Category Archives: Rock Climbing

There’s a few shots from Saturday up in the gallery.

For our anniversary weekend this year, Mark and I decided to take a trip back to Estes Park, Colorado. We found a nice little hotel in town, with hot tubs in the room. Friday evening was cool when we arrived, with the sky begining to cloud up and a chilly breeze blowing. We ate junk food appetizers at Ed’s for dinner and then retired a little later than we should have for climbing the next day.

We woke in the morning to a cloudy, dripping sky, and a hotel office that wouldn’t open until 9a. We hit up Ed’s again for breakfast (just can’t get enough of that place, I guess!) and then stopped by the hotel to check in for the weekend. The rain was coming and going, so we decided to try out climbing on the IronClads for the day. On our drive into Estes, I declared that we would climb nothing this weekend that I didn’t lead. This was supposed to be my weekend, and I intended to make the most of it.

I started the morning with a nervous and slow lead of Dirty No-Gooders (5.6). This was one of the more run-out sport climbs I’ve ever successfully lead (sad, I know, but true). I made my way up muttering the mantra “Big holds, big feet”, assuring myself that I would not fall. Mark was wonderfully patient and encouraging, but reveled later that if I had asked to come down at any point he would not have let me!

After I put the rope and draws on the route (it was no red-point, I hung on the second-to-last bolt), we pulled the rope and Mark lead it. Then we pulled the rope again, and I lead it on my own draws. This time, Mark kept up the chant “Keep moving, keep climbing, keep it smooth” and I made my way up the easy route in no time.

After feeling good about this lead, I decided to take on the more vertical and more straightforward Shaking Hands with the Unemployed (5.7) . This climb was much more thin, but somewhere in the course of my lead, I remembered how much I enjoyed climbing on tiny little footholds. I took a little lead fall near the top of this route as well, when I panicked trying to mantel onto the large ledge near the top.

After I hung the anchor on this one, we pulled the rope again and Mark lead it. On the third time, I simply climbed on TR, and then moved the anchor to the left so we could take a go at one harder climb. This was an exciting accomplishment for me again, as I usually find myself terrified of the whole anchor-moving process. But if I wanted to stick to my rule, we could not climb this unless I hung the rope on it.

Of course, as I lowered down, it began to sprinkle, so Mark was the only one to get a chance to climb Slap and Tickle (5.10b) that afternoon. Which was fine by me, I was tired and that roof looked hard. Mark found an elegant way through it, of course, and then cleaned the route and rappelled off in the rain. It was nice to have Mark doing the clean-up for once!

In the evening we toured Elk Fest in Estes Park, and got to see real wolves from the wolf sanctuary near Durango, but no elk. Dinner was at the Chalet in Mary’s Lake Lodge, and as fantastic as last time. Mark was here two years ago when I had a migraine and threw up on the Stanley Hotel rather than eating there. While I laid in bed at our hotel that year, Mark got take-out from Mary’s Lake: a beautifully crafted Chicken Saltimbocca for himself and chicken fingers for me. This year I was healthier and we ordered an array of interesting items from the Stuffed Portabella appetizers to my pistachio and cherry crusted sea bass.

The climbing wasn’t epic, but I felt very proud of my day, and the food seemed a fitting reward. As was the jaccuzzi full of bubble bath and candlelight when we got back to the hotel that night.

Mucho pictures of this beautiful fall day are up in the gallery.

It’s official, fall has landed in Vedauwoo. We were on the fence as to whether we wanted to go climbing or do the Tour de Fat last Saturday, but the warm morning and clear skies in the Fort whispered to us that we’d get in one more good day if we made the drive. And so we left.

When we pulled into the parking lot for the main area, we saw a group sitting at the base of Fall Wall, but nobody working their way up Ed’s Crack. We scrambled up to the base of the climb and nobody was there yet! It was 10:30a, and we were the first ones at the base of one of the best 5.7 handcracks in all of Vedauwoo! We played around with the idea of me leading the first pitch, but I chickened out and Mark took the gear for me and hopped on the climb.

It was an awesome day and an awesome climb. I’m not sure what else to say about it. We ended up with a Father and Son team following us, so I took some fun pictures of them. We topped out at just before noon, and then made our three rappels down Walt’s Wall without any problems.

Sure we’ve done this climb before, probably more times than I can remember right now. But I still love it. When we got down and had our snack, it felt late in the afternoon. We toyed around with the idea of hitting up some of the sport climbs on Fall Wall proper, but it was almost out of the sun by then, and we had a dog waiting for us at home to let her out. Still it was a really, really fun, sunny day on the rocks. Couldn’t ask for much more.

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.

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.

Another stinkin’ hot weekend on the Front Range. We had a great Friday night and Saturday hanging around the Fort and being a bit lazy. The plan was to head up to Greyrock mountain on Sunday and climb a new route on the Northwest face of the mountain. We thought the peak might be high enough in altitude to be a little cooler, and that we might get some shade on the north face. We thought wrong.

Photos from the day are up in the new gallery!

The day was oppressively hot and more humid than I’ve experienced in a long time. The heat just sapped the energy out of us, and the long walk up to the mountain (2.2 miles) felt like an eternity of slogging. We weren’t on the trail long before conversational topics like “Well, we don’t have to climb anything to get a good work out today” and “You know, if we were at home we’d be doing such-and-such better things” started to pop up. You know you’re in trouble when these thoughts start to wind their way around your brain.

After almost 2 hours, we popped out below the mountain, and immediately took off through the trees and brush to try to scramble up to the back side of the mountain. We got a bit lost a few times, but eventually found ourselves staring up at a gulley below the northwest slabs. Right at that moment, the first dark cloud of the day drifted into view. The scramble was a bit committing, and I found myself sitting, looking up at three or four pitches of climbing and really feeling I didn’t have the energy, even after all the work to get there.

Mark didn’t need too much argument. We scrambled back down into the trees and took a break for some lunch and to pull hundreds of little grass burrs out of our socks and shoes. Eventually, we made it up to the southwest slabs and I started racking up to lead Fun Flake (5.6). It wasn’t long after I left the ground before the thunder started to roll through the dark, thick clouds above us.

I actually felt pretty good on lead that day. I wasn’t in that cloud of irrational fear, my feet felt stable and strong, the moves felt easy and fun. But four pieces and 20ft up, I knew I wasn’t going to be anywhere near finishing before the rain set on us. The thunder was getting louder, and the prudent thing to do seemed to be to lower off and let Mark run up the climb so we could finish and get off the rock before lightening found us.

So Mark finished the lead quickly, and I climbed and cleaned it. We grabbed our stuff as the first bolt of lightening hit a hill to our west, and booked down to the trees below us.

On our way out, I almost stepped on a large flock of Ptarmigan right below the slabs of the mountain. Mark and I were both pretty surprised, as we had never seen these birds below 10,000ft. Further down the trail, we stumbled on another flock, and had fun taking pictures of them, and listening to their quiet, haunting calls.

As usual, the hike out took much less time than the hike in. We walked out in occasional rain squalls that felt good after the heat of the morning.

Last weekend, the high temperatures in Fort Collins were heading quickly towards the triple digits, so we decided to take refuge on some shady north-facing climbs in Vedauwoo.

Photos from the weekend are up in the gallery.

After some (not so) intense discussion, we decided it was time to go explore the Blair Woods area in Vedauwoo. These formations sit north and west of general Vedauwoo area, and we actually had to drive out of the ‘park’ and back in on a different road to access them. Exploring a new rock in Vedauwoo is usually an adventure, but driving to a whole different part of the range makes the place feel really exciting and remote.

The trails were indistinct, and we hiked quite a bit off trail. Eventually, we stumbled on the northwest face of Blair 3, and everybody was in awe. The spot was quiet (we were the only ones there) and shady and cool. The clean graceful lines of the rock towered over us, promising a day of spectacular climbing.

Mark and I continued down the game trail to the “Notch” area on this formation, and I racked up and led my first multi-pitch trad climb! This was actually the first climb that I’ve ever led all of the pitches on, and it was a really good one. It was a combination of two moderates, and as I don’t have the book here, I can’t tell you what the first pitch was, but the second was the top (and most interesting) half of Outer Notch (5.6).

I still feel very proud of this climb. It was definitely not as super-easy and incredibly-obvious as my usual leads. I actually spaced the protection out quite a bit in some places (and scrunched it together in others). But it was a really fun climb, and a great way to spend the morning.

After we rappelled off, we found the group working a couple of fun climbs further down the face. Again, I can’t give names right now as I don’t have the book, but there was a fun 5.7, a strenuous 5.9, and a 5.8 that gained two degrees of difficulty after Sean pulled a key hold off and threw it at Ann. By the time I got to that 5.8, I was so exhausted my arms just wouldn’t bend.

After a nap and some scrambling around the formation, Mark and I set up a yoga shoot on top of the shoulder of the formation. Some of the photos turned out really nice.

At the end of the day, several people worked a loooong (110ft) hard 5.9, and then we packed up and hiked out. Camping that evening was nice and not too chilly. Mark dug holes under the right-side tires of Dylan and Ann’s truck to help level the camper, and then spent the rest of the evening playing with fire.

On Sunday we headed back to the area, and this time explored the shady side of Blair 1. While the rest of the group enjoyed another long fun 5.7-, Mark and I attacked the first pitch of Le Petite Arbre (5.6). This 50ft crack was awesome. It was solid, perfect hand and fist jams the whole way up. We ran laps on this one, with Mark speed climbing it on top-rope, and me practicing placing gear hanging from hand-jams and not over-camming it. Even the rest of the gang seemed to enjoy it, especially Ann’s new shoes! Around lunch time we all started heading home in pairs. Mark and Liv and I stuck around the longest, playing on the crack and relaxing in the shade. Then it was time to head back to the Fort, which felt like a baking furnace after such a nice, cool weekend on the rocks.

So, here’s another post about activities we did a few weeks ago. I put photos from one day that weekend up in the gallery.

So, two weekends ago, July 21 & 22, we spent our first weekend back at climbing in Vedauwoo since we left for vacation. Saturday was hot, and we weren’t feeling strong, so we hiked out to Jurassic Park, an area we had never been to. It took us a little while to find the climbs we were looking for. Though, we did spend about an hour laying around in rock caves and in the sun enjoying the view.

Around lunchtime, Ann and Dylan found their way to our little crag. It was so nice to see Dylan hike up around the corner, glance up at the wall and exclaim “Oooo! Sport climbs!”

He started us out on an exciting lead of First Iteration (5.9+), a fun steep slab climb with a few bolts. Dylan got the redpoint (of course), but he had to do some wild, huge sidesteps back and forth across the face. I fell a few times but found my way up eventually, and it felt good to be back on the rock, and on my toes again.

Mark had a great lead of Recombination Mutation (5.7) after this. The climb goes through a squeeze opening to start out, and Mark had some trouble getting himself and his gear through. He actually spun a full 360-degrees before deciding how to proceed upwards. I had a ball on this climb, which finishes in a fu-u-un handcrack after the cool little chimney. My favorite two things about Ved in one climb, chimneys and handcracks!

Our last climb of the day was Sore-O-Pod (5.8). This was a long, grunting, grinding handcrack that we all climbed on TR from the First Iteration anchor. It was hard, especially after being off the rock for so long, but I had a great time on it.

Saturday night we camped out with Dylan and Ann, and enjoyed celebrating breaking in their new camper! It was an exciting evening, with fans grinding up metal, batteries going dead (and causing carbon monoxide alarms to beep), and giant moth attacks!!

Sunday morning, Mark and I hopped on Ted’s Trot (5.7). I’ve done this climb before but Mark was out of the country. This time, Mark got to try it. The pro wasn’t as good as I remembered it, and Mark did not enjoy the beginning chimney as much as I did. The crux was really interesting, though, and he figured it out and had a great time to finish. It was a great morning, and we had enough time to get everybody up and down before most of the rain hit.

Hello Vedauwoo, we’re back!