March thus far is turning out to be a month chalked full of climbing. First weekend was trad climbing at Tennessee Wall. Then the next weekend we ended up going to Horseshoe canyon in Arkansas.
We intended to return to T-Wall, but the weather seemed very ominous. The Friday morning that we were planning to leave I checked the weather report for Chattanooga. The report was not very reassuring. Weather.com showed that there was going to be rain all weekend. Especially on Saturday, the day that we would have the most time to climb. It was now very apparent that we were not going to be headed to Chatta-Vegas this weekend. As it turned out the entire southeast that weekend had the same weather report, 90% chance of rain. So I looked west.

I remembered a guy that I climbed with talking about Arkansas. Horseshoe Canyon the sports climbers’ paradise, to be precise. I started to look in my Rock n Road Atlas by Tim Toula. To find that there was no information about the area. It turns out that the area started to see major development in early 2000. I went to my second choice after an area guide, rockclimbing.com. There seemed to be ample access and a multitude of routes, both trad and sport, in our range to climb.

So we hit the road towards Arkansas. We drove ten hours thru a massive thunder storm that prompted a comment from Christos that summed it up, “I have never seen this much rain before in my life. Does it ever stop in this country?” Christos is from Athens, Greece. We met at the locale climbing area, Slidell Rocks (slidellrocks.com) an indoor climbing gym. We found a hotel late and drove the remainder of the trip to HSC in the morning. We arrived to HSC late in the morning. By the way if you do not know the access road to the canyon is 4x4 or high clearance friendly only. I drive my fiancee’s VW Golf. The antithesis to high clearance. So be careful fellow fuel efficient low clearance drivers. We went straight in to purchase a guide and to pay for the next two days of climbing and camping that night. We headed straight for the North 40 in a light mist.

As we approached, as I do on any approach, I started to become anxious of the day of climbing ahead. We arrived at an area called The Corridor that had some warm up routes. The temperate was in the thirties and it turned from a mist to a drizzle. We decided to make it a sport route weekend. We geared up and I climbed Kurbcheck 5.8+ came down and had my first set of screaming barffies. Everyone thought I was joking but my fingers to the knuckles were on fire. Star, my wife, cleaned the route and Christos pulled the rope and led it over. He came down and I asked him how his fingers were and he told me I was a “girl”. We wound up climbing the routes to the right of this, Around the Fur 5.8, Jackhole 5.9-, and Horny Goat Weed 11a. I went for the onsight and fell in the crux, which was at the 5th move. I lowered and Chris tried it. He was able to pull thru the crux after a couple tries. He made it ¾ of the way up and was pumped and lowered. I tried again and made it to the fourth bolt and had to rest. Then I finished the route. Very fun but I found out that I can not OS an 11a yet. Star went around the corner at the end of the Corridor and found some routes that were not in the guide she OSed them and graded them at 5.5 and 5.7.

The next day we woke to the sound goats in the area behind our camp site. There are many goats and herding dogs so be careful when you drive in. We ate fast and headed back to the North 40 again. We only saw one sector and decided to check out the rest of it. Star OSed Cotton Candy 5.6 and Christos climbed a great looking arête, The Controversy 5.9-, then I followed him. It was fun. He then led Lion Tamer 5.9. Star followed him to clean the route. I skipped this one, walking ahead to look at Count Chalkula 10a. It looked fun. There was one 10a move down low then the route turned to 5.8. I lowered quick and headed straight to the next route Strongman 5.9+. Strongman was much harder than Chalkula. The bottom five moves were at least 10a. Not to mention there were no feet. I give it three stars out of five. Chris headed to Crimp Scampi 10d. This was the most fun, beautiful of all the routes we encountered that weekend. By the time Star and I met up with him the sun rained its needed rays on us for the first time all weekend. The temp immediatly increased 20F in minutes. I climbed the route to the left, Private Property 10a. This was worthy of the 10a grade for sure. This route has great moves. Four stars for sure. The climbers before us finished as I lowered from PP. Chris roped up and made the lower section look easy at 10b/c. He moved past the first 10d crux into the second and fell trying to pull thru it. With three bolts left he lowered pumped so bad he could not remove his figure eight knot. I roped up and sat at the second crux. I moved thru the rest of the route sending the second crux using different beta. I lowered and Chris climbed it again. He sat at once and finished strong. Star climbed it and loved the climb.

I have to say that HSC was a fun area. I was expecting more. It was very cold and there was only sun on the last climb of the last day which might have altered my perspective of the canyon. We met a group of people from Kansas and Wisconsin. This is the part that I love about climbing almost as much as the climbing itself, meeting people from all over the country and world. We traveled to an area in Arkansas and meet people from Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin, and of course the locales.

There are enough routes in the Canyon to suffice anyone at any level, of any climbing discipline. I do wish that we could have checked out more areas but we just did not have enough time. It was a 13hr drive back home for work the next day. So we had to split. But I am glad that we went. I do want to return. The canyon is much more vast than I was expecting and, according to the guide, offers a hugmangus amount of different sectors.

The accommodations in the canyon area much nicer that we thought they would be. There are outhouses and outside showers near the camping area. There are hot showers for $2/6min. And they offer horseback riding if one can pull away from the rock long enough. You can always ride a horse to the crag for a eclectic approach. The café is ok. They do not have much for the vegetarian or especially vegan. And the prices are moderate. Much to high for a dirt bag. There is a cool video viewing area in the lower area of the café. And do not forget the hot tube that eluded us the entire trip. Check out climbhcr.com for more info and links. And remember climbers, this is not just a climbing area. It is a resort ranch. We encountered many families on vacation looking for the ranch to offer a taste of being a cowboy/girl. Most of the families stay in the elegant cabins on the grounds.

The trip to Arkansas was fun but I do not think that we will be headed back on our next two day weekend. The Nooga is far too close, which is funny because it is 8hrs away from NOLA. The rock at HSC was very interesting and offers some beautiful aesthetics. And I do recommend you to check it out but if you are coming from New Orleans, you might want to wait for a three or four day weekend.

Go Climb Something!!