Melissa i
Strong

Wow!  The 19th Annual Rock Rodeo was a huge success!  165 competitors gathered at The Hueco Rock Ranch early morning Saturday, March 3.  It has been one of the warmest winters I have ever spent in Hueco but this day the competitors got lucky.  It was cold and the 40mph wind gusts that brought this cool weather in Friday subsided to a nice breeze.  These temps would feel good at the rocks but as Emilia Rafaela and I stood at the registration table it was bitter.   Eager competitors were eating up the breakfast that the Evolv sponsors cooked as we got them through the registration process with the help of Wagon Wheel and Rock Ranch volunteers.   33 guides volunteered to help get the competitors out into the back country.  It was a bit chaotic organizing people in groups of ten, in their categories, getting their names on guide and north mountain forms and getting them on the shuttles but the Mallory Pickrell and Heath Baily were able to help Adam organize the chaos.  Adam Strong, Rocco Bocchicchio, Trevor Turmelle and Andy Klier were the masterminds behind the problem list this year and Adam was responsible for changing the guiding format up a bit to facilitate competitors moving around the guided access areas.  Putting on an event of this size there are always a few things that don’t go as planned--the shuttles were not as big as promised.  Freed up from registration I went into action.  At the front of the line of competitors were also everyone’s cars.   Our truck and Uhaul were both stuffed full of prizes and bootie, scaning the croud and the truck near me Beau Keller was there and so was his truck.  I shouted to Beau about what I was thinking and he threw me his keys.  I grabbed a group of 7 people registered in the open category, including Sean McCall, Mike Doyle.  Every one cramed in Doyle in the back we took off.  About 30 seconds out I remembered Beau telling me the day before that his truck was running on fumes! “Ok everyone I hope you don’t mind but we are going to have to make a little stop at Wagon Wheel—we have gas!”  I know Mike was going to be confused when we took a right instead of a left to get into the park but we all laughed as we gassed up and filled him in on the pit stop. After a few trips we were able to bet all competitors in before 10 am.  I was able to meet up with the ladies in the Mr Serious cave where Angie Paine and Nina Williams had just quickly dispatched of It’s a Good Day For a Swiss Crisp Mix and Mr. Serious.  They moved on and I hung out to see some really good tries by Flannery Shay-Nemirow, Natasha Barns and Courtney Sanders who fell off the top out.  The ladies moved onto Focus and I watched Nina Williams make some great attempts climbing to the end of the problem about eight times and was able to watch Angie send it.  After she said it was the scariest problem she has ever done rivaling Suicide Season in RNMP.   I had limited time in the back country since I wanted to get back and make sure the vendor village was up and rolling.   On my way out I walked by Daniel Woods who was trying Crook By The Book and asked him how it was going, “trying to deal with the heat” Daniel responded, I laughed whishing I got to climb on one of the best days we have seen in months.

 

The comp went on and Daniel Woods said that it was “the best climbing day of his life.”  In about seven hours Daniel did Two Days With Gene V11, Full Monty V12,  Phantom Limb (Matt Wilder FA this year) V12, Nagual V13,  Crook by the Book V14, and The Machinist V14 totaling 7880 points.   Jorg Verhoeven from Abcoude in The Netherlands was only 475 points behind Daniel did Chupacabra Right V11, Rumble in the Jungle V11, Two Days With Gene V11, Sub Zero V11, Nagual V13 and The Machinist V14.  Only 40 points behind Jorg came Sean McCall with a challenge flashing Nagual making him the second person to ever flash Nagual.  Sean also did Focus V10, Chupacabra Right V11, Rumble in The Jungle V11, Sub Zero V11, Full Monty V12 and Flamignon V13.  Dave Graham was not far behind McCall with 305 points doing The Hand V10, Sub Zero V11, Chupacabra Right V11, Two Days With Gene V11, Phantom Limb V12, Cut To The Quick V12, and came real close to Nagul but his foot popped at the last second. Brian Anthenunisse, Sam Davis, Nick Duttle also all had good days sending hard boulder problems.

Katharina Saurwein from Austria was a late entry.  She and Jorg did not realize they would have stayed for so long and waited all morning to see if there were spots left in the backcountry and lucky for them there were.  Katharina earned 6240 points by climbing Glas Roof V9, Russian Women V9, Chupacabra Left V10, The Hand V10, Focus V10 and Rumble in the Jungle V11.  Angie Payne was175 points behind after a great day of climbing doing Mr Serious V8, Frogger V9, Glas Roof V9, A Good Day for Swiss Crisp Mix V10, Focus V10 and the first female ascent of Sub Zero V11.  Nina Williams had a great day as well with 3685 points doing Mr. Serious V8, Frogger V9, Sex After Death V9 and A Good Day for Swiss Crisp Mix V10.  Courtney Sanders had a heartbreaking day falling off the top of Swiss Crisp, Frogger and Glas Roof!  Flannery-Shay-Nemirow and Natasha Barnes were out there trying as well and had a great day giving good attempts and keeping the mood light.  

The after party was a huge hit!  Back at the ranch Vanessa Compton was classing up the joint with an art show in the house.  Her unique visions of Hueco were available to purchase as well as Sam Davis’ photographs.  Matt Segal and Emily Harrington entertained the crowd of around 350 people with their slideshows about their world travels and the people and climbing they encountered.  People are still taking about Dave Graham’s slideshow.  The most common words used are “amazing” and “hysterical.”  People enjoyed that Graham talk about living the life of a climber growing up in the industry and some of his life shaping experiences; Graham theorized that if he were still in Maine he would still be shoveling show.

The first year that a Rock Rodeo had a climbing wall obviously means that it was the first dyno comp.  Daniel Woods set the dynos and Courtney Saunders emceed the event.  There was a rare sighting of the masked man, Does Huevos who flew with abandoned but Sam Tingey took the men’s victory and Nina William’s got first for females.  

We were privileged to have such great athletes being a part of the 19th annual Rock Rodeo.  The problem list was challenging and the competition was stiff.  I was so fortunate to be surrounded by so many psyched people who were all happy to help get this Rodeo together.   Our sponsors were phenomenal this year.  It was great getting wo to work with professional supportive people.  We had copious amounts of prizes to give away and several top dollar items donated for an Access Fund and Hueco Valley Foundation raffle.  I have signed up to do this again next year and Adam has agreed to help and of course we will have the beautiful Emilia on our side.