Today I forewent climbing mountains to instead climb rocks. I finally went to the El Rito sport climbing area in northern New Mexico. James and Mark and I drove up this morning, having breakfast in Espanola at Angelina's along the way. We spent the whole day climbing, leaving the rocks at about 5:00pm.

The rock at El Rito is really odd conglomerate that is surprisingly solid and fun to climb. Mark is a really good climber (top ropes 5.12) and James, while not that good is still much better than me, so they set a lot of climbs that were very difficult for me. I haven't been climbing in about three months, so I was off from my usual 5.9 ability. We climbed a 5.9, a 5.10a, and a 5.8+ and I managed to not complete any of them, though I was only one move from the top on the first one. Despite my lack of finishing any routes, I still had a good day and kicked my own ass rather thoroughly. I'll have to hit the climbing wall in the gym a bit and then head back up to El Rito and show it who's boss.