready for the comp. I'm not sure if it was the rock gods or Dean Lord himself, but sky was hosting the richest blue I had ever seen, and the warm sun felt amazing on our pasty hungover faces. It was time to climb... finally!! After the the demo was over, we stuffed out faces with Aspirin, Red bull, and other various pain killers and took off for Hawk's Nest for a bad ass session. For those who don't know Hawk's Nest is the shit, big beautiful sandstone boulders with nice landings set along side a river. The only thing that kinda sucks is the giant spillway located a few hundred yards away. As soon as we were there we didn't waste anytime and Ronnie, Lee, ODUB, Dean, and myself threw our shoes on and began running up everything in site. We didn't even have a pad. It was like we were children all over out playing in the woods, never mind that there was a bouldering comp going on around us, we were there to have fun! A lot of the climbers looked at us like we were crazy; they were totally focused on their "gotta win" attitude and taking the problems way too serious. I've been there I know. I thought it was dope if I won comps so I would out and be all serious and get worked up and nervous over a free pair of shoes and at-shirt. That's not climbing, man climbing all about going out with your homeys, searching for a buzz, becoming one with your surroundings and and having the best time possible. That's what I'm talking about!!

So after a long day of sending and getting shutdown (White Eyebrow!!!), we headed back to the campground to do what we do best. That's right, start drinking. The rain was starting to pick back up, but it didn't matter we had already had an awesome day and the beer was flowing strong, there was nothing that could go wrong! Around dark the Dyno Comp started which was sick! Shout out to those guys over at ProjectHolds, they did an awesome job with the comp, and their holds are the best holds you can put on your wall!!

After the Dyno Comp, the band set up and began jammin. They were rad so Ronnie, Lee, Dean, and myself filled the cups and took off for some dancin. We danced our asses off right up until dome random drunk ass girl punched Ronnie smack in the eye!! It was hilarious. Pretty soon her and her drunk ass friend were wrestling some dude on the nasty wet floor with everyone watching, that poor guy got punched right in the balls!! Next the girl jumped up and started frantically looking for her flip flops, which later we found out Ronnie had chucked into the woods as payment for that bitch slap he'd received earlier. I told the girl that Lee had her flops in his coat so she ran over and punched him in the face!! HAHAHA, Oh man then she straight picked his pocket and stole his precious "party favors." Things were starting to go a little far so Kurt the regulator Smith made the girls leave, both of them crying.

We stumbled back to the motor home and drank till we passed out. The next morning we broke down camp...in the rain, and counted our losses (stolen demo gear). We then cruised over the Pie-n-Pints for some of the best pizza ever. We were gonna finish Sunday off with some sport climbing, but the rain held steady so we just decided to head back to Chatt. The trip went well, except for the Tornado that almost killed us right outside Chatt, and pretty soon I was sitting back in Huntsville recollecting the weekend in my head, and wishing it wasn't over.

Although not much climbing was had, the trip was totally awesome and I can't wait till next year!!

Want to shout out to all my boys new and old, it was a blast!!! And also say thanks to Ian and Mammut for putting us up and hooking me up with some sweet gear.

Pictures will be coming soon, And be on the look out for a full write up and some super rad photos from the Virgin Gorda!!!

Alright off to my next adventure, Peace!!

Hand Grenades, Pirates, and Tranny Strippers

I just got back from from my bachelor's party this weekend. My friends and I sacrificed body, mind and soul for one glorious weekend in New Orleans. It was an absolute blast! There was a pirate convention at our hotel, which meant a lot of weird humans running around acting like Captain Jack Sparrow. It was pretty amazing to see how people really believe they are pirates.

We arrived Friday evening, and had already began participating in party favors, meaning most of us already had a pretty good buzz. After a small glitch with the hotels, we settled in and quickly rushed to Bourbon Street. We headed straight for our old stomping ground, Fat Catz and Huge Ass Beers. Unfortunately, the band we were hoping to see was no longer at Fat Catz, so we settled for an ice cold 32oz beer. The night was spent bar hopping and dancing with very large black women. I couldn't have asked for a better first night!

The next day was sort of ruff. I slept a bit longer than everyone else, but eventually made my way to Bourbon Street where I indulged in nasty ass Krystals (what was I thinking). I began drinking trying to catch up with everyone, and did a pretty good job pounding two delicious Hand Grenades from Tropical Isles. After hanging on Bourbon for a while, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for the night. That night went about the same as the night before Huge Ass Beers and bar hopping, which led a few of us to some locals bar at 5:30 in the morning. I ordered my last beer of the night at 5:45 am! Where else can you drink all night and never go home!

All and the whole weekend went well, no one was arrested and several of us watched the sun rise. Anyway thanks guys, you all are the best buds a guy could ask for.