The List

"To create better photos, you need to become a better person"

"Stillness of hand cannot make up for emptiness of heart"

Both profound quotes by Rodney Smith

Myself

Blog

Enigmatic Rant

COLORADO TRIP

March 29, 2009 - 10:25 AM

We recently took a trip to Estes Park, Colorado, to see Amos and Molly. We climbed a lot and lost a lot of skin through the week, drank a lot of cheap beer and expensive Scotch, and saw some more amazing stone and views. The week is kind of a blur now.

The clan

One of the main reasons we went was to see if it will work to have a branch of my business out there, and it looks like it will! Woop! I am so stoked to have work in a place that I love. We met with some people who are interested in our work, so we're going back out in June! Anyway, on to the important stuff...

The first day we went bouldering at a place called Big Elk Meadows, specifically the "Dragons Den" area. We worked on several boulders in the area. Amos finally ticked a V4/5 problem that he'd been working for awhile called the "Dragon Fire Arete". I worked it for several goes, but couldn't quite finish.

Amos on his send of "Dragon Fire Arete" V4/5

Isaac on a V1 called "Whiner"

The next day we went out to a new slabby area to us called "Ravens Roost" for some roped climbing. I'm finding that slab climbing isn't my forte, though it is still fun and challenging. Kari and Isaac both love it. For those who don't know-slab climbing is climbing past vert. Imagine climbing on a very steep roof of a house. It sounds like it would be easier to climb this type than the other way, but the things you are trusting your hands and feet on are about the size of a pencil eraser, and are very sharp. It tends to make you think hard about your hand and foot placement. Still very fun.

Another day we went to the Jurassic Park area above Lily Lake for some more roped climbs. We did a few there that were also slab routes.

Kari on a route that wasn't in the book, but probably a 5:8-9

The next day, we kinda took it easy for the morning and then Amos and I decided to go to Big Elk Meadows looking for new rock. We found some boulders up the hill and across the street from where we had been before. We quickly realized that we didn't bring food or water and, after working some projects for awhile, decided to head back.

We had planned on seeing a new bouldering flick called "Pure" in Boulder on Friday, but we had our dates mixed up. We spent the day there at some shops and just kinda had a rest day.

The next day Brent, a friend of ours, came to climb with all of us and we decided to go back to Big Elk Meadows to a place called the Sanctuary. This was the high point of the trip for me because there were so many problems concentrated in one area and they were all good quality. We worked on several of them and had some success. The pictures that follow are all at the Sanctuary.

Warming up

This was a problem that took us a while to figure out. The sequence was hard to get and by the time we got it, we were too tired to go further on it.

This problem was a V5 in the book that Amos and I both sent. He said it was graded soft, but he's full of it. He's probably right, the next one we tried was a V4 and none of us got it, but whatever. The book says V5. I'm satisfied with that.