What do you do on a sunny, 70º day at the beginning of January in North Texas? You find a way to spend as much time outside as possible, knowing that the rest of the country is probably suffering chilly temperatures and that the weather in Dallas is actually more volatile than one might expect. Temps can drop 50º in a few hours if a cold front comes through. The sun and warmth of climbing three hours south of Dallas at Reimers seemed like the perfect way to spend this gift of a day. Climbing, breakfast tacos, coffee, and barbecue with friends is one of the sweetest ways to pass time. I do wish I would have photographed the migas tacos, but we got them to go as Veracruz All Natural was busy and our friends were eager to get on the road and on the wall. We smothered the tacos them with heavenly red habanero sauce and a delicious jalepeño crema salsa and ate them in the car. I never really “got” the whole migas thing until these tacos. Trust me, just go try them at Veracruz for yourself.

The day was incredible, I think we only managed to climb five or so routes, but I lead a classic 5.8 route called Eight Flake. A beautiful flake that was some awesome and fun climbing on lead, with the sun and the Pedernales River at our backs. Jess managed to finish Prototype with just a couple of takes, a very beta-intensive route. I tried it, but ended up with a one-move-take-one-move-take cadence to get to the top.

A few days ago, Jess sent me this photo:

So, two weeks later those classic routes crumbled off the wall. Luckily no one was hurt. I’d love to hear from a geologist on this but I’m guessing the volume of rain combined with fluctuating temperatures and moody limestone all contributed to the collapse of this wall. See more photos and video on Austin Climbers Group on Facebook. I feel lucky I was able to experience a couple classic routes at Reimers before they collapsed.