Keep your lug nuts on lock down! We learned this the hard way about 50 miles past Louisville, ballin' on HWY64 when suddenly loud noises and a drastic change in my Subaru's handling forced a speedy pull-over. 'Must be a flat tire..' No, much better- three of the lug nut studs on my back wheel had sheered off, one was easily loosened by hand and the other was the reason why we were not in a Hospital. 9pm, no idea where we were, hmmm. Solution? iPhone-Tow Truck- Corydon- Holiday Inn Express- Folgers and a mini-muffin- Big O Tire- BooYA!!! Back on the road with a healthy portion of I-70 ahead of us.. if I hadn't been returning from a truly inspiring, ridiculously awesome trip to the best rock climbing area in the United States.. I might have been bummed.
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Before all that wheel-almost-falling-off jazz, we finished the trip off right. Monday we headed back to the Motherlode. Paige had some things to do and I had been saving one last route in the cave.. 'Transworld Depravity' 14a. I wanted to be well rested and feeling maximum fitness for a proper flash attempt at this 120 foot beast of a route. I had heard rumors of reachy crux moves and of hard for the grade pump after a bouldery mid-section. At the end of the best two weeks of climbing I'd ever had, I wanted nothing more than to grit my teeth on this test-piece and clip some chains, or desperately fall tryin'. Peter Kamitses was there to offer up some crux beta and cheer me on- super nice dude. I took my attempt very seriously, as I did with Omaha Beach. I managed pump at every opportunity and tried to climb very accurately when entering the cruxes. I tried to be confident with my movement and choose my holds wisely. I've never been a good flash/on-sight climber, and going to the Red this was something I really wanted to work on. Entering the final crux moves I felt fatigued but capable. I ran into a little bit of wetness where I was hoping to put my feet which made me hesitate right in the business, but I felt a growing sense of urgency and decided to use dry, albeit kinda worse feet options. Shortly after I was facing a tricky exit move above a final rest that turned out to be much harder (and more reachy) than I expected, but at this point I really wanted it, and knew that I could not allow myself to fall. A few edging / lock-off moves above there and I was clipping chains- unbelievably stoked. Feeling heavily satisfied, I celebrated by offering my belay slave services to Paige. Which she used to fire 'Snooker' 13a and '40 Ounces' 13a onsight, as well as dispatched 'Skin Boat'13a. I cranked up '40 Ounces' as well and did a couple awesome routes over right; 'Team Wilson', 'Tuna Town' and 'Leave it to Beavis' (all 12d) to wrap up.
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Flashing Transworld was a huge achievement for me. Mainly because I knew it would offer a challenge- I would have to really want it to do it- it was not coming easily. I celebrated my last night in the Red with a few glasses of wine and a tortilla pizza, hanging at Andy Mann and Keith Ladzinski's place surrounded by great people.. feeling very excited about such an excellent trip, while also realizing how much I would undoubtably miss this place.
On Tuesday we heading into the Gorge proper and to the Military Wall. I was highly inspired by the beauty of the burl there- both 'Nagypapa' 13d (how do you pronounce this?!) and 'The Legend' 13b. Warming up we quickly realized the honesty of the grades out here. I gave a good effort to onsight Nagypapa, but fell just below the anchors on a tricky sequence that took me a moment to figure out, completing this incredible line of uncharacteristic slopers and crimps 2nd go- one of my favorites of the trip. Next door, Paige was figuring out beta on the stunning 'Legend'. This powerful route is nothing of what you might expect out here- and fully worth an effort... redefines the definition of Red River 13b... Paige offered beta and I managed a flash. A few more warm downs and some good-byes and we were out. On the road and headed west, at least for a little while before the whole wheel-almost-falling-off event.
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I'm sitting here, back in beautiful Colorado, flipping through photos from the trip and already missing the house, the mud pits, colorful leaves, cheep beer and the incredible walls- the Red River Gorge is a very special place that I'm very happy to have experienced.. Much thanks to all of those who have slaved to keep such a place accessible and developed. I am already planning an extended return trip, and I'm bringing my BOSCH!
Cheers.
Photo: ANDREW BURR - me kickin it before the biz on the Gold Coast. Still Image of my flash on 'Transworld' captured from an upcoming ARCTERYX video featuring myself on a bunch of climbs in the Red!! stay tuned.. complements Scott Milton / ARCTERYX. Lastly- fall colors.. the RED in RED. complements Brian Goldstone / ARCTERYX.