Author Archives: Kate

In which, Kate discovers that she prefers straight-forward brutish climbs. The photos from the day are in the gallery.

On Saturday, we picked up Doug and Liz, and then met up with Dylan and Ann and Sean at Dyl-Ann’s sweet campsite in Upper Blair. The morning was warm and comfortable on the Front Range, but we stepped out of the car into a brisk and chilly wind, with clouds blowing by overhead at an incredible speed. Dylan and Ann acted as our guides that day, and led us through the beautiful quiet woods of their newly adopted neighborhood.

Baobob Tree (5.8) – Mark led up this climb, with the anticipation of a fantastic handcrack at the top of the climb. The flakes at the bottom were interesting, and the traverse below the crack was awkward and a grunt. He did seriously enjoy the handcrack, but discovered he was out of fist-sized cams with about 30ft to go! Mark, the superhero, ran it out, and finished a fantastic lead. I cleaned it, and had a horrible time with that icky traverse. I was angry at that one silly section that I feel tainted an otherwise very nice climb. Doug and Liz then climbed the route on TR as well, and both did a better job on the flakes and traverses than I did. Though, Doug did lay-back the whole top of the crack!

Becker (5.7) – After a nice lunch break in the sun, we hiked as a group to the chilly north face of Long John’s Tower. Doug, Liz and Sean took one look at the dark clouds and fat cracks and decided they’d have more fun at the sport crag down the road. We were sad to see them go, but totally understood. Mark led up Becker as well, and had a good time jamming the two parallel cracks. I also really enjoyed this climb, though I fell twice in the middle when my ultra-focused brain didn’t grasp at the fact that I needed to move my jams from the crack that was becoming shallow to the one that was becoming good.

Big House (5.8+) – Dylan led up this one with out a problem at all. He always makes everything look so easy! Ann pulled through the crux with a primal power surge and scream that I wish I had the ability to call on. By the time I wandered over to use their top rope, my hands were feeling raw, and my shoulders and arms were week with fatigue. I really enjoyed the stems and flakes in the bottom half of the climb, but one attempt at the crux moves was all I needed to call it a day. Mark fell once in the crux, but pulled through and finished the climb. He agreed that the section was very difficult, and was very impressed with Dylan’s lead.

I felt rather bummed and tired on our hike out that afternoon. I’m so used to being able to hike back to camp after a day of climbing like this, hang out and laugh with friends, relax, and then have another day of climbing to look forward to. But Liv was at home waiting for us to let her out, so we had to throw everything in the car and leave Dylan and Ann to enjoy the Blair woods alone that evening.

More photos from the day are up in the gallery.

On my parents last day of their road trip, they ended up in Colorado Springs. Mark and I weren’t able to meet them for camping on Friday night because of Liv’s injury, but I drove down to the Springs on Saturday morning to meet up with them for the day. We had reservations on the 10:40 cog train to the summit of Pikes Peak!

Mom was a little nervous, as was I. Mark and I took this train two years ago, and I remembered it being VERY steep. But on Saturday, it wasn’t bad. The trip went quickly, the views were beautiful, and the whole family had a great time.

The summit wasn’t as cold as the last time Mark and I were up there, but the views were still great. TJ and I got Pikes Peak Summit doughnuts and macaroni and cheese! We hung out, shopped and took pictures for our allotted 45 minutes, and then it was back on the train down. The family had a great day, and lots of fun on this little adventure. We then hopped in the cars and headed home to the Fort!!

Last Thursday, Liv went to work with Mark as usual. Mark works out near the local commuter airport, and sometimes he lets Liv run a bit in the afternoons. On Thursday, though, Liv came back with a serious gash across the back of her left rear leg. Mark wrapped up the wound quickly and drove her straight to our vet. That’s where we got the bad news that not only had she opened up a huge part of her back leg, but she also sliced through two of the tendons on the back of her leg. Without surgery, she’d loose the use of two of her toes. Her feet are very high-stepped, and being flat-footed for the rest of her life would just be terrible. So, we sprung for the surgery.

On Friday, Liv went under the knife. The surgery went great, and the vet was able to re-attach the two tendons. Liv came home with a big purple splint on her foot, and strict instructions for her to not walk up steps, not to jump, run, play or have any fun for the next six weeks!!

So far, she’s been good, and seems to be healing up without much problem. She hasn’t messed with the splint at all (knock on wood) and isn’t being too obnoxious about her lack of exercise the last few days. We’ll see how annoying she is in six weeks, though!

Got the rest of the photos up in the gallery.

On our last day in Moab, TJ and I got up early to go set up shots of Arches in the early day light, before the crowds show up. This was lots of fun, and we got six more shots out of the large format camera. This time without having to ask anybody to move out of the way. I thought it was pretty cool that none of the rangers driving around the park at the crack of dawn have any questions for the two of us, hiking into the desert with a giant Ansel Adams era box camera.

We also had a lot of fun setting up shots of me doing a few yoga poses. There’s a bunch in the gallery, and I’d love to go back to do more shoots like these someday.

Mark and I took off to head back to Colorado around noon, and with a few unplanned pit-stops, we made it back without much problem. We stopped a bit along the Colorado River for a few more pictures. It’s just so hard to leave such an amazing place!

There’s a few more new photos up in the gallery!

Sunday morning seemed warmer still, and Mark and I were starting to feel a little fatigue from the hot restless nights in the desert. The origional plan for this day had been to drive down to the Needles district in Canyonlands National Park. We were going to have the family drop us off at a crag in Indian Creek, and let them go about their day in the national park. But the previous day had been so hot, and we never found a crag we liked at Indian Creek that wasn’t south or west facing, so we decided to spend another day in Moab.

This time Dad and TJ went for a bike ride in the morning, and the rest of us met them at the Jailhouse for a big, tasty breakfast. Then we packed everything up, and TJ got together everything for the large format camera he brought with him, and we headed out to Arches for another day of hiking in the desert.

Our goal for the day was Delicate Arch, which is about a 2 mile hike from the parking lot (4 miles round trip). By the time we reached the trailhead (just before 11a), it was packed full and temperatures were soaring. There seemed to be a lot of pink and unhappy children on the trail that day. Plus plenty of extremely over-dressed (who wears velor in the desert?) or under-dressed (this trail should not be shirt-optional for you!) people.

The arch was, as always, stunning. Mom and Dad were very proud of themselves for the hike, and TJ and I spent about 45 minutes working with the film, film holders, tripod, metering, and camera to get either one or two pictures. Well, we took two pictures. We just weren’t sure how many sheets of film were in the holder. And yes, all of this work did involve interesting activities such as TJ focusing on the ground glass with a giant black bag over his head, Mark asking everybody to please move out of the way of our picture for just a moment, and several people asking how much it would cost them to buy our picture of them (which we weren’t taking) once they got back to town.

We hiked out quickly, and then grabbed a late lunch before Mark and I headed back to Potash Road one more time. Due to early evening plans, we found ourselves at the shady crag with only an hour to climb.

Nervous in Suburbia (5.10a) – This sport climb was two routes down from where we were the previous evening, and I had been wanting to give it a shot. I remembered not being able to climb this route at all two years ago, and I really wanted to give it another try. Mark felt it would be worth climbing, so he started up on his lead. The first bolt is high off the ground, and you have to do one of those long “reach your foot over with bad hands – transfer weight – stand up on one foot with bad hands” slab moves about 15ft off the ground before you can clip it. YIKES. Mark was freaking out, but he made the move. Other cruxes in the climb had slightly less than optimal boltage as well, and Mark was seeing Elvis leg for the first time in years. On my turn I fell over and over again. I hung there forever trying to work out a way to get through the two cruxes. I did eventually find a way, but surely some of it involved hanging on the rope to move my feet over. It was embarrassing, and by the time we headed back to camp, Mark and I were both pretty certain that we may be better at crack climbing, but we suck at slabs right now.

In the evening, we had a big dinner of dutch-oven bar-b-ques with a local river tour company, and then went floating down the Colorado river listening to our cowboy guide point out faces in the rocks and then watching an “old time lightshow” in the soft darkness of the desert night. It was a really nice evening, with lots of good food, and a very nice way to view the river canyons after dark. If you’re interested, check out Canyonlands by Night, the whole family recommends it.

Thanks to Canyonlands by Night for the photos on their website!

There’s more photos from the long weekend up in the gallery!

Saturday morning dawned cool and quietly. We noticed that most of the people in our campground were up and gone as the first light illuminated the red rock walls of the canyon surrounding the city. Mark and TJ started the day off with a ride through town, with TJ getting his first chance to put his new “fixie” through its paces. Eventually, we got everything and everybody together to head into Arches National Park for the morning.

Arches is a relatively small national park, but just chocked full of some darn incredible photo opportunities. That morning, we hiked down Parkway, all around Balanced Rock, and then out to see Double Arch. Mom even scrambled up to the rear window of the arch to see what the view out the far side was like!

Around luchtime, the temperatures in the area had reached into the upper 90s, and it was time to go find some A/C. We headed back into Moab, and had a great lunch of Mexican food (mmm, fish tacos), and then went back to the RV for a nap in the cool air. At about 4:30p, Mark and I headed out to see if Wall Street was climbable yet.

The crags along Potash Road were in deep shade by this time of the day, but the rock was still radiating heat. The rest of the family dropped off Mark and I, and took off to do a little grocery shopping. We had about an hour, just enough time to run a couple laps on one of Mark’s all time favorite climbs.

30 Seconds Over Potash (5.8) – This 80ft tall crack climb was the pinnacle of our crack climbing abilities when we were out here two years ago. Mark lead it back then, and he was so proud! This weekend, he hopped on it excited to see if our crack climbing had improved at all. It has. While the lower cruxes were still hard, and hard to protect, he finished off the redpoint with no problem, and I climbed it on TR with only one silly fall. The crack varies a bit between tight fingers and solid hands, and even doubles up against a sweet off-width at the top (didn’t notice that before). Mark and I were both happy to climb it, but after our hour on the rock, we both agreed, it was just another crack. Whatever had seemed to make it so special before just didn’t seem to be there any more.

It was a fun way to end the day, though. We headed back to the RV for a tasty dinner of big sandwiches, chips and melon and procuitto. We spent the evening relaxing in camp chairs watching the swarms of bats feast on mosquitoes over the Colorado River.

I’ve started a gallery for the photos from the long weekend. Over the next few days, I’ll keep uploading new ones. Check them out!

On Friday at around noon we left the Fort and met up with my parents and my brother for the drive out to Moab. It was a long day of driving, especially with the RV heading over the mountains on I-70. After much discussion, we decided to take Utah 128 into Moab – the scenic route. TJ drove the extremely narrow winding road down the banks of the Colorado river into the desert canyons. It was a long day, with tons of glorious views, and we laid in our tent that night in the 85-degree desert air excited about the coming weekend. It might be worth noting: I didn’t use my sleeping bag the whole weekend.

We’re leaving this afternoon to spend the long weekend camping with my family and climbing in the desert. It should be a really hot, and really great trip! Here’s a shot from camping last weekend to get everybody excited about the holiday. This is a 4-second exposure of the creek that ran right next to our campsite in the San Isabel National Forest just outside of Buena Vista last weekend. I actually had the tripod and both feet in the creek, and believe me, it was cooooold.

The shot below is from my flickr site, another version is in the gallery.