A blog about climbing full time on the road.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Horse Pens 40 Alabama

cassie-spirit_1
Cassie has Spirit v3
matt-stranger
Matt on Stranger v2
When many people think of rock climbing they are immediately drawn to huge faces such as Denali or El Cap, but in northeastern Alabama there is a small sandstone bouldering area that packs quite a punch. It's known as Horse Pens 40.

We arrived in HP40 on Sunday after many days of driving from flagstaff Arizona. Along the way we stopped in eureka springs arkansas to see Don, my former step-dad who was around for much of my childhood. We had a great time catching up, seeing his plane making shop (those are handmade woodworking planes). He took us out for a nice dinner and showed us around town. We were quite impressed with the historic tourist town and are looking forward to going back sometime.

After that we drove the rest of the way to HP40 and arrive to very very unseasonably hot and humid temperatures. With temps in the around 85f and high humidity we knew that this slope mecca wouldn't give up its grades easily and so we focused on easier climbs. Even so, many climbs felt near impossible as our sweaty hands would grease off the holds. That being said we had an amazing first day exploring the myriad of boulders and we did find climbs we were able to finish such as Dope v2, Double Groove v3, Spirit v3, Stranger v2, and Eight-Ball v2.
At the end of the day I hopped on a great problem called Popeyv5 and came close to sending. We came back the next morning when it had cooled off and it went without too much trouble. We hopped on red arrow which proved difficult, though not impossible and then finished the day on bumboy v3. We didn't end up sending but both of us came reasonably close. It took a lot of skin off our fingertips, but we had a great time trying. It may be one of the most beautiful boulders I've ever seen.

Today we drive to near La Fayette, Georgia to an area known as Rocktown which is supposed to rival HP40 for quantity and quality of bouldering (plus free camping instead of the $30 a night for HP40 ouch!)
cassie-bumboy_2
Cassie working Bumboy v3
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Matt on Popeye v5

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