road trip!: horse pens 40!!

slopers have never really been my forte, nor my favorite. but finally, after bouldering for about 3 weeks, i mustered up the courage to try Pancake Mantle at LRC - which is, mantling on slopey nothingness. i laughed my way through it, and when i finally sent, i realized my love for Southern Slopers! and the love was sealed after our discovery of the Bowling Ball Boulder - my new favorite boulder at LRC!

i couldnt wait to visit Horse Pens!!

sadly, horse pens is insanely expensive. its $8 per person / day - just to climb. if you camp, its $15 per person / day. on the upside, even the port-o-potties are actually pretty nice - ha. access is really easy. HP40 is also a cluster of a bunch of boulders, so you never have to go far to get to the next climb. sweet!

and the climbing! slopers, slopers, slopers! i was a little nervous that i'd get totally rocked - and well, i did. but really, my worry was for nothing.. it turned out just how i hoped - amazingly fun! there are other kinds of climbs there too - steep pockets and crimps, etc, and we gave those a few good attempts. but if you're in horse pens, you're there to make the most of the magnificent slopey-ness!

entrance to the park. you can even walk around the top of the boulders (see the fence?). the stairs also double as a downclimb or descent after topping out the nearby boulders.

jason and noah are so silly!

top-view of the slopers

mantling on top of nothing!

i give it a try - where are the incut holds?

i am not feeling very secure at all..

but i love this!

nothing!

and im trying to top out ..

and trying and trying! eventually, noah has to pull me onto the top of the boulder!! haha.. first climb of horse pens! no send ;)

jason working his way to the top

and then showing me the "good" holds ;)

jason going for a small slopey hold

not enough.. and he falls off ;)

millipede boulder!

his hands are on nothing!

a top-view shot of noah .. looking to trust that flat sloper!

noah working a sidepull arete with bad feet. these photos do not give this climb justice. it is quite, quite sketchy.. rather high off the ground, rocky landing.. and if your feet slip and you skid off to the left, then you will fall about 20 feet in between other rocks.. scary!