Part of the approach to my climb in Eldo last Sunday, was described in the guidebook as “cross over the creek and hike up the bank on the other side…” This was the creek crossing. Needless to say, it was an exciting jump!

Mark and I got new boots in Boulder today, and then stopped by Eldorado Canyon State Park to climb a bit. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and the wind was brisk, so we just hiked a bit looking for cool climbs to hit next time we’re in the area.

I got a lot of shots of climbers on their way back towards the ground. I believe this guy was on Long John Wall (5.8), a definate must do!

Just wandering around this evening trying to take a few pictures. I lost my light pretty quickly, and so started playing with the flash. We had a great down-slope wind this evening. I say “great” because my ride home from work is west to east, and so this was a fantastic tail-wind. I lost my bike computer last summer, so I don’t know how fast I was going, but it felt great!

In this picture, the wind was blowing these tall stalks of grass all around. I was swaying back and forth trying to catch them with the camera. :)

I voted today! We have an early voting option here in Ft. Collins, and three locations staffed in town at which we can vote. I got to use one of the Dibold electronic voting machines, which I got a kick out of. I know there’s been a lot of worry about these machines, but I found it very easy to use, and I saw the paper trail go by with the correct votes, so I feel confidant in the machine.

Another picture today from another sunset. I love the sky out here.

More Lenticulars at sunset from last weekend. As the storm track moves south out of Canada in the fall, we start to see more strong upper level winds out of the west. As they travel over our mountains, waves appear in the stream. Just like water flowing over a rock produces a wave. The result is these beautiful lenticular clouds. I just love looking at them. I think they’re incredible. And they are so special. You have to have good topography and good conditions to make these.

On the way home from climbing on Saturday, we caught these beautiful clouds right at sunset. The ice is very refractive, and if you check this one out large and on black, you can really see the incredible colors formed by these ice crystals.

On Saturday, we piled the whole gang into the car and took off for North Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado. This crag is about an hour from our house, and sits directly above the Coors Brewing Plant. While it’s not exactly the most asthetically pleasing of all climbing destinations, the basalt cliff band provides climbs from 20 to 90ft tall, on solid, dark rock, with lots of interesting roofs, cracks and sloping holds.

Our group was 5 people strong: Mark and I, Rachel and JD, and Dylan. When we pulled up to the base of the south-facing rock at around 10:30am, we immediately noticed it was already about 10F degrees warmer than it had been in Fort Collins. Even though there was some snow on the ground in the area, we spent the day baking in the sun on these climbs. I had a small burn on my shoulder where my t-shirt had pulled away and I forgot to put on sunscreen, and I found myself feeling a little ill from the heat by mid-afternoon.

We got some great climbs in, though. Dylan lead up the 5.8 pictured here first thing, and did a great job of it. The crux was really getting to the first bolt, which was a pulse-quickening 20ft off the ground. The picture below is of JD enjoying the climb on top-rope. Mark grabbed the small rack we had packed and lead up a 5.8 crack climb called the Big Dihedral. Kudos to Dylan for the awesome shot on that one.

After lunch, we traveled west, and Rachel got the pink point on Kevin Spies the Line (5.6), while Dylan lead up a roof-ie and exposed 10b. Mark jumped on the longest climb I’ve ever seen at North Table Mountain. This 10a went on for nearly 80ft, and included some rather scarey run-out sections. Mark (aka McGuiver) handily protected these with his sparse biner of stoppers, and had a great time on the climb.

We all took off for the hike back to the car at around 3:30p, tired, a little sun-burnt, and very happy.

These are the results of our pumpkin carving party on Friday night. Which one is your favorite?