Xmas @ the Obed, TN

I've been meaning to get these pics up for awhile. Melissa and I went to the Obed for 3 days right after Christmas. This is really the last major SE climbing destination I haven't been to in 15 years of climbing here, so it was cool to finally make it. And when I say cool, it was actually pretty cold. The highs never got out of the low 40s, which I guess is chilly for this area. But given the cold and my lingering shoulder injury, we still had a good time. We got there late on our first day so we decided to check out the Lilly boulders. Cool place! A nice local showed us around and we spent most of the afternoon trying to stay warm on a prety great warm up boulder:





The next two days we went to the South Clear Creek and tried to keep the sun on us all the time. In total we only did about 6 routes over the 2 last days; we were moving pretty slow because of the cold and the drive back and forth from Maryville TN where we were staying, but it was still a good introduction to the area. Looking forward to going back sometime soon. The climbing image below is on the great 5.9 Best Seat in the House." Really fun arete and just less-than-vertical face climbing. I was able to onsight a 5.11 just around the corner, and that felt like an accomplishment given my abilities lately.