One of the best aspects of being on the (climbing) road is the amazing scenery! Hueco’s desert landscape is truly stunning and Mig and I both are inspired every day to take pics. Another fabulous part of being on the road is the people you meet. Climbing destinations like Hueco attract climbers from all over the world and from all walks of life and we’ve been fortunate to meet a handful of awesome folks already. We’ve also noticed that there is a special community here – people who come back year after year as much for the climbing as for the extended family. That said, though it’s our first time here, we have felt quite welcome. Even having a baby hasn’t scared people away (as far as we know anyway)! In fact, we’ve met two other traveling climber families, which is really nice because (a) it’s a clear indication of the growth of the sport, and (b) it confirms for us that we’re not insane to bring our daughter on the road (or at least we’re not alone in our insanity)!

The Hueco Tanks park from the Ranch.

So we’ve decided not to camp on this leg of the journey after all and rather split our time between The Rock Ranch and The Hueco Hacienda. Apparently the Ranch can get pretty rowdy during peak season, which wouldn’t have been super good for us, but it was perfectly chill when we were there. Not only did we enjoy hangin’ with the employees and other residents there, we were treated to a quint-essential Texan brisket, dutifully watched over by Brett (a.k.a. Mogli) as it smoked for 14 hours. It was fantastic! The owners of the Hacienda are awesome, too, and we’re psyched to be staying here for the next 2 weeks. This auberge is really gorgeous, clean and spacious! And while it’s a more pricey accommodation than we would normally stay in on a long climbing trip, it’s seriously hard to move to a campground once you’ve spent a night here!

climbing

We’ve had some somewhat humbling climbing days since we last posted: falling off the top of problems and feeling our lack of Heuco-style fitness. This is what we were expecting actually, but we had a false sense of confidence because of Mig’s strong send on day 2 and my pseudo-send on day 3 (turns out King Cobra starts one move lower than where I started it; what I did is known as “Queen Cobra,” and goes at V5). It’s all good, though. We are getting in shape, slowly but surely. And with our remaining 2 weeks, we hope to go back and finish some of the fun problems we’ve been playing on and maybe get on some harder stuff if we have time! So most of our climbing shots are of other people, but there’s one of me on Jigsaw Puzzle (sent 2nd try) that I did at the East Spur yesterday!

Alex working the moves of ‘Too many martinis’ V14/15. Not too shabby!

Left: Bonnie crushing ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ V5.
Right: Rocco working ‘Sub-zero’ V11/12.

Video

Here is a quick video of Dom cruising ‘Choir Boys’ (V7) on his first try of the day. He had worked his beta previously. Dom left Hueco today with a very proud tick list, including Fern Roof V9 (see pic below) – way to crush buddy!

More photos…

* click an image for larger size (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format).

Driving

10 days on the road so far. We took 5.5 days to get to Hueco Tanks (4000 kms, 7 states, 35 hrs) – casual timing, we know, but shorter days of driving are easier with a baby. Our little girl mostly slept but took in some of the landscape here and there too. The drive included: Visits with friends and good eats in Columbus and Nashville (highlights for sure); Accidental tours of 2 sketch towns in Arkansas (the opposite of a highlight); ‘Whataburger’; ‘Pappy’s BBQ’ in Monahans, Texas (photo below); 80 mph speed limit (in Texas); 22 different state license plates; The alphabet game and similar car-ride pass-the-time activities. What we have learned so far: we have an awesome car and we packed way too much stuff!

Staying in Hueco

We arrived with the intention to camp and/or take advantage of the surrounding hotels/home-stay options if we were too tired or it was too cold etc. Because of the long drive, coupled with the big gusts of wind that welcomed us, we were pleased to find that the Rock Ranch had an available private room – for part of our stay anyway – and we treated ourselves to a room at La Hacienda for a few nights, too (a short post on this new Hueco accommodation will come soon). We will eventually camp but, for now, we are happy to be indoors while we get acquainted with the area.

First few days of climbing

The fact that it took us so long to get to this world class bouldering destination is a little embarrassing – especially when you realize that, while not simple, climbing at Hueco is not nearly as complicated as you might think. We just needed one day to ask around about how things worked and now we have it dialed. Navigating North Mountain was actually not as straight-forward as the park rules, at least at first, but thankfully everyone we ran into was very friendly and helpful and we are getting the feel for the place now. So far we’ve had 3 fun climbing days, though having a baby at the crag is not easy at times. We’re learning how to keep our little one rested and happy and we knew to lower our expectations in terms of how much climbing we would actually do each day, so it’s all good. In fact, I think we end up being more efficient with our time on the rock this way… Anyway, it’s been great to run into friends from Montreal already; fun times with Dom, Geoff, Fil, Claudia and Eveline! It must be said that the climbing is fantastic and we are super psyched to have 3 more weeks here!

Classic problems so far

• ‘No One Here Gets Out Alive’ V2
• ‘Sign of the Cross’ V3
• ‘King Cobra’ V6 (Bon)
• ‘Baby Face’ V7 (Mig)

For the ladies, the field was also big (about 40 competitors!), including none other than Thomasina Pidgeon from out west and a whole group of super strong women! Every year the women’s field gets stronger and more impressive! Iyma Lamarche continues to impress on the Tour scene, taking her first win (yep, she beat Thomasina by 7 attempts). Way to go Iyma! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any decent pictures of the women’s finals .

Congrats to Voltan and Iyma for their amazing performance at the Climber’s Rock competition! Here are a few photos of the men’s finals!

Fred on problem #2 and #3.

Matt on problem #2.

Eric on problme #4.

Here are the official final results:

A few more pics:

For the others interested in climbing pictures, stay tuned, there is a climbing comp coming up in January and, in February, we are going on a three month road trip to the Southwest. I can’t wait! Until then… indoor studio shots. Enjoy!

More splashes from today:

This competition also proved to be interesting because there were so many new faces to the finals! My two favourite competitors to watch on Saturday were Kacy Wilson and Fred Charron. They both put up super impressive performances, gave it their all, and showed that they are real contenders for the number one spot. Also, I particularly enjoyed women’s and men’s 3rd problem, because of their very intricate beta reminiscing of the European-style problems we are used to seeing on the World Cup series (Thank you Tonde!). It’s unfortunate that no one could manage to finish men’s third problem, but great fun nonetheless!

Here are the final results:

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

As I promised many of you, here is a sneak peek of the finals problem:

As I said, this is only a small token of my appreciation. If I learned anything throughout this whole ordeal is that we need to be more generous and open to the people around us. After all, that’s all we really have: friends. When we are gone, they are the ones keeping the memory of ourselves alive. We absolutely need to give back while we can. You can be sure of one thing: I will give back. You are all amazing!

I debated whether I should include names in this post, but I decided to try to include people who helped throughout the official searches, the events following the searches, and the volunteer searches! I am sure I will forget some of you, but know that we are forever grateful!

as well as the many, many, many of you who donated to the cause. We couldn’t have done anything without your generous donations. If I forgot a name, please post a comment and share them with us so we never forget those who have helped our cause. Thank you! 

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

Our fourth, and last, expedition took us to the North side of Saxifrage, much closer to the peak, but not quite at the peak. Seeing as this was our last day hike on the mountain, we really wanted to have a chance to take a look at the other side of Saxifrage, the side where we can see the White Lakes. That view gave us another idea of the mountain ranges behind there and gave us a new viewpoint of the uncovered areas in the mountain range. We took a long route (sorry no map), contouring the peak on the west side, through the forest, and then going up a huge bowl behind the peak. In the picture below, you can see the bowl where we walked up, towards the col on the left. The right side is the ridge we walked on our way out towards lake Valentine and camp.

On our way to the bowl, we had the chance to see a few very cool mountain ranges on the horizon, through the trees. Walking through the woods is not always fun, but the views that you get every now and then are magnificent (see below). I loved walking around there , except for the abundance of mosquitoes!

The peaks through the large overgrown forest were superb!

Flowers in an elevated field with the mountains.

The first thing we all noticed when coming in the bowl behind saxifrage was the amount of bird activity above the forest and near the Saxifrage peak. The birds were all turning around a snow cornice (see pictures below). We noted the approximate coordinates for some of the search teams to go check it out on the next day. They ended up checking on the bird activity and didn’t find anything of interest up there (sigh). In any case, we kept walking up towards the col, and this time around we split up so that we could cover a little bit more terrain, seeing as this space was never fully searched in the past searches. My dad walked up closer at the bottom of the cliffs, I went more in the forest, and our guide stayed between us (keeping an eye on us at all time!).

Birds circling around at the top of the mountain (nothing was found there though).

The snow cornice on top of the mountain.

Once we reached the top of the col, we could see very well behind the Saxifrage peak and beyond. It was super cool to see the White lakes, and once again, we took a moment to appreciate the type of hiking Jon and Rachael enjoyed. The scenery was beautiful, calm, and peaceful. I found those moments to be very helpful and wish I could go there more often, to sit and think a little bit. We had the chance of having a satellite phone with us, so we made a call to my wife, pregnant at the time, to tell her where we were and that we were safe. making a call from the top (almost) of the mountain was pretty surreal. Here are a few shots of the things we got to enjoy while up there.

The cliffs on the way to Saxifrage Peak. It look super dangerous, but in fact it’s probably quite safe as the path as quite large on top.

Dad looking at Saxifrage Peak in wonder.

One of the few wildlife signs we got to see from up there.

This fourth and last hike was our longest walk, but also the most rewarding in my opinion. It gave us an opportunity to walk on the mountain, alone, see a new side of Saxifrage, and also spend a lot of energy. Having said that, we were sure glad that our guide found a shortcut for us to get back to camp as fast as possible (thanks Eric!). We got in time to camp to enjoy one last evening of dining, mosquito-free, around the fire, and enjoy the stars above our heads. Again, at night I got to shoot a few more pictures of the camp, Cassioppe Peak (during the blue hour — see gallery below), the stars, the fire, the sunset, etc. Basically, i tried to capture the best the campsite could offer, before we left. I would love to go back and take more shots, as it is a truly unbelievable place to be. I hope the pictures I took helped motivate people to hike up to the Peaks next summer as it is truly worth it. I know I want to be back next summer!

Cassioppe Peak at the blue hour.

Stars above Blaire’s tent!

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

Before I continue with the story and pictures of our third expedition, I recommend you read a few of the related articles I’ve posted over the past few weeks, if you haven’t already:

• Pique Magazine’s article on Jon and Rachael
• Tim’s press release before the searches
• Day 1: Bushwhacking near Peq Creek
• Day 2: Cassioppe’s Ridge

View of the clouds in the lake Valentine area from helicopter.

So, our third expedition took us to an even better place than the first two. As the map above and the image below show, we walked all the way up to the col between the two peaks. It’s easy to see the area from the Lake Valentine pictures, which show the two peaks. It doesn’t look very far in the photos, but as we learned during this trip, mountain walks are always longer than they look. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to the col, but it gave us the opportunity to see the huge cliffs that are hiding behind Cassioppe Peak. We also saw the whole valley behind the col, which is one of the possible exits off this mountain ( though a somewhat hard one due to some swampy areas). We also saw (partially) the glaciers behind Saxifrage, which is another potential route people take on this mountain (en route to Cirque Pique).

We chose to go to the col to get an idea of the alpine terrain and also to explore an area we hadn’t had a chance to see already. We did the contour of Lake Valentine on the north side and found a nice campsite at the edge of the lake (see pictures below). This area seemed like an obvious place to camp for a couple, which made us wonder if Jon and Rachael could have camped there. In fact, we found a few items there that will be sent to a DNA lab to find out if they belonged to them. We also found a fire pit and some nail clippers. We’ll hopefully have news regarding these items this winter.

View from the campground on the North side of the lake valentine.

After looking around the north side of the lake, we crossed a stream and basically walked up all the way to the col. There were many snow patches, which we had to cross with care because one slip could take you all the way down to the rocks below. (You may notice that the snow has a funny reddish color; this is because of some fungus).

After taking a few stops for photo opportunities (flowers!) and to listen to a few rock avalanches (sorry no pictures!), we finally reached the col between the two peaks. It gave us a really good understanding of why people love to hike and what Jon and Rachael loved so much to do. Even though the clouds were taking over the peaks, we could still get a very good idea of their majesty (and it added a bit of mystery).

Cassioppe’s hidden cliffs behind

Panorama from the top of the col, Cassioppe, Lake Valentine, and Saxifrage to the right (in clouds).

Startrail over Cassioppe’s col

I had time to shoot another star photo while sitting by the fire that night. The nights were cold but mosquito-free (the bugs were *heinous* during the day) and they gave opportunities to shoot some pretty awesome star pictures. Please take time to check the photo gallery below, as it will show the high quality pictures in a large format.

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).