Colorado

My last day finally showed up on Sunday. There was (surprise) a chance of rain and by this point I was sick of driving 45+ minutes then hiking an hour only to get rained out. So I decided to go to the Millennium boulder which is just 20 minutes outside of Denver. It is located near Red Rocks off I-70. I hiked out there by myself and luckily there was a crew of people already there. After warming up I sent Ghost Dance V7 which is a rather sharp pocket problem, like most on the boulder. Next up I started working on Purity Control V10. This is a simple yet difficult line consisting of two hard and precise moves on pockets. I stuck the first move on my second attempt but the next move was even more challenging. I was throwing for an edge but I was moving so far that it was hard to latch. Since it was now the afternoon, some dark clouds started to roll in over the hillside and it looked as though the rain was about to begin (surprise). I switched up my beta for the second move and after several more frustrating attempts I was able to latch the hold and proceed to the easy topout. After the send I hiked up the hill to Bambi V12 but my skin was totally shot so I didn’t put much effort into it. The video of Purity will be up shortly.

My Colorado trip finally came to a close and I couldn’t wait to get back home. This is the first time I’ve actually wanted to leave a climbing trip! Colorado just didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. I can’t say that you won’t have a good time in Colorado but I can say that if you have a week or less then I would choose one of many other bouldering destinations before going to Colorado. The hiking plus the weather plus the lack of concentration makes for a less predictable trip than most other destinations. I’m sure I will eventually return and have a good day in Colorado, it just didn’t happen this time.

Friday was a largely uneventful rest day. I toured around Denver with Roman and got depressed looking at the weather forecast for the weekend. Projections for Saturday were rain in the morning followed with thunderstorms in the afternoon and a high of 47 at the base of the mountains. Syked!!

I started Saturday morning by looking our the window at the menacing clouds in Denver. If it looks bad in Denver then it tends to be even worse in the mountains. I checked the forecast again and it didn’t appear to be raining yet and I didn’t have anything better to do so I drove out to Mt Evans to try to finish Clear Blue Skies (irony, oh so funny). Luckily Nate and John were crazy enough for some Mt Evans adventure so they met me up there. The first photo is the view when we started hiking. The boulders are near the center of the picture where the clouds are.

Mt Evans

As I started to warm up at the first area it started to lightly snow. By the time I got to the Dali wall a few minutes later the flakes had grown in size and were falling in large quantities. After some waiting and more warming up, the snow had transformed into mist. 30 minutes later it looked like there was a slight chance of the skies clearing. With some new hope I finished warming up and began working Clear Blue again. Despite 100% humidity and a soaked topout I managed to get to the last move a few more times but by the time I got there my fingers were numb from the cold conditions. After 10 minutes of clearing skies, it started to mist again. I began to lose all psych for climbing at all. This was a first for me on a climbing trip. An entirely unwelcome feeling.

We left the Dali wall and stopped at a V7 or 8 crack climb called Seurat. It stopped raining long enough for me to send. Nate worked on Silverback for a bit and then it started raining again so we went down to a steep climb called Bierstadt. I didn’t hop on it since the topout was soaked but John worked out some moves. While we were there it started hailing what looking like pieces of chalk. Then 30 minutes later visibility dropped to 25 yards and it started snowing again, only this time it started to stick to the ground. We hiked out in a full on snow storm and it felt about 35 degrees.

Low Visibility

Snowy Trees

Snow

Back to Mt Evans it was. After waiting for Al ‘lazy-start’ Lew to prepare himself for the drive, we left Denver at 11AM. The hike was beautiful again and only a couple drops were felt from the sky. We warmed up in the first area and I put a little effort into Bierstad but wasn’t super psyched to keep working it so we made our way to the Dali wall. I was most psyched for No More Greener but after a few attempts, the right hand pinch was started to rip my tips apart. A salt lake climber by the name of Amy was there putting some solid work into Clear Blue Skies. She had done all the moves and was trying to put it together. She got me psyched to give the line some more effort. It took me some tries to do the second move and then I did all the moves in isolation. I was feeling pretty strong for the first time this week and managed to pull through the first three moves to find myself at the last move, a dyno to a good crimp. I lunged but didn’t have the distance to latch the hold! After a long rest I arrived at the same spot on this simple yet difficult crimp line, falling with my fingertips on the last hold! By this point I was bleeding from two fingertips and was feeling a little gassed so I decided to give up on the Dali wall for the day. We hiked out to Gorillas in the Mist only to watch Al give it two attempts before deciding it wasn’t going to go that day. The light was fading so we decided to begin our journey out of Evans.
I am really psyched to get back on Clear Blue Skies but tomorrow will need to be a rest day since I feel exhausted from all the hiking and climbing!

Today, wednesday, started with a 7AM drive from Estes Park to the Denver airport to drop my family off. Then I met up with Roman in town and we headed out for Mt Evans. We started the hike around 11AM and probably made it to the boulders around noon. It’s a long hike for sure but felt easier than the hike into the park. Fewer tourists helps, as does even better scenery at Evans. The boulders are situated at the base of a cliff in a cozy forest. We wandered through the boulders and made our way up to the infamous Dali wall. It is as impressive as everyone says. Line after hard line of crimps & slopers. We climbed the only warm up on the wall four times and then started on the Dali. I botched my flash attempt by trying to dyno with the wrong hand.. After working out the dyno, I sent on my next try.

Then the rain started… It was slow at first so I gave Clear Blue Skies V12 two weak efforts and spent a little time on No More Greener Grasses V12. Then the wind picked up enough to dampen the overhanging wall and we were forced to call it a day. Frequently the rain will blow over but today there were no clear skies in sight.

So far Colorado has been rather inhospitable. Evans is on the agenda again for tomorrow so hopefully the climbing to hiking ratio will be a little more favorable!

Day 2 was a rest day/look at elk day but Day 3 was surprisingly productive. I dragged my sister, her husband, and their six month old boy up to Emerald Lake in RMNP. We started hiking at 9:15. It took us awhile to get up there and I had very little info about the bouldering so I was skeptical about finding the boulders. But luck was on my side today as we stumbled upon the main bouldering area of Emerald Lake. I didn’t know what anything was but I climbed a lot of cool warm ups and moderates. Anna and Nathan had to head out around 11:30 since Emmett was getting grumpy. I later discovered the Whispers boulder and the Kind boulder just a bit further down the hill. I was climbing solo all day with one pad so that kept things interesting. Especially climbing a line on the backside of the whispers boulder (35+ ft). I onsighted most problems today but I didn’t climb anything harder than V6 or V7. I climbed the Kind three times since it was fun and I didn’t have much else to do. I worked on Whispers of Wisdom but with one pad it was a lost cause.

I’m looking forward to some Mt Evans action with my friend Roman tomorrow!

Here are some shots from the hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Got Elk?

Talking Elk

Mr Elk

Dream Lake

Dream Lake

Dream Lake

Deer chilling in the front yard

Well day 1 was a total bust. I did WAY more hiking than climbing, and the climbing was more like flailing.
We started on some cool warm ups in lower chaos. The Gobot looks really cool but the landing looks really bad so I didn’t get on it. Then we hiked up the hill to Sunspot which looked really cool but I failed to work out much beta and wasn’t feeling too strong on it. Next we hit up the Dead Raccoon boulder which wasn’t too appealing. I almost flashed a 7/8 but botched it and didn’t feel like spending any more effort on it. I wasn’t super psyched to begin with and then it started raining.. Luckily it cleared up for a little more climbing at the end of the day. We hiked up to the Green 45 wall where Wildcat and Jade are. I played around on Wildcat some but I only had one pad so couldn’t accomplish much.. Then it was dark so we hiked out in the blackness.

I saw a few cool lines but the hike doesn’t get me excited to project anything here. I guess I am lazy.

Now I am chilling in Estes Park with the fam, watching the rain come down. Tomorrow I’m dragging my sister and company to Emerald Lake to try out some more bouldering. Luckily an early start is a given since there’s a baby on board.

I fly into Denver tomorrow night and we’re going to hit up RMNP on Saturday! After that I’ll be hanging out with family in Estes Park for a few days and I’ll start climbing again on Wednesday. Syked!

And in other sports news, I want to send a big thank you out to Anthony for driving his kart into mine at 20mph last night! I’ve got fat bruises on my knee and hip that don’t feel so hot. Hoping my leg will heal up by Saturday for the hour long hikes to reach the boulders!!