Arkansas Climbing Trip

While Barley stayed back in Alaska with our wonderful dog sitters, we flew down to Slouie, jumped in a rental car, and drove down to Arkansas to spend four straight days climbing, camping, and hanging out by the campfire with close friends from Graduate school.

After we were beyond tired and had no skin left on our fingertips, we drove to St. Louis on Sunday morning and caught up with another friend who scored some great Packer tickets, and we attended our second game of the year. Yet again in 75 degree weather.

Here are some photos of our climbs and trip...


We camped at the free Forest Service camp area called Sam's Throne, which is situated on top of the bluffs/cliffs of the Sam's climbing area.

This is the first night that we arrived. We attempted to set up anchors for a climbing route, but a severe storm rolled through with thunder, lightning, about 10 minutes of DOWN pouring rain, and a tornado watch.

Luckily, it passed quickly and we were dry the rest of the trip.

Pat looking over the bluff, at Sam's Throne proper, a circular outcrop of climbing cliffs a quick scramble down and couple mile hike away.

Some features of the bluff near where we camped.

Night one. Fresh arms and plenty of finger skin to climb off.

Day One of climbing: Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. An active climbing area with plenty of free-roaming horses and goats.

Parked in the center of the valley. We headed to the North Forty first, which is toward the upper left of the photo.

Patrick, Derek, and Pat starting our first route of the day.

Just wouldn't be a climbing trip without my hammock!

Derek and I each climbed a route side by side, and shot photos of each other from the anchors.

Cleaning the anchors of the route.

Walking through the fall colors to another climbing route.

Peak fall!

Headed out of the North Forty towards the Far East.

The group: Pat, Patrick, Derek, Jackie

Hiking to the Far East across the horse pastures (Top right).

Typical.

Headed towards the Cliffs of Insanity, where we were on a mission to climb 'Swamp Rat'.

Derek sitting up on the rock in front of the route. 'Swamp Rat' is the line immediately above him & behind.

This may be my beloved chacos last trip. Both soles have holes blown through and the webbing underneath is almost worn through.

Derek almost to the top of S. Rat, about to set anchors.

I topped out and remembered to snap some photos.

View from Swamp Rat over HCR Valley.

Foliage.

View from the anchors of Swamp Rat.

The belay spot of Swamp Rat.

Next up was Emotional Content, a 5.10 b. Notice the change in rock color. This was our last route of the day, and the sun was setting.

I was cargo in the back seat of Dereks car for a short stretch at Sam's.

Derek earning Street Cred- we hit a deer driving back from HCR to Sam's Throne. LUckily we hit it in the hind quarters, it did a pretty impressive front flipped, and ran away. Coyote meat....

Day Two of Climbing- Sam's Throne. We packed up in the morning, and scrambled down for a short hike to climb Sam's Throne proper. Derek is suited up with the crash pad.

Shot of our camp site.

Sam's Throne, a free camp area, finally had two pit toilets dug with funds raised from the Arkansas climbers coalition. This was the closest bathroom to us, and they were just digging and smoothing the final touches.

Derek loaded up, headed down to Sam's Throne proper.

Jackie giving 'White Trash' a shot. This is one of the routes on Sam's Throne proper.

The next morning, we packed up Derek's subaru once again and headed to Cave Creek, a lesser known climbing area about 2 miles down the road. Our friends Sherry, Mark, and their dog Layla joined us the previous night and at Cave Creek.

Hiking along the ridge at Cave Creek, looking for a easier scramble to get the dog down.

A shot of Mark carrying the crash pad, on one of the bluffs at Cave Creek.

Mark and Sherry, enjoying the 'couch' known as the crash pad.

The hammocks, with Layla enjoying the rest after her hike down.

All the necessary equipment for a solid day of climbing. Cheesehead included. Note the craft beer can collection.

Mark, Sherry's husband, at the crux on 'Hornier Toad'.

Pat and Derek giving a belay.

Patrick getting up Hornier Toad.

Jackie at the crux of Hornier Toad.

The last and final route of the trip- 'V.D.' We created a nice stick clip to attach the first bolt for protection on the overhang.

Our fancy stick clip.

Patrick leading V.D.

Patrick headed up the overhang.

Patrick using his arms while his feet swung out from the wall.

Patrick almost to the chains-or top of the route.

Patrick headed down after topping out on lead.

Derek headed up the overhang up V.D.

Pat giving V.D. a shot.

Pat swinging out on V.D.

Parting group shot. 3 days straight of climbing and hiking, no finger tip skin or arm strength left to speak up. Opening jars and twist-offs was out of the question....

Parting shot driving past Sam's throne proper.

After leaving Arkansas, we drove to Springfield, where we spent the night with our friends, had a couple beers at our old Pub, drove to St. Louis at 6am the next morning. We took Patrick to the airport, and headed to downtown Slouie to tailgate for the Packer game.

Group photo tailgating. Our friend AJ that we met up with is on Pat's right. I have no idea who the other people are...

A.J. scored us amazing tickets in the first level of the end zone.

Packers dominating the Rams.

I stole these next photos from the Ram's online site. They are pretty blurry, but the only shots we got of the 3 of us. We were waiting in line to get into the stadium when the photographer snapped them.

Me, Pat, and A.J.