The word reconnaissance, when not used as a military term means, “preliminary surveying or research.” It has its roots in the French reconnaitre (recognize) and the Latin recognoscere (know again). Recognize. Explore. Scout. Thank you, Google.
This trip to Hueco Tanks was a kind of reconnaissance exercise for our family. We went back to observe, to figure out some things, like, is this a good place for our family to come now that the kids are adults themselves? Are Brian and I too old to climb here and be satisfied? Have the golden years of Hueco come and gone? But I also like this concept of “knowing again.” What are the good things about Hueco that we can know again? Or, what do we need to recollect, remind ourselves of, even as we are scouting out or exploring how to move forward?
To ease everyone’s breathless anticipation, neither Brian nor I were able to successfully complete, without falling, our projects. No sending. Sorry to disappoint. I know how you feel. This is the first time, ever, that I have left Hueco Tanks without a tick list of significant sends, even post shoulder injury in 2017. I could have let this get me down, let it lead me to the conclusion that I’m too old to climb at Hueco, that the golden years are over. Believe me, I almost did. After the kids flew back to Pittsburgh on Friday, post-Thanksgiving, Brian and I returned to the park and climbed hard, making progress, each on our own problem. We linked moves or did moves we had not yet done. We were getting close, is what I think I said in my last post. We took a rest day on Sunday, following the tried and true two-days-on-one-day-off rule. We had, afterall, taken it sort of “easy” while the kids were with us. However, Monday morning we woke up just as sore and probably more tired than the day before. We clearly needed more time to recoup but were feeling the pressure of returning home too. We went out climbing anyway. We warmed up in the sun at the top of the chains, and the easy climbing felt good, but when it came to pulling hard moves, I had nothing. My tank was empty. Brian decided not to even try his climb, and we went back to our campsite early. Our climbing expectations for Hueco 2023 were shattered, like the broken pieces of rock that litters the ground here. We fought a little bit, but once those emotions came out and evaporated into the chilly air, we were able to look at the situation rationally and come to some less-emotional conclusions, mainly, that this was not a failed trip, but reconnaissance, reminder, recognition.
Here are the five things we either learned or needed to remember about Hueco Tanks, 2023 and beyond:
- We are six years older than the last time we were here. I want to say that age doesn’t matter, but it does. I don’t mean that I think we are too old to climb as hard as we once did, but I do mean that as older people, we need to approach a climbing trip very differently than in our younger days. We had let our older bodies get too tired, and we didn’t take enough recovery time. Two-days-on : one-day-off is not a good ratio for us anymore. If we DO want to climb as hard as we did five or six years ago, we’re going to have to figure out how to do it better, or, we need to not care so much (see #5). I personally have a handful of boulders I’d like to do before I give up on bouldering hard (for me) completely and start doing easier climbs on a rope.
- We didn’t get enough sleep, and some nights, we got really, really cold, which completely saps energy needed for recovery. At this age, I think we need to get even more sleep– good, sound sleep– in order for our bodies and brains to bounce back, feel fresh and rested and able to work hard. We also spent a lot of time on the colder evenings cramped in our van and maybe should have done more mobility or stretching every night before going to sleep. We have always been very bad at this, and it’s taking its toll. Lastly for this point, I doubt that we fueled properly and probably needed a higher intake of protein overall. I think sleeping and eating are theoretically easy to fix, but will be complicated to find the right fix for each of us.
- It takes us a full week to acclimate to climbing at Hueco Tanks. This is information that even the boys need to consider. On any given trip in the past, I wouldn’t start feeling strong until well into the second week of climbing. Since we were at Hueco for less than 14 days this time, I should have picked some easier boulder problems to focus on. I have never been able to climb at my limit on such a short trip. When we go back to Hueco next year, we need to be there for longer if we want to send boulder problems that are closer to our limits.
- We are not empty nesters yet! Oren was at home on his own for part of the time we were gone. He’s responsible, in his own way, and not too wild, so we trusted him to take care of the house and the cats and not intentionally get into trouble. Plus, he’s planning to move out sometime in the next year or so (he turns 18 next week!!) and wanted the time on his own, making his own meals, cleaning up after himself, and getting himself where he needs to go, on time. I don’t know how other parents do when their kids are this age and leaving home, but we find parenting this stage one of the hardest. It weighed heavily on us that Oren was at home alone, even though there are friends and family all around him. This feeling will ease up in time, maybe, but it’s just not quite time yet. This trip was good practice, stretching our heart strings over that kind of distance and time, but it was easy for us to decide to leave Hueco a little earlier than we originally intended and get home and not feel any regrets about how the climbing went (I think).
- Hueco Tanks is beautiful, and it’s okay to go there and not send a lot of hard problems. It does our souls and bodies good even if all we do is bask in the light and the warmth of the sun and explore this part of creation. It’s good to get out of Pittsburgh. And it’s so good to be together as a family, even smashed into the van for the long, dark, chilly evenings. The only thing we were missing was Oren’s banjo or Brian’s acoustic guitar. This sounds really trite when I read it back to myself, but I think it’s the most important thing I need to keep telling myself. Even if this is the hardest stage of parenting yet, it’s also the most rewarding. We can hang with our boys and talk about so many things, we can tease and joke and laugh too, and in those moments we are more akin to friends than parents/kids– at least, I hope so. Being at Hueco made it easier to recognize this shift in our family dynamics.
So, I don’t know, we may go back again next year and make it “our spot” to retreat as a family. We are leaning in that direction. We weren’t convinced not to. It seems likely. Let’s see what the next year brings…
