RMNP

Finally, with an open weekend and it being a fee-free weekend at Rocky Mountain National Park, it was time to head up to the Park. I hadn't been up since August of 2007, which was pretty much just a scouting mission with the fam.

Codi and I left the Springs a little after 5am, hoping to get to the Bear Lake parking lot before it filled up. Fortunately, the crowds I'd anticipated hadn't shown up. We could have easily slept in a few hours...

Byron and Nick arrived shortly after us and we headed out to Emerald Lake. Everything was new for me, so I got to play on the Kind Boulder and found another cool problem nearby.

Mullet Power for Mr. Murray on the Kind Boulder


Coordinating Tojo on the Kind Boulder.

Codi getting a taste of real rock again...

Byron and Nick looked super-strong on Whispers of Wisdom. I faltered and ended up tweaking my left bicep on the first move. Special, I know...

The next objective was to check out Chaos. I've seen boulders covered in snow, but I had no idea how much snow was up there! Unreal.

The glacier we were crossing in Lower Chaos.

.

.

A picture I took of the warm-up boulder in 2007 vs. Saturday... That's like 15 feet of snow!!!

Nick pondering beta for Deep Puddle Dynamics

.

.

Next up was Deep Puddle Dynamics. The boys had some great burns on this thing while I sulked about my arm. There was an amazing cone of snow remaining at the base, which was interesting to try to place the pads around. One guy from Bulgaria did an awesome straddle on it after trying some crazy beta on DPD. If I'd been doing my job, I would've gotten it on video...

I found a problem up from DPD, short and on crimps that didn't aggravate my arm to help me remember that I did get on some sweet stuff today.

As we packed up to find any other quick hits... the clouds that had been looming all day decided to open up. What started as us hoping for a 15-minute sprinkle turned into an all-out-dash for cover in a downpour of rain, hail and lightning. Pretty intense.

.

.

Wet sucks.

.

All survived, and Nick and Byron were even able to dry off enough to climb again the next day. I'm stoked about heading back later-on in the season... more prepared and with the fam!

Note: I've got a few video clips, but no sends... Figured it wasn't worth putting together...