When Codi decided to go to school in Gunnison, at Western State, we were psyched to have an excuse to finally check out Skyland.
After sending out my shotgun messages for people to drive out with I was lucky to have Wade interested - as expected, it wasn't a day off for anyone else.
I got my box o' bagels at Panera and we headed out to Crested Butte - a little frightened of a 4 hour drive with a malfunctioning iPod...
The drive went by fast and before we knew it, we were in a place with enough money to frame their road signs:
We found the trailhead without any problems and the weather was perfect. I'd lured Wade with pictures of brilliant Aspen leaves changing colors and bouldering on a soft blanket of yellow - but alas, we were about 2 weeks late. Almost all of the trees had already lost their leaves, but you can imagine what it would be like, right?
Regardless, the singletrack trail was awesome and once we saw the Hone Stone, we knew we would have a great day. We ran around for a while, and then warmed up - Wade did great for his first time climbing in a long time. Codi had classes in the morning so he'd meet us as soon as he could.
After the Warmup boulder, we went to The Wave and got on an amazing line called "Slabs Kick A$$" where after a slab move you huck for the lip in a two-handed dyno. I had to do it at least 6 times because it was sooo good.
After that, we moved over to The Wedge and did a few lines. Here, we saw our first climbers and after talking to them, learned that the locals call Crested Butte, CB. And then, although CB has a population of less then 2000, they designate a CB North and a CB South part of town. Cute.
Skin was starting to get a little thin so we wasted no time getting over to the Joint boulder. This is one PROUD boulder, clocking in at 23 feet, sitting out in the middle of the field. I HAD to get on Blunt Boy, a V1 going up the vertical face:
I was SUPER impressed that Wade busted it out too. Best send of the day!
What made this climb even better were the "karma pads" stashed underneath the overhang. Adding two more pads to ours made it much more chill to jump on this highball. Thanks KarmaPads!
We then played on a line called "Longshot" but without any sends. Then Codi showed up!
We moved over to the High Times Boulder to bask in its awesomeness. My goal was to send all the lines on the main face - so we started from left-to-right. After a fall on Left El Skyland, all the rest (Center, J-Crack, and Right) went down first try. This was thanks to an awesome local that showed up, on his bike (no pad) to do his circuit. He was the epitome of an older, seasoned, climber that had the whole place wired. Cool guy, who graciously foreran the problems on the face so I could benefit from his beta. (He was from CB North, by the way...)
Codi and Kegan had to leave and the weather was getting chilly. We'd foolishly left the Hone Stone for the last thing to get on before leaving, but I had to get on it before we left!
I gave Tick Fever a few good burns, but couldn't top it out on this trip. Just another excuse to make sure I visit again! Plenty more classics to get on and I know there have to be gems hidden up in those woods!
