First Days in Colorado

The drive was quicker than expected. I was originally planning on a 3-day trip from Maryland to Colorado, but once I start driving I find it hard to stop. The first day was a 17-hour epic all the way to the western edge of Missouri. I was hoping to make it there in a little less time, but a flat tire somewhere in Illinois slowed things down. Day two was a shorter 12-hour journey, but it felt longer because I knew I was almost at my destination. Within 5 minutes of entering Golden I was already tossing a Frisbee and slacklining with my good friends Terry and Jacy, who have been letting me crash on their floor for the past few days.

Pat's Arete

That evening we immediately made plans to go bouldering at Mt. Evans the next day. Mt. Evans is an AMAZING alpine bouldering area that sits around 12,000ft surrounding 14,264ft summit of Mt. Evans. On the hike in to Area A, we encountered some thunderstorms and almost turned back. Fortunately we decided to hide under a boulder to see if the storm was going to stick around or just pass by, you never really know with the weather at that elevation. After about 30min though, the rain passed and we had fairly clear skies for the rest of the day.  I was able to make some quick ascents of a lot of great problems like Ludders Pinch (V7), Pat’s Arete (V7), The Dali (V8), and Bierstadt (V9/10). I was also able to start working on a problem that I have dreamed of climbing for almost 10 years, No More Greener Grasses (V12). I remember seeing pictures and videos of this problem when it was first finished in 2004. The line follows bad crimps up a 40 degree wall covered in green and black lichen. Unfortunately my trip to Moab might keep me off the boulder until next summer, since the boulder could be completely snowed in by the time I get back in October. I’m a little but happy about that though, because I’m going to need this next year to develop some more finger strength to be able to pull off a send in a timely manner.

Bierstadt

After a rest day and a tour of the Earth Treks Golden construction site we were back at it. This time Caleb was able to come down from Fort Collins to come boulder with Terry and I in Boulder Canyon. We went to the Castle Rock boulder, which is right off of the road. I couldn’t believe how good the rock was. We started on a super classic V5 called Standard Bulge. This might be one of my favorite boulders for the grade anywhere. Terry did a cool variation of the problem by trending right under the bulge with a cool sequence of smears and side pulls. I was able to onsight The Citadel (V8) just to the right of Standard Bulge and then we all took turns hucking ourselves at the V10 dyno of Cage Free. I  got close to doing Cage Free which is surprising because I  typically don’t do well with dynos. Unfortunately it promptly started thunder storming, but this time it didn’t let up, so we jumped in the van and headed back to Golden for a brutal session on Terry’s recently completed home wall.

Terry on the Standard Bulge var.

Caleb on Standard Bulge

Now I am super tired and sore and I’ll probably just lay around, work on the climbing team curriculum, and slackline all day. Ben has some things to take care of in town and then we are leaving for Mill Creek tomorrow morning!