NorthWet, I mean NorthWest - Fall 2010

Jeff Russell is always telling me about how great the rock is out in Washington state. The huge drive to Seattle has always held me back, but when he agreed to include a visit to Squamish during the visit - I had to go.

Although the fall weather can be spotty in the NorthWest, I rolled the dice, found a sweet deal on a flight and committed. It's been a little while since my last fall roadtrip and Kim was super-supportive.

Once I got into town, we checked the weather and thought that Leavenworth was our best bet for Thursday.

Thursday
Leavenworth was sprinkling the entire day. Fortunately, there were periods where it would let up and we could also find enough to climb sheltered by the tall trees.

The layout for Leavenworth reminded me a lot of Joe's Valley, Utah, where many boulders were off a canyon road, most with a non-existent approach. We drove from area to area, hitting some high points, and climbing where it was dry.

First Jeff took me to a warm-up area and then to a sweet problem called Slingblade. I'd promised myself no more than 3 tries on a problem, so that I wouldn't burn out skin or energy too quickly on this trip - there was a lot to see. But I broke that promise right away. Slingblade took a few tries, but was awesome, and a great introduction to the quality of problems on the Leavenworth granite.

Then Jeff took me to one of the highlights of the trip: Sleeping Lady. This climb, where he got the FA a few years ago, overhangs right above the Icicle Creek with big holds and big moves. We both ran a few laps on it - Excellent!

I'd watched a problem called "Was" the night before at Jeff's house and really wanted to try it. Sadly, I had horrible tree coverage and when I tried it, I slipped off the arete, slamming my left heel into the ground on my fall. Next!

The Sword Area. I did some more warm-ups and a problem called Off The Couch, with some great crimps. I had felt a little twinge in my arm on that problem, so I was worried that I did the usual, and climbed too much too fast and would be done for the rest of the day.

Jeff was psyched to try a line called Prism, which had caught my eye on the way in. Super-cool slopers going up an arete, whose top was just dry enough to work. After watching Jeff immediately break his barriers and climb to a high point, I saw that there was a micro-edge on each of the large slopers that could be used. Stealing Jeff's beta, I was able to start throwing at the lip for the final big move - excited about maybe getting this beautiful line. I hit my right heel pretty hard on a fall onto a rock, barely missing the pad - which I'm still feeling almost a week later. After consistent progress (which counts if I feel that I'm touching the lip hold better each time), I had enough strength to send it! One of the proudest sends of the trip for me.

The rain had started up again and we ran around, looking at a few more areas. We crossed the creek since the water was pretty low and did a little exploring on the other side for a while, but without any luck in finding new boulders. The aqueduct was sweet though.

As we were thinking of heading home, we thought it looked a little drier up on the hill, where the Pasture and other areas were. Hopeful, we drove above town and looked at few other sets of boulders. Just as we were getting ready to climb, the clouds opened up again and we had to wait them out. I snapped this great shot of Jeff in between showers - I loved the setting for these boulders:

All in all, it was a great day, making the very most of the weather we were given.

DISCLAIMER: I have been using performance enhancing drugs on this trip. Jeff hooked me up with a substance that isn't available in the US, but I think helped me survive the onslaught of granite on my hands. I applied Antihydral to my fingertips at night and washed it off after 30 minutes or so - I don't know if it's mental, but I felt like my skin held up a LOT longer than usual... It's supposed to be good for stopping sweat, but Jeff praised it for helping his calluses. I might need to look into making a purchase...

Friday

Squamish weather had finally settled on "crappy" (80-100% chance of rain) but I had a passport and we were going to go up there and check it out at the very least. If it had a chance of drying out, we'd camp and climb Saturday too.

On the way, Jeff got pulled over and received a nice $175 speeding ticket. It reminded me of a conversation Ryan Sayers and I had one time on a roadtrip. He wanted to establish rules about who pays for speeding tickets on a roadtrip - and argued that if we both wanted to get to an area fast, then the responsibility of the ticket is on both climbers, not just the one who happened to be driving at the time. We debated back and forth, but the onus still ended up on the driver (it didn't help Ryan's case that he had just gotten pulled over in Utah a few minutes earlier...).

For some reason, we were flagged at the border and had to park and go into the office. We only had to wait a few minutes before they let us go. On the way out to the car, I checked and my passport wasn't stamped for Canada. I was kind of bummed since this the first time I'd been out of the country (except for an uplifting visit to Juarez with Ryan on a Hueco trip) and wanted some proof! Jeff convinced me to go back in and ask for it, completely against my nature, but I agreed. I ran back in, to the same two guys who had taken our paperwork originally, and said "I don't want to be the goober, but do you guys still do stamps on passports?" Pretty sure there was an eye-roll and one said "Get the goober stamp!" He even had to update the date on the rubber stamp for me, who knows how long it's been since they've had someone ask... I should have pressed my luck and asked if they could say something and end it with "eh?" for me...

Here's my goober stamp:

If it was wet, to make the trip worthwhile (4+ hour drive), we were going to do a session at the new Vancouver Temple, just dedicated in May 2010. Jeff got 5 Canuck points for seeing it first. We pulled into a pretty empty parking lot and changed into our church clothes, psyched about seeing the new temple. As we approached the entrance, we noted a flooring truck and joked for a second about it being closed for maintenance... No way... Yes way... They were closed. 4 months open and they were closed for maintenance... C for effort. I snapped some shots and we headed towards Squamish.
As we traveled I looked for Canadian "things." We wouldn't get a chance to talk to too many people, so I couldn't get my "eh?" but we saw red fire hydrants and acres of greenhouses.
We saw lots of metric signs - flustering Jeff even more post-ticket to not speed across the border. We definitely needed Ryan there to do some mental conversions for us. He was the poster-boy for metric, usually annoying us with quoting the temperature in Celsius.

I had to get some Canadian currency for the kids and was impressed by a grocery store in Vancouver, which took US dollars, converted it with an exchange rate (not sure how up-to-date it was) and gave change in Canadian dollars. Check it:

Of course, the weather actually got worse the closer we got to Squamish. This is what the Chief looked like as Jeff got 5 more Canuck points for seeing it first...

Wet, but willing to explore, we ran around the base of the Chief's main wall seeing AMAZING blocks - all soaking wet. The forest is unreal. So beautiful. Moss covered rocks, trees, green everywhere.I was psyched on this huge slug I found, but these NorthWesterners, like is Jeff now, see them all the time... He wasn't impressed by the big blackberry patch I found at Gold Bar either...

Note how many cars are in the parking lot at this WORLD CLASS CLIMBING AREA... One. That's right, we're special.

Dreamcatcher looked much more compressed than the movie, but still gorgeous and inspiring.

Aside from the weather, I did find one downside to Squamish... Noise. Infringing on this amazing setting are the sounds of the highway, which is right behind you - as well as a lumberyard on the bay. Bummer.

After checking out Shannon Falls and immediately dismissing the idea of hiking up to the top of the Chief, we had two options: Stay there, study probability (Jeff brought his Actuary study materials) and camp, hoping for a miracle tomorrow... or drive all the way back and find sun for the last day of climbing. Back to the US - Canada had spit us out, wet and disappointed, but psyched to come back someday.

Saturday

I woke up to the SUN shining through the windows at Jeff's place! YES! Although there was plenty still to show me at Leavenworth, Gold Bar was a new area and closer. So excited to climb today!
Gold Bar starts with a solid hike up switchbacks that used to be 4-wheeler trails. We did a bunch of exploring at the Five Star Boulder, a warmup area, Clearcut and Forest areas. It was actually too hot to climb out in the Clearcut area (I got smacked around on a V4 called Water) but the forest was PERFECT! It reminded me a lot of what we saw in Squamish - just less concentrated. Here's a shot of the forest from the Clearcut zone:

I was psyched to flash Doja, a climb whose first move felt like I was climbing "down" before some beautiful moves on slopers to a huge jug. We then went and worked Lighten Up for a while - amazing line. Jeff will bag it the next time he's there.

On our way out, we hit the Five Star Boulder and I got my dose of highball problems with Five Star Arete and the adrenaline-pounding Kombucha. Topping out those problems on little patches of clean rock among a green moss covered face was so much fun. I wish I had video of these last two sends to relive that feeling...

I realized how having a guide show me around was HUGE for making this trip a success. If I just had the guidebook, it could have been rough. Without Jeff's experience and generosity with beta, I know I wouldn't have been able to see such classic lines or climb them as quickly. Jeff rules.

I also noticed how much Jeff climbs like Ryan. Jeff's strong, thick strong and thuggy when he climbs. That's Ryan-style and it's sweet.

Great Trip. Thanks Jeff and Cherish. Thanks Kim, Brandon, Zoey, Ryan and Zac.

The footage:

NorthWest 2010 from Nathanael Hansen on Vimeo.

12 years in the making - The Castle

In the summer of 1998, fresh out of high school, I started work at Camp Firewalker as a climbing instructor (in reality, I was a belay dog for teenage campers all season). Our camp was in a beautiful part of Buffalo Creek, right next to Wellington Lake and a towering rock named The Castle.

Even though I was ruined by bouldering and clipping bolts, I felt the undeniable pull to ascend the long, clean cracks to the summit. But despite my youthful arrogance, I knew I didn’t have the skillset to do it myself. I needed Ryan’s bold style and trad confidence if I had any hope of success.

I told him about it a few times, but we never made the trip – and when he left in 2003, The Castle became just one of many lines that we had to leave unfinished…

Our family has been visiting Camp Firewalker each summer for the past few years, and I’ll look up at The Castle and think about how awesome it would be to finally climb it. I started to petition friends that had the trad skills and after a few seasons of prodding, Glenn Schuler, accepted!

Glenn is the man. Our start happened in 2006 when I emailed him about hearing of bouldering on Mt. Herman. He met me up there and showed me all of the development he’d done. I was impressed, but it only deepened when I found out how much development he’s done in areas like Shelf, Penitente and lately at Thunder. Jackpot!

After researching the routes we heard two things:
1. The approach is horrible
2. The rock is worth it

We originally chose The Throne Room, a 3 pitch 5.10 going up the detached Parapet, after which you rap down to the saddle and climb 5.8 to the summit. But, we heard that there were falcon nesting concerns (we heard & saw them quite a bit) and opted for the Castle Corner, another 3 pitch 5.10 route going up The Castle proper.

We left the Springs early Saturday and made the 2 hour drive out to Wellington Lake where signs like this would normally cause huge heartache:

Fortunately, I called ahead and Nanc’, the legendary Camp Firewalker Director, had the hook-up and left the gate unlocked for us. Glenn didn’t like the idea that we didn’t have the key for the lock and could possibly get locked in – neither did I, but how could that happen? (not foreshadowing here…)

We parked and Glenn went through the racks and picked out what he’d think we’d need. The gear descriptions were pretty inconsistent so we brought up a good chunk of pro. Glenn didn’t bring a helmet, so Ryan’s stayed in the trunk. How could I live with myself if Glenn’s head got bashed in while I was in a helmet? I’d borrowed some larger climbing shoes from Brian Shelton to use instead of my normally tight shoes. I hoped that it would help me last 3 long pitches and a walk-off – I’m still a little scarred from the Steeple Peak descent…

We started off on the well-established trail around the lake and turned toward The Castle after the waterfall slides. Even though we found some cairns and tried to stay south, we got sucked into the Baron’s Estate, a beautiful formation below The Castle, and hit a dead end.

We could either balance up the slab to the left (which had a nasty roof section) or bust up through the chimney. We opted for the chimney and mounted the first block easily, but the 2nd needed a little more attention. We took off our packs and I headed up with the rope for my only lead of the day. Glenn tied off the packs and I pulled them up, somehow wedging the buckle of his pack in a crack and sliding it right off its strap. Luckily it wasn’t broken (only one of Glenn’s beers was damaged in this mini-epic) and we got the heck out of that canyon as fast as we could.

We made it to the base of The Castle before 10, which was OK, considering. Awesome views, beautiful falcons flying overhead and sweeping stone made the thrash-fest worthwhile.

Glenn patiently taught me how to make my first pair of crack gloves – psyched! (I even shaved the back of my hands that morning in preparation… Glenn didn’t laugh too hard…)

Glen also knew how to channel the good mojo before we climbed by busting out the hoagie. We were set!

Pitch 1:

Glenn took off in the bright sun just as a chipmunk was scrambling up and down the route – humbling and cool… The pitch consisted of a fun detached flake (questionable stability in spots) most of the way – with an excellent crux: a big reach from an undercling to a huge jug past the flake. It felt pretty long for me and I was impressed by how Glenn styled it even though he’s a few inches shorter than myself. Glenn’s staring at the move here:

The big surprise on P1 is that there was poison ivy all over the belay ledge - 3 feet above, below and on the ledge itself.

Glenn and I carefully tried to avoid it and letting the rope touch any of it (I think we both made it without any reactions). I was feeling pretty good, stoked that Glenn had lead so well, and confident that my shoes would work for me.

Pitch 2:

This pitch was amazing. Super-long and creative, it followed the dihedral with supplemental cracks to the right. Excellent stemming, jamming and even compression moves. I absolutely felt like I was actually using crack climbing technique as I plugged away, thankful for Glenn’s chalk-marked beta. The gloves gave me confidence and it felt solid. The crux, again, was at the end where I got to do some laybacking through some smaller holds. Awesome.

Pitch 3:

Glenn chose the crack to the right for the last pitch (left looked a bit thinner).

It was kind of awkward position-wise, but P2 had prepared me well to trust my jams. After the first section, the angle eased up for 40 feet and then kicked up to an overhanging offwidth! I carefully used a rotten chockstone in the base of the flaring crack to nicely jam my whole body into the feature. After a long time slapping around for jams and face holds, I finally found a cool fist jam and combined that with a scissoring-chimney-thing with my legs to get over the bulge and into a neighboring crack. How the freak did Glenn do that on lead!?

With Glenn laughing down at me from the summit I finished the final moves and joined him. Did I say Glenn is the man? I am so glad he was there to chauffeur me up this thing! A handshake and some pictures (Throne Room’s plates looked gorgeous from there) and we started to scramble our way down.

We went west into the main summit and worked our way south until we found what looked like the gully that would take us down within 30 feet of our packs. Gloriously, we made it down without incident around 2pm and my feet were not screaming!

We had thrown around the idea of doing another route since we were up there, but felt pretty beat after rehydrating. Avoiding Baron’s Estate we walked down to the south and made it back to the waterfalls in no time (even after picking up a huge heart-shaped piece of quartz).

For 12 years I’ve looked at that rock and now it’s done! I’m stoked about going up to Aaron’s Camp this year and not feeling like I need to be climbing it. I’ve done it, I don’t need to do it again, I’m good. But now that we’ve got a better idea on the approach, Glenn and I both want to get back up and knock out the Throne Room. Gotta love the South Platte!

Ute Pass - Bobba Fett Arete

Always willing to share projects, Hayden, Nick, Byron & Chris introduced me to some new lines at Ute Pass. After some scary falls and broken holds, friction was good, and I was lucky enough to get the FA of Bobba Fett Arete. There's a HARD looking SDS that will be the next step for this beautiful line.

I've got to cherish these moments where somehow I squeeze out the first send...
(I try not to think about how everyone else was already burnt out or bleeding too much to try when I was still fresh...)

Thanks for the psych and to Hayden for snapping some pics!



http://iclimbrocks.blogspot.com/2010/01/bobba-fett-arete.html

New Years Day Rock

The appropriate way to start every new year is to immediately climb on some excellent rock.
Codi, Thor, Ben, Duncan and I found Ed Rock's southern-exposed, short limestone climbs just right.

Codi has been having some fun in Photography 3 this year:

Penitente

I was fortunate to spend my 30th birthday climbing the short, but sweet routes of Penitente Canyon with Codi. Joe's Valley was the original plan, but so was getting a huge crew together... The weather was excellent and I soaked in the special feeling of the area. The pictures suck, but at least they remind me of what the real thing looks like!

A great birthday sunrise in Penrose, can you make out the huge rocking chair? We wanted to get some bouldering shots on it, but came back late Saturday.

Cool huecos on the trail across from the Virgin Wall

Double-take walking past this... German cactus...

Sangre de Cristo Range

Iconic Penitente

We spotted this see-through hueco high up, across from the Virgin Wall, as we were leaving the Canyon Saturday and fortunately found it before it got completely dark.

The list:

Mr. Breeze - Codi needed to see a 5.2 in real-life
Mr. Wind – At least 3 times harder than Mr. Breeze
Captain America – Superb! Fantastic huecos with maybe some slight overhang!
Los Hermanos De La Weenie Way – Classic Classic Classic
Ordinary People – More slab fun
Children of a Lesser Grade – Less slab fun, but cool how it zig-zagged up the pods
Jewel of the Mild – Best of the three slabs on the wall

Yah-Ta-Hei – Tough route finding for me, but excellent crimps
Lovesnake – Only a few stemming moves – good one to scare Codi away from trying Not My Cross to Bear
Tanks for the Hueco – The lower section was dripping wet, but I was determined. Those holds are amazing!
Bullet the Blue Sky – Can you say worked? I nailed the dyno and stood up on the ledge, then got spanked until the good holds about 3-4 bolts above…
Candy Apple Grey– Last climb. Devious pod on the headwall sucks, but cool edges. (thought this was Glenn's Brown Sugar...)
Brown Sugar – Last last climb. Very good. Awesome pockets to finish up.
Sheer Strength– Last last last climb. I'd been eyeing this line since we first got in the Canyon since it's so striking and different than the other routes. Adrenaline, baby! What a fantastic line!

4th Semiannual General Climbing Conference, October 2009

I'm trying to encourage a tradition of having a bouldering session at Mt. Herman between the last Saturday session and the Priesthood session of General Conference (a semiannual world conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where we watch/listen to instruction from the church leaders). This doesn't just apply to the Mormon crowd - anyone can come to the session after climbing.

This conference, it was just Codi and I - and with Codi's back hurting, we just spent some time on a sweet line I'd climbed with Glenn and wanted to get some media. Here's the rough video of the problem. See you all next April!

San Antonio September

I was able to head down to San Antonio for work last week, getting in a few limestone sessions with some good friends. Joe is the "special child" on the right...




Joe is always hard at work finding new areas and developing relationships with landowners and climbers. Now Joe is one of those landowners with a sweet bluff on his property! I spent the week straining to get out of work early enough to spend time on his established and projected lines.

I've been really obedient so far on not posting anything from the area, at Joe's wise request - but I will say that it is AMAZING and has tons of potential. I can't wait to go back

Hoagies In Heaven

After our great friend, Ryan Sayers, died in 2003 we (Jeff Russell, Dan Russell, Brian Shelton and I) put together a list of the top three climbs that Ryan was working at the time and super-close to sending. Of course, all were unclimbed, hard and beautiful - and local. Ryan definitely poured his passion to the areas we had climbed for years and still found new challenges. The list was dubbed "The Hoagie Trifecta" and it was our job to send these routes/problems in Ryan's name.

The Hoagie Trifecta - in order of FA:
- An extension to Electric Kite in Castlewood Canyon. It climbs through amazing pods in a Ceuse-esque, perfectly overhanging wall, to a tall topout. Jeff sent this pretty quickly and named it Hoagies in Heaven (2003-2004?).
- The sit start to Commando in Ute Pass. After doing Commando with Dan, a single move, awesome dyno, Ryan and I went back and moved some serious rock to expose the gorgeous lower moves. The crux was getting between some slopey crimps up to the excellent incut seam and Ryan was almost latching it. Unfortunately, this problem succumbed to David Marquess, a super-strong local, who renamed it Green Lantern (2005?).
- Free climbing The Inferno, an old aid route at the Garden of the Gods. I wasn't as psyched on this one when the rest of the guys were working it because it involved a huge, low-percentage throw and some committing moves on lead. It wasn't until some local talent started showing interest in the line that I knew I had to give it a shot before it fell to another outside of our crew. So with motivation and rope-gunning from Brian and Jerad Friedrichs, I shockingly, made it to the top for the FFA, Ryan's Inferno (2008).

Now that they've all been climbed, it is simply a matter of repeats.

Last Monday (9/7/09) was a good day for the Hoagie Trifecta. A most triumphant day. Two carloads of family and friends (Kim, Brandon, Zoey, Ryan, Codi, Papa, Shailee, Simree, Trevor, Summer & I) rolled into Castlewood to do some toproping and playing in the creek. As the day neared an end, they all followed me up the steep and overgrown trail to the Electric Kite boulder. There were cactus encounters, big falls and a few tears, but everyone made it. At the boulder, mosquitoes were wailing on anyone that didn't have the smallest diameter dipped in DEET, but I had three pads and some chick power. I had planned ahead, since the last time I worked the problem it was overgrown and dirty, and brought some gear to rap down to clean up the line. (For some reason, whenever I think about this line, I see blue streaks through the pods, but they’re white every time…) I had failed on earlier sessions to use a toe-cam when matching in the main pod - but Jeff had reminded me that they'd dispatched that old beta a long time ago, and I needed to use some of the tiny feet under the pod. Those feet suck, and I quickly realized that if it was going to happen I'd have to campus through that section. After a few shots from the start, I worked the moves after the pod and was stoked to find out that I could stick the crimp without feet - now if I could only link it...

Here's the play-by-play:
Start right hand in a perfect 2-finger pocket about chest-high and left hand in a sloped pod at head-height. Low left foot and flagged right. Pull on and go to a funky crimp/pocket pinch with the left. Now spot the large pod and throw right to it, it's big. I ended up tacking a right toe far out right on a pocket in order to match in the pod, crossed with my left hand. Tighten up and cross the feet to the left and try to get something on before going right to the crimper - campus, otherwise. Adjust that left hand to a sidepull. Feet have a better shot of staying on as you continue bumping right - first to the sloper, and then again to the lip of the monster pod. I barely had the distance, but got solid as I matched and Kim’s Dad and Codi moved the pads back. I remember thinking about how tired I was already and how much I wanted to chalk up (could I wait here long enough for someone to pass me the chalk bag?) but I pushed the doubts aside and looked at how far away the next ledge looked... Dang that's far. I started moving up the huge pod and barely remembered to get my right foot up high to keep me on - and stabbed for a spot on the next ledge nowhere near my tick marks. Fortunately, at that angle, the whole ledge felt good and I could bring my right hand up to the better spot - then get my left in the sweet spot. The rest went really fast - I'd hoped this would happen after I looked at the final holds beforehand. Right hand cross to a nice pocket, left cross above to an even better pocket, right hand out to a fragile-looking edge, bring that right foot up to the ledge and lock off. Lots of good options in the upper seam, but stretch for the best.... GOT IT! I let out a yelp and pulled up with another of the sweet sweet jugs. I knew I was good for the last few moves out right and I was on top - where Zoey was waiting with Simree across the ridge to show me her sap-sticky hands. Ryan sent some gentle sprinkles of rain in approval after I got down and I reflected on how thuggy and Ryan-like my ascent was - must have had a little help from an old friend....

So now, I've got a singular objective, Commando Sit. With Fall and Winter coming, it might be soon!?
And now Jeff's got some motivation to come back to the Springs to tie up the score...

Instant Psych

Watching Chris Sharma climb always gets me psyched to get out and squeeze some juice out of the rocks. It must be that it was the Age of Sharma when I started climbing that cemented his place in my Pantheon of Power Pullers... oh wait, it's been the Age of Sharma for like 13+ years now! That, in itself, is amazing - that he is still at the top of the game and pushing standards everywhere.

Watch this video of Chris working on a recently sent 15a, and if it doesn't make your palms sweat, then you need to sell your shoes and get on with your sad little life.

http://www.bigupproductions.com/#/vidplayer/Pachamama/

Josh Lowell w/ Big UP still puts together the best quality footage out there...

Mt. Evans Unveiled

It's Saturday morning and my alarm goes off at 4:30AM for the second week in a row...

What am I doing? Groggily, I remember that to satisfy the crucial drive/climb time ratio, Nick Murray and I need to leave at 5AM in order to get in enough climbing time to make it worth the trip, since I need to be home by 6PM.

We made excellent time to Idaho Springs and the hike went down faster than expected and we found ourselves rock hopping at Area A by 8AM.

This was my first time to Mt. Evans and I was impressed by the beauty of my surroundings - a clear mountain stream, deep green plant life, mountain goats styling it on high slabs, and of course, gorgeous blocks as far as the eye can see.

The sun still hadn't made its way to us, so the temps were nicely brisk and we warmed up on the classic Ladder problem. Then we played a bit on the lines to the right (Zorro section?) and worked a little bit harder on the far right arete than we would've liked for a warmup. Nick styled a sweet mantle for the final move off quartz sloping crimps. I resorted to an all-out-throw-to-the-lip finish just as the sun was starting to bake the slopers. Only now did we start to have visitors show up...

Then it was on to Bierstadt. One of Nick's friends gave us his beta to this problem that looks like it could have many different methods. We set to work and it seems pretty solid. The rock is much more coarse than what we were on a week ago in RMNP. It made for forgiveness on more desperate moves, but punished the skin for not being precise. I had a moment of clarity and fell going for the last hold below the lip - So close! All subsequent attempts only resulted in heartache, so we moved on. I'd love to come back and send this problem.

Nick and I headed up to the Dali Wall, passing by All Dogs Go To Evans, Silverback and other sweet lines that I'd only heard about before this trip. Above Dali, we also saw The Big Worm. Impressive.

We started to work on Dali, cursing the awkward and devious low starting moves, but eventually figuring them out and getting them smooth. I wasn't able to stick the left-handed gaston the entire time, but Nick was so close to sending. Instead of being bummed about the whole line, I did the dyno and topout, which was perfect. I "warmed down" (with way too much effort) on the lines above Dali: a cool face climb, an arete line, and a crimp-sidepulls to a ledge problem. I was beat and it was time to go.

We hiked out without issue and I even made it home on time. It's results like this that will tell my amazing wife that I can do this stuff again!

Alas, I have no media to remember the trip by... wait... I think I have a clip of Nick on Dali, but it'll have to wait to be compiled with more "close calls."

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.

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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

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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.

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Wet sucks.

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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...