Melissa i
Strong

The end of Hueco—I am going back in time, but it seems like I only posted on our efforts to bring the 20th Hueco Rock Rodeo together. The Rodeo went well, which was a great relief since I worked very hard putting the event together. I was so happy and fortunate to have my husband Adam’s help and a great team of volunteers who, without, I would have been lost.  The AAC, our guides at Wagon Wheel, and the Rock Ranch really brought the event together and made it hugely successful!
 
Although the event was time-consuming, life existed outside of the Rodeo.  We had a great Hueco season, being extremely busy with Wagon Wheel Co-opt, which was the only operating guiding concession in the 2012/2013 Hueco season!  Overall, it was an injury-free season for me!  Amazing, since it was the first Hueco season in the past three years my shoulder felt better! Unfortunately, while my nagging injury faded, Adam’s troublesome elbow, tendonitis made a big return in a bad way.  The last month of Hueco, he spent resting and nursing his elbows. Sadly, they did not recover with this rest.   While laying off climbing, he was able to help get friends out in the backcountry of Hueco and get some videos and pictures.  Adam was a trooper--Hueco is a hard place to be while resting.  When my best climber partner took some days off from spotting, I luckily had great friends to climb with and made new friends from overseas.
 
Despite being on the other side of stress and having a functioning shoulder, I wound up on the same place I have been in the past—almost, really close, so many good burns on the project, falling at the end, down to the wire, hot last days with split tips.  Oh well, I went down trying, or I should say we—a good friend, Ashley Veevers, was in the same boat, and we had some brutal last days in Hueco, but we went down fighting and with a lot of laughter.  A vow for next year was made, and we drove away straight into a snowstorm that seemed to last all spring.  Bouldering is always humbling, periodically rewarding, forever fun, and for me, a lesson in patience and perseverance.