Sun...Drizzle...Sun...Rain...and CLIMBING!

This time of the year again. The frost of the winter behind us and the sizzling heat of the summer far in the distance, the best season to take a few days in the "South" and scale some real rock. Arkansas, HCR here we come. Team Saucisson was definitely ready to send a few routes on the great crags of the Ranch. Wednesday the 18th, five of us first then eight, then ten, then eleven. A good ol' crew from St louis. Burke and TBakes (or Mr Baker as he will be called all WE see further), Kirk, Tony and Sophie as the first shift. Closely followed by Morgan and his brother Cary, and the usual suspects Yusuf, L John, and Coline adding to the duo. The eleventh would come a day later from the other side of the state. Nikol was back with the gang for a day!!! The weather being so promising and beautiful on Wednesday the first shift headed out of town early enough to make sure we would be on the rock before sundown. And we did. To change ( and improve without a doubt!) the dynamics of Team Saucisson we were taking along Kirk, a 14 year old "kid" some of you might know, a definite climbing talent, and the best kid to have around. Ah Ah Team Saucisson was going to have to watch its behavior!
And TBakes being a teacher at Kirk's school John Burroughs, he was to be Mr. Baker for the next few days! Or Mr. TBakes! Oh yes we did have fun with that.

DAY 1:
As soon as we were done setting up camp we headed to one of the closest crags, The Confederate Crags. HCR was a first for Kirk, and it would also be his first lead outside. Some exciting time ahead!
Not much time left in the day so we chose our routes quickly, the lower grades being non existent in that area we opted for Knob Creek, a promising 10c slab and its cousin Newton's Law another stiff 11c slab next to it. Way to warm up! Sophie put up the draws on Knob Creek while Tony was "warming up" on Newton's Law. While Burke was shaking his head mumbling..."don't want to scrape my hand on no slab! " and was twisting neck his looking at a 12b, Nova Monkey, a bit further, with an impossible roof which obviously looked more appealing to him. All a matter of perspective :) The gecko vs. fly syndrome.
The first "warm-up" climbs were not too gentle on either Sophie nor Tony, but they got through it. Kirk was up and debating wether he would follow Knob Creek or lead it. I did not try to stir him one way or another just told him slab was tough and could be a bit unsettling at times. That said she looked at Kirk scaling the route, pausing and then:
"I think I'll lead it!"
"Great you go for it"
And there he was leading his first route outside, a tough 10 slab. My hats off to him.
He did great, pausing sometimes for quite a while trying to figure out the moves. And he took a whipper towards the top. Now he was ready for anything! As he said when he came down:
"It was FUN. Well it was fun... now, not sure then!"
Tony went on a second time on Newton Law to show it "who was the daddy", and he did!
Then he and Burke aimed for the Nova Monkey 12b a few feet further, while the rest of the crew hung on the slab area.
Yep that Monkey thing sounded mean if we believe the British grunts coming from a certain roof.


Morgan and his brother joined us with still enough light to "play" on the slab.

We headed back to camp as the sun was setting beyond the crag. the temperature was perfect. A promising start.

DAY 2:
We woke up to drizzle but nothing menacing. It would take a bit more to stop Team Saucisson! The drizzle turned into fog and left very little wetness around. We were good to go! On to the Prophecy Wall and probably more routes at the Confederates later on. Morgan was the fashion star of the day displaying a quite colorful Simpson's fleece pants made by his mom. See photo. CLASSY that is all I would have to say!

The Prophecy wall is not a big crag but has some stellar lines. Rambling Man, a great little 5.8, good warm up and also the first route on which Kirk will put the draws (great job!)

Then there was Jihad, a good 10 b with a hard bouldery start, the beautiful Learning to Fly, a classic 10c, and Taliban Soup a mesmerizing 11d line with a very balancy and technical face leading to an horizontal roof with large plates.

Most of the crew stayed there for a while while Tony and Burke headed back for the monkey route of the day before. ENCORE, as Tony would say in his best French. I went along to find out what it was all about and after watching Burke swearing to the queen under the roof pretty much decided I would find my inner gecko instead of my inner fly. Burke had to suurender under the roof, but I know he be back on that battlefiled. Great effort.
Tony got back on it and had a beautiful –if silently grunting– send after having to fix two draws under the roof which had very inconveniently spun. Impressive.


As Morgan put it "Tony is a beast"...or a Banshee if you want to keep the Irish flavor.

I left the boys with their Nova Monkey and headed back to the Prophecy to get on Taliban Soup, and arrived as Kirk was working on it with class. He took a fantastic whipper as he was about to clip the anchors. Roof fall, Slab fall... Kirk had his outdoor climbing baptism. Nothing would stop him now.
The second shift from St louis arrived early afternoon. After finishing up in the Prophecy area we headed back to the Confederates for some unfinished business. Tony had his eyes on a 12b, Toxic Dementia, a striking face/arete climb next to Knob Creek. While he put the draws on that line, Morgan and Cary and I were discussing the route to the left of it which looked like a very tough slab but seemed to be marked as a 10b in the book. At the look of it it did not look like a 10 to me but I went:
"OK I'll put the draws up on it" thinking I might miss some hidden crimp. My first clue should have been the bail-out binner hanging on the second bolt!
"puting up the draws" did not get me very far. An impossible tough move at the second draw.... this thing did not "taste" like a 10.
"You guys have fun... cannot figure this one out. If it is a 10, I should worry about my climbing level!"
Morgan gave it a try and he made one more move and got spitted out as I did. Cary went on, and fixated on it for while trying to dyno to some "nothing" crimp or ledge, took whipper after whipper and finally gave up with bloody legs to show. Yep the story was this was not the route in the book. This was a "project" and we all know what that means: 5. MEAN HARD.

Looking at the 12 Tony had climbed and found to be a fantastic line, I paused for a bit and decided to follow it. I absolutely loved the route. great variety of moves and exposure. After I came down Tony climbed it again for a send, and I was decided to lead it. After Morgan took a stab at it ( giving up half way but mostly because he had killed himself on that crazy project route), I roped up and got on the climb that made my day. Passed the hardest move clean, thinking there might be a chance I would send it. It was not to be, being so pumped, but I was happy to finish it in 2 falls.
Back to the camp for some good food and campfire (courtesy of Cary who obviously has a thing for fire_ and the endless supply of firewood provided by an ice storm which absolutely decimated the forests of this entire region, a VERY sad sight).
The quote of the night will go to Kirk as we were talking about food and cooking and Burke was helplessly trying to defend British cooking.
"British cooking, isn't this an oxymoron?" said Kirk.
Ah! Not only that kid has humor, but he's got vocabulary as well! I am sure Mr. Baker was proud. Everyone had a good laugh, including the British subject who has a great sense of humor. Indeed.

DAY 3:
The night was a blanket of stars predicting a sunny day. And yes it was we woke with the morning light gently brushing the Far East Crags with subtile strokes of pink and red. Coffee, Breakfast and our posse of now eleven (our good friend Nikol had made it in from KC!) headed out across the canyon towards the Mullet Buttress where a few more classic line awaited like the great 10d Troubadour which Morgan, Burke and Kirk will on-sight in style. A few more routes Party in the Back(8), a couple of 10s like Business in the front, Military Cut and Mowak, an 11 Pimp-Ass Midgiemullet were good warm-ups before we moved on towards the Far East crag. Not before Tony took care of some unfinished business sending a powerful overhung 11d Mix Max around the corner from Troubadour.
By the time we got to the Far East the sun was baking the rock which was just fine with us!
Burke put some weight on his harness climbing the TRAD route First time Up, a beautiful 5.8+ crack which the Captain climbed in great style for a great send.

A part of the group played on Gracie's Eight, next sport 5.8+ to the right while some were lying on the warm rock munching on strawberries, taking in the sun. Tony and LJohn went on to tackle Spine Tingler, a striking 5.12 sharp arete and King Kong next to it,

Morgan and his brother played on a new route Kinky Boots, a 5.10b/c with a dyno start (obviously Cary's favorite!) while I went to put the draws on some route with which I had "a long overdue date" Horseshoe and Hand Grenades, a beautiful 5.11a. One fall on 1st try. Third time will be the charm! Kirk crushed it his first time on it as he did on another 11, King Kong. Yes indeed unstoppable.
Then I went on with Yusuf to check on another "friend", a 12 a/b I had top-rope once, the Sanchez route, determined to lead it this time. Yusuf did quite a bit of thinking on it but of course sent it stylishly.
Getting the first half clean I was excited when I reached the half-way point where one stands on this side ledge around the arete. A great rest, and a great view on some 5.9 climbing around the arete up from the ledge...only it is not really the way to go considering the last draw is down on the face on the other side of the arete!. Achh this would be quite a whipper. So resolving myself to deal with the arete, the face above the draw being rather blank, I tried and tried to find balancing moves and got so close to the better hold up ahead look down (big mistake) to see if I could even still see my last draw ( ha ha). Gee it felt far down and WWWWAAY to the right. I swallowed, extended my right hand and in a second was airborne. Huge swinging fall. My "favorite".

Tried that a few times and called it. It would be for another day.
Kirk went on to work on it with Cary. This is a persistent kid. He stayed at the crux forever, but hey he managed to get through it using the arete which he wanted to avoid at all cost!, and He finished the route. He'll be back.
We ended the day at the Roman Wall with a couple of classics, Ceasar Tossed Salad, Boronocus (long 11c with a roof _ Tony's idea of a warm down :) making Morgan shake his head in disbelief the Banshee Beast would climb this at the end of the day!
Back to camp, we were going to town. No camping food. Boardwalk Cafe, our favorite organic little place in Jasper. here we come. 11 of us crashed in there as they were closing down! But we are just too cute! They waved us in and we feasted on some excellent Elk burger and home made ice cream. Ahh the hard days of climbing!

The rain came....As the "future phones" owners LJohn and Morgan had told us all day. A front was coming. It was going to be wet.
Morgan and Cary headed out and back to camp the rest of us had turned in when by 10 pm a steady rain started to fall. It never stopped. TBakes and Nikol had to retrieve in the middle of the tent, pretty much surrounded by a moat. In the morning there was still the dreaded steady tapping of the tent's rain fly. This was not going to stop. Homebound we were.
Little by little everyone emerged from their tent. Tony tried to help Burke get up by hanging the Irish flag right on top of his tent door. Burke swung the door open and "in good English fashion" sent the Irish flag flying away in the mud. He never even saw it! English stomping on the Irish, how cliche! :)

2 1/2 days out of 4 1/2.... A bit bummed to head back early but we had some great days of climbing, the joy to hang out with new and old friends. We'll be back.

If you want to see all the photos: