Vacation

The last workout before a 2 week Christmas vacation to see family and friends. Then its back to full time training in the new year and preparation for 2 AMGA courses.

Early Winter

I have been busy the last few weeks climbing ice, skiing, and still training hard at the Alpine Training Center. Finally, after a spell of frigid weather here in the Front Range, things have finally heated up back to reasonable temperatures. With the cold temps we were able to sneak in an ascent of Jaws in Fern Canyon in RMNP. This route is most likely melted out by this time but we got it when we could. Skiing has left something to be desired. Not much coverage this time of year but I have still been able to get in some turns. Ill be leaving on Saturday for the holidays which will include a trip to New Mexico and South Florida. Its been a while since I have been somewhere tropical which is a welcomed change to the winds here in Rocky!

Indian Creek Turkey Fry

Once again, I will be headed to the desert Southwest to climb more endless splitter cracks. I have been on a slight hiatus the past few years of traveling to climb for the Thanksgiving week. Unlike years past, I will be headed to Indian Creek for the 2009 holiday week. This year we will be frying a turkey in this sandy landscape. I look forward to spending turkey day with friends in an amazing climbing venue while endulging in fried turkey and all the fixings!

Sandstone Valhalla

The Desert Soutwest is one of the most unique place in the world and maybe my favorite place that I have ventured to yet. It features seemingly endless parallel sided "splitter" cracks. In the coming weeks I will be leaving the Colorado Front Range for an extended trip to this majestic destination. My first stop will be in Colorado National Monument to climb some of its testpiece tower routes such as Medicine Man and Get a Life. Following my 2 days spent in "The Monument" my travels will take me to the world class cragging area Indian Creek, Utah. Here I plan to spend at least a week getting "honed" again on the off-size testpiece splitters littered throughout. I have to be in Moab for 2 days of AMGA Instructor Pool training, then back to the Creek for some more training. Finally, I will end the road trip in Zion, one of the premier big wall venues in the US. There are a few routes here that I have had previous failures on that I hope to rectify this year. Three months of dedicated training should prepare me for some of the free climbing challenges that Zion boasts. Rocktober..........its time to send!!

(The picture above is the ultra-classic Castleton North Face)

Alexanders Chimney

With the new snow falling and freezing temps in Rocky Mountain National Park, many of the classic early season alpine routes are now forming. Last week, Mitch Musci and I went into the Longs Meeker Cirque to climb the ice and mixed classic, Alexanders Chimney. The climbing was characterized by sections of steep snow, thin ice, and lots of rock climbing. We found conditions to be fairly lean as most of the ice was rotten and detached. Although lean, the climbing was good for the most part. We encountered hardly any ice on the crux chockstone pitch, negotiating it with difficult dry-tooling. We rapped from there as there was virtually no ice remaining on the route and it was late in the afternoon. Our late start found us hiking out in the dark for the last half mile below tree line. The ice is in in the high country. Look for conditions to improve but avalanche danger to increase in the coming days/week.

Pear Buttress

Tuesday, Maria and I, climbed the Lumpy Ridge classic "Pear Buttress."  Pear Buttress is a 5 pitch rock route on The Book formation.  The climbing is characterized by bullet granite crack climbing linked by featureless slabs. 

 This not be missed classic begins with a 5.7R slab gaining a right facing corner that rewards the climber with a long stretch of hands.  This crux pitch is finished with a section of straight in finger crack and ends at a nice belay niche.  A wandering 5.5 pitch lands you on a deluxe ledge below a beautiful finger and hand crack.

After firing up the laser cut splitter a belay can be reached in a crystalline recess where you can revel in the beauty of your second sending!  The following pitch involves some wandering on slabs and some good loose rock avoidance that lands you on a sandy belay below the upper headwall.   There are a number of exit options once you reach this point.  Maria and I opted for the Hurley Traverse avoiding the less enjoyable "Cave Exit"  

We descended east and back to our packs by 2:00pm, both on high after ascending another Lumpy gem!

Hallets: Better Than Love

Last week, myself, Mark, and Kate went to Hallets Peak in RMNP to climb the Culp-Bossier.  The "Culp," is a classic 8 pitch alpine rock climb on the steep north face of Hallets Peak.  It is characterized by steep runout face climbing and difficult route finding.  

We started our day with 3:30am meet time at the Colorado Mountain School office here in Estes Park.  We drove to the bear lake trailhead and were out of the car hiking by nearly 4:00am.  The approximate 2.5 mile approach to Hallets is short by RMNP standards as its one of the most accessible peaks in the park.  We made short work of the approach thanks to the fitness of Mark and Kate, arriving at the base of our intended route by about 6:00am.  Unfortunately there was already another party on the climb as well as two other folks just starting up.  We made the decision to wait it out to see how well the other teams were moving before starting.  After 45 minutes of waiting without much progress by the parties ahead of us, we changed plans to climb the nearby Better Than Love to Love linkup.

This route is a hybrid of the Love Route and the Better Than Love Route as it combines the best pitches of the two into one classic tour of Hallets.  We started up the first "approach" pitch to the base of the classic 5.9 dihedral of Better Than Love slightly before 7:00am.  We all cruised up to the belay and realized that it was much colder in the shade than in the sun.  The following pitch was a classic dihedral of mostly hands with a couple of roofs and thin face climbing.  This was a rope stretcher 60m pitch that was slightly wet in spots and landed us just below where Better Than Love meets the Love Route.  

We then had a wandering pitch through some loose blocky terrain with some short 5.6 sections to a large ledge where the upper headwall loomed above.  Another rope stretcher pitch brought us to a semi-hanging belay stance around 10am.  As we all gathered at the belay happy to be in the sun, I was elated looking at the steep face above.

I set off on the continuously steep face linking together small seems and cracks while attempting to manuever around the running water from above.  "This stone was perfect," I thought, as I made my way up the face smearing my feet on wet holds and pinching the damp alpine Gniess.  "This was one of the better alpine pitches I had climbed," I thought to myself as I arrived at the belay after yet another full 60m pitch.  When Mark and Kate arrived at the belay they undoubtedly agreed with my sentiments.  Kate exclaimed that "That was the best pitch I have climbed anywhere!"  I could tell by the smile on Marks face that he concurred.

Another pitch of 5.9 and a short 5.6 pitch found us at the summit at 11:20am.  As I began to coil the rope I glanced above us and saw that the party that was ahead of us on the Culp-Bossier was just topping out.  We had passed them in a party of 3.  I was glad that we decided to climb an alternate route.

The 3 of us made our way down the scree field to the start of the rappels that began the descent.  We made haste down the rappels and down the 3rd class descent gully back to the base of the peak.  We returned to our packs around 1:45 and had a bite to eat and rehydrated before the hike out.

We were all psyched to have climbed such a great route and be back to the car before the afternoon thunderstorms.  It was another fantastic day out in the mountains with new friends!

The Petit Grepon

On wednesday July 22, Jeremy and I climbed the Petit Grepon.  The Petit is a classic 8-pitch alpine rock climb that towers above Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I began my day at 2:45am from the Glacier Gorge parking lot.  Jeremy had bivied the night before and I was set to meet him at Sky Pond around 5am.  With my Ipod cranked, I quickly hustled out of the parking lot and onto the trail.  The morning air was cool making for great hiking temperatures.  I traveled at a quick pace reaching the Glacier Gorge/Loch Vale junction in a little over 30 minutes.  By this time my Ipod ran out of battery power so I was left to hike in the early morning silence.  By the time I reached the Lake of Glass, I was about an hour early so I layed down for a quick nap.  After some quick shut-eye I finished the approach and met up with Jeremy at his bivy site right at 5am.  We greeted each other then began our final approach to the base of the climbing.  When we reached the base, Jeremy realized he had forgotten his chalk bag and would have to climb without the use of a hand drying agent.  The first few pitches went quickly reaching the belay just below the 5.8 finger crack a bit after 7am.  Both of us cruised through the crux which awarded us with a large belay ledge and the brilliant last pitches of the upper headwall.  We blazed the last pitches of the route and savored the exposure on pitch 6's "Pizza Pan Belay."  By 9:45am we were both standing of the summit powering up with some slices of pizza and trail mix preparing ourselves for the rappels.  Five rappels later landed us back on the scree field where water and our packs awaited.  Climbing and descent time combined was around 5 1/2 hours as we pulled our ropes from the last rappel around 11:30am.  We then ate a bit more food and I drank my ever present "alpine Redbull" and we proceeded to hike out back to the cars .  We reached the trailhead at about 1:30pm feeling fortunate to have had such a great experience in the mountains once again! 

Petit Grepon

On wednesday I will be heading into the Sky Pond Cirque in Rocky Mountain National Park to guide one guest up the Petit Grepon.  The Petit has been named to Steck and Ropers Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, and rightfully so given its spectacular summit pedestal.  The 8 pitches of climbing are mostly moderate with the crux 4th pitch receiving a 5.8 rating.  

North Face of Longs Peak

On July 1, Russell Hunter and I guided a group of 4 guests up the North Face of Longs Peak (14,256ft).  We left the trailhead at 1am and made quick time of the approach, reaching the Boulderfield at around 6am.  We then headed up the initial snowfield to the base of the crux pitch.  We encountered wet rock climbing to start, followed by a section of hollowed ice and finally some moderate snow.  There had been enough melting to leave a few of the old eye bolts exposed for great belay anchors.  We traversed across the upper snowfield and back into rocks where the summit was just a few hundred feet away.  There was a euphoric feeling amongst my group as we summitted just after 9am.  We rested and ate on the summit before beginning our descent at around 10am.  After an exhausting day we reached the trailhead just before 430pm and grinning ear to ear.