Beer Chugging Lock Off

Labor day weekend has come and gone.  And it was F'n sweet!  Nate Drolet and I took off to the Red River Gorge friday afternoon for an extended weekend of climbing on the best sandstone cliffs in the US.

Odub on Swingline .13d

As always, arriving at Miguel's comes with a warm welcome from familiar faces.  The smell of the pizzeria and lack of hygiene from the occupants of the campground let you know that this is one kick ass place.

Saturday morning started out at the Solar collector, which is a great wall that is filled with moderates, which makes it a great place to warm up for The Dark Side.

The Dark Side wall is truly BAD ASS!!!  The focus of the day was to take care business, send.   My focus was on The Force .13a and Drolet's was Elephant Man .13b.  The Force, what an amazing endurance route.  It starts with a burly opening jump move to a sloper that is good.  Quickly moving off this you move on to clip #2 and start pulling on the perfect bowling ball like pockets for a few moves that lead you to a jug at #3.  This is where the route really starts.  Hard moves off the rest lead you through a 3 bolt section to your next rest, which is alright.  For me this was the crux, moving past the last bolt into the redpoint crux.  The wall suddently kicks back a little more and the holds are a lot worse than those that lead up to this point.  The moves become precise and sequential through 10 ft of shallow capped pockets.  Heinous!  I think I fell twice this day on my way to the chains.  F!

Matt Hughes on Elephant Man

  So that was kind of a bummer that Nate and I couldn't take down our target in one day.  When we got back to Miguel's we heard talk of some beer chugging lock off comp that was going down.  Sean Stewart, Max Marlowe, and Spencer Victory (all outrageous homies)  had schemed up one hell of a show.  Spencer was a maniac of an MC as he gave all the participants a rediculous intro before it was time for them to crank.  Five or so guys lined up to take one another on in who could drink the most beer while in a lock off at 90 or above.  Absolutely hilarious shit man.  Check it.

Sean Stewart running things.

Sunday was rough to say the least.  Beer lock off chugging, I think I got third or fourth with two beers, and skin that got shredded at the dark side (aka sharp side) had done me in.  The plan was to have an active rest day at The Motherload.  Whoa.  I was more wrecked than I thought.  I think I climbed three or so pitches.  The whole day was basically spent chilling and checking out some lines for future visits.  My skin was toast!  

All in all the weekend was dope.  I didn't send a damn thing.  Nate ended up doing Elephant Man his second try on Monday.  Very solid send indeed.  My efforts were not wasted though.  Endurance and understanding of this style was gained.  Sport around Chatty is not even similar to the type of pump this place gives.  I really want to spend 2 or 3 weeks here at some point to get it dialed and send something beautiful and hard.  Till then, I'm going to continue my indoor training and climbing routes outside when it is nice out.  Temps are starting to feel better here in Chatty, but still not even close to ideal. 

Till next time,

Chaz