Fontaine Red

Two days ago I decided to go for a day-long adventure. I hopped in the camry and drove the 100 miles by myself to Fontaine Red, which is located near Deer, Arkansas. Shortly after leaving Fayetteville it began to rain and I was worried about driving so far and all the rocks being wet. However, I thought of the Hospital boulders in AL, where it never rains even if it's raining everywhere else. Maybe Font will be like this I thought to myself. As luck would have it, it was!

First, the acess to Font would no longer be possible if it were for the people who cleaned it. I was told by Patrick Weldon that he and several others spent a whole day cleaning the road to the main area. Thankyou and awesomeness. So, take you time, clean a bit as you go, and you can still enjoy Arkansas's first bouldering destination. The purpose of the day was for 3 things.

1. Center Splooge: AR's first v10

2. Broken Earth

3. Fred's Roof

I warmed up on Mills Lane v7. This is a great moderate on the Center Splooge boulder and has some super textured sandstone. Finishing this, I moved to Center Splooge. I had worked it twice in the past and was hoping this would be the day. After an hour of solid work and some beta refinement, I managed to finally stick and hold the light, dynamic crux. It was quite satisfying to do a problem that had eluded me and had such history.

Center Splooge follows the huecos with crimps up the middle of the wall.

Next, I tried a roof project which I thought would be a lot easier than what it was. Couldn't even get off the ground. Then it was off to Broken Earth. Jeremy recently got the second ascent of this problem, and I was hoping it would also go for me. The problem features a starting sidepull and undercling jug feature and then 5 crimps of varying terribleness. I quickly figured out my beta, which was almost exactly the same as Jeremy's, but my hips are tighter than White House security so a minor tweak there. About an hour and a half into the problem, I realized I was going to have to bare down extra hard to get a to the top. This resulted in several dry-fires and lots of breathless minutes to follow. One of the last goes that I would've had for the day, I managed to keep everything together just enough to squeak out a send. I have never sent anything so desperate and by what felt like the narrowest of margins in my life. So pleased.

Broken Earth follows crimps up the middle of the picture.