It's been a busy last few days! Jess and I have climbed a lot this past week as the weather has been gorgeous! The Red River Gorge is an amazing climbing destination. We have climbed at a different, high-quality crag every day, and we still haven't even been to the most popular walls yet!

The past two days are good example of what climbing is like here. Yesterday we went to the Left Flank, which is one of the more popular walls. It is still spring break season, so there are a lot of people here. The Left Flank was pretty busy, so after one climb we decided to pack it in and drive a few minutes up the road. What we found was amazing! Beautiful, pocketed stone, the most overhung 5.12 I have ever seen (it was SICK), and, best of all, no people!!! Today, being a little tired from the overhangs, we decided to find some climbing that was a little more vertical. We headed to the Muir Valley at around 10 am, and were the second car to show up. We hiked down to the Tectonic Wall and hit up a couple of pumpy moderates to warm up, and then headed across the valley to one of the many high-class areas in the region, The Sanctuary.

I had planned on getting on an easier 5.12 there, but after looking at it, I decided against, and decided to throw myself on a 5.13a/.12d?, called Triple Sec, which follows a beautiful orange wall for 95 feet, and also already had draws hanging, so I could bail if need be. With Jess' patient belaying, I slowly figured out the moves and, resting at many of the bolts, finally made it to the top! I definitely will spend some more time on this five-star route over the next couple of weeks and try to climb it clean! After her epic belaying, Jess deserved some sweet climbing, so we headed over to the Indy Wall, which is just around the corner from the Sanctuary. Jess got on Makin' Bacon, and red-pointed it on her second try of the day!

On a different note, Jess and I have gone completely red-neck, and now have a Coleman Kitchen, and walls for our canopy. Life is COMFY! The next couple of days look as though they will be a little wet, so hopefully we will stay dry under the Kyle castle of nylon.