Belated New Year's Wrap-Up Part 1

So it's been awhile, but I don't have to tell you that. Anyway, for those that don't already know, I went down to Arkansas again for New Years this year. My friend Sarah flew into St. Louis from Denver and rode down with me on Tuesday, Dec. 29th. We ended up getting there pretty late that night, and everyone was all moved into our cabin at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. This year featured a lot of people that I didn't know, so I got to meet a lot of new people that night when I arrived. Luckily, everyone there was really cool. It was great seeing some old friends too! Unfortunately, it snowed throughout the night on Tuesday so we woke up to snow covered boulders and cold temps on Wednesday morning. After some really strong coffee and a solid breakfast, we went out to do some climbing. As you can imagine, all of the boulders were wet and snowy on top, making full sends pretty much impossible, but we all put in some really good work on the bottoms of a few overhanging roof problems. Here are a few pics of me on a V6 called Fraziac. I worked it pretty good for two days, but never could link all of the moves...hopefully next trip (the brown, orange and blue crashpad that my friend Emily is on is the new one I got for Christmas!)

So after a bit of climbing, Wayne ran back to the cabins, grabbed a broom and spent about an hour going around to different boulders sweeping the snow off the tops to help them dry for the next day...which helped immensely! Wednesday night though, we went to "the barn" (really shouldn't be in quotes, because it really is a barn), but they have some awesome stuff in there. The upstairs has a basketball court, a slackline, an indoor bouldering wall, and a speleo box (a plywood cave for simulating spelunking). I also had my slackline, so we set up mine next to the one there and did a bunch of slacking on Wednesday night. It was nice because I hadn't slacked in quite a while. it took awhile took get everything back, but I was happy to be back at it. We then played barefoot 3-on-3 basketball....and let me tell you...I am OUT OF SHAPE! It was pretty pathetic actually...panting and wheezing and holding the stitch in my side...and that was the first 5 minutes! Needless to say, the next day I woke up with my legs sore as all get out. A night of slacklining and basketball will definitely bring the hurt on.

It's past my bedtime now, so I'm gonna have to stop there for now. I'll hopefully not be so lazy and get part 2 up by Monday night. I hope everyone is well....talk to you soon!