Was an awesome trip. If you are not familiar Horse Pens 40 is an AWESOME bouldering place that is just fantastic!
I took off after school last Friday around 3:30 and arrived at SAU around 4:45. Grabbed Matthew, Michael, Seth, Marissa, and Lizzy and saddled up the cars for about a two hour drive down to Steele AL. We arrived at HP40 around 8:00 and registered ($8 a night to camp and boulder) then set up some tents and had some dinner. After sitting around the fire we got pretty antsy about climbing and went to explore along some boulders.
We stopped several places but weren’t satisfied with the level of the problems in the dark so we headed to some familiar spots. Seth has a favorite problem near Hot Chicks V1. It is an unamed problem but is rated a V2 that requires a nasty slopper slap followed by a funny high step. If you have the friction and foot work you have to edge your way up a water groove and top out on an easy mantle. Marissa found this to be a very challenging problem and proceded to stay put until roughly 2am Saturday morning.
Lizzy found Hot Chicks V1 to be her problem of choice and sent it after about an hour or so of different moves. Hot Chicks is basically several decent sized holds with a nice side pull for the final move to a huge jug at the mantle. Only problem is the feet along the middle of the section are just kinda silly and can be difficult for a beginner.
After spending several hours with head lamps and a Mag light climbing around we headed back to the tents to crash for what little sleep we could get since there was a Biker rally going on.
8:30 and the birds wouldn’t shut up! Boy I hate getting up early on the weekend but with sunlight pouring in and Bikers throttling up on their bikes to warm em up, we drug ourselves out of bed all stiff and sore from the night before (woot I’m a poet!). Breakfast for most of us was some quick prep food or cold pop tarts (I love pop tarts). I went up and rented a bouldering pad for $5 for the day and roused the crew for a long day of intense bouldering.
Marissa wasn’t able to send her problem the night before so we headed directly to Hot Chicks and some of the other problems around. While Marissa kept getting coached and Lizzy was testing out other problems Matthew and I tried some sloping problem next to Marissas V2. There was a V2 that was just awful in that it required a nasty match start on a thin rail with some nasty feet. You then shot up a left or right to some different slopes to try and mantle to the to with a down push. Just nasty on the fingertips!
I found a nice little V4 problem around the corner right next to Millipede and Centipede which are two of HP40s famous problems. This V4 had an awesome undercling and sidepull start up to more slopers! Seth and I played on this for about 45-60 minutes before I finally sent it with some muttered curses and grunts. Of course I had to send it since I had taken my shirt off to show off my new 165 lb body 
Seth tried some different techniques and almost sent it several times. Michael slide on over after hearing some yells and whatnot to see if he could master the problem. Seth and Michael spent all day trying to figure physically and mentally how to conquer that problem. They both vowed to send it on the next trip in November.
Other problems of interest were Groove Rider V3 which is my favorite “high ball” problem. Scarey problem requiring some funny body movements and fine footwork. I did fall on one of the moves and everyone at least gave it a good hearted attempt.
Near the end of the day we just had to pay our respects to Mortal Combat V3 which has been pictured in several climbing magazines for its scarey foot work and laybacks. It is an arrete problem that requires you to lay back on the arete with your feet pressed on the edge of the arete. The problem is if you “barn door” (swing around) your feet could slip off or you could fall forward somehow and fall the 10 or so feet down a hill if your spotters missed you. It does require some kahonas and some very good flexibility or agility. Maybe one day we will have the guts to conquer that one.
We played on some V1s and V0s before the day was over. Everyone had blown forearms and bloody finger tips (except for yours truly thanks to his Metolius Rockrings) so we made a hastey exit. I dropped everyone off around 8:30 and didn’t get home til about 11:30. It was a great weekend and we’re planning another trip come November 10th and 11th.
You can see pictures of our adventures on Matthews website. I will try and post some on here soon!