Sweet Road Trips
With only one true week off over the summer what do you do? Take a road trip and try to accomplish as much as possible.
So with Cami on Cataract with Outward bound (see previous post) I ended up on my own. Plan was to climb as many big formations as possible, but this only works if you have someone to belay...and let me just tell you, it's not as easy as when I was in college (the first time) to find people willing to neglect all responsability for a week and go for it. But I did manage to fanagle Derek to come and Katie was willing to be dragged along with the boys. Derek, fresh off the summit of Cotapaxi was well suited to high altitude climbing, but not sketchy squeeze chimney's with no protection. So we decided to head straight for that. After an afternoon in Boulder Canyon complete with trad climbing in the rain (only ups it a grade, right dad?), katie sendin' some 5.9 sport climbs, and me mistaking a 5.12 for a 5.10 which led to a traverse to a 5.11 with numerous lead falls, and crazy Dave, the hitchhiker who had his own environmental non-profit, lived in the woods, and didn't know how to stop talking...gotta' love Boulder, we took off to that Holy Grail, Lumpy Ridge.
The twin owls are one of the more striking formations, and also have one of the closest approaches. And for some reason I had heard the Central Chimney was something of a classic (i should have known with the word Chimney in it it couldn't have been anything classic. Katie opted out and instead took a nap in the hammock at the base.
So Derek took the "5.8" starting pitch. After half an hour of cursing, body jamming, 'jane fonda' jamming and very little pro he popped out on top of the first pitch. Needless to say if you go climb this, don't expect 5.8, more like run out, scary as hell, overhanging, squeeze chimney!
All said and done, the rest was easy and we crashed back at the base, tired and relieved to be off.
The next few days were fun times in FC before heading out to Utah to meet the fam. So many good memories of Ol westwater...and there's nothing like a desert river sunset.
Another beautiful trip with no incidents...but lots of big surf, seal launches, and sick cliff jumping antics from the Red Rock Alliance kids outta' SLC! Sorry, no pics yet...waitin' on the pops.
So long sweet summer, welcome back fall and school. Less than a year left...ahhh, not soon enough!
So with Cami on Cataract with Outward bound (see previous post) I ended up on my own. Plan was to climb as many big formations as possible, but this only works if you have someone to belay...and let me just tell you, it's not as easy as when I was in college (the first time) to find people willing to neglect all responsability for a week and go for it. But I did manage to fanagle Derek to come and Katie was willing to be dragged along with the boys. Derek, fresh off the summit of Cotapaxi was well suited to high altitude climbing, but not sketchy squeeze chimney's with no protection. So we decided to head straight for that. After an afternoon in Boulder Canyon complete with trad climbing in the rain (only ups it a grade, right dad?), katie sendin' some 5.9 sport climbs, and me mistaking a 5.12 for a 5.10 which led to a traverse to a 5.11 with numerous lead falls, and crazy Dave, the hitchhiker who had his own environmental non-profit, lived in the woods, and didn't know how to stop talking...gotta' love Boulder, we took off to that Holy Grail, Lumpy Ridge.
The twin owls are one of the more striking formations, and also have one of the closest approaches. And for some reason I had heard the Central Chimney was something of a classic (i should have known with the word Chimney in it it couldn't have been anything classic. Katie opted out and instead took a nap in the hammock at the base.
So Derek took the "5.8" starting pitch. After half an hour of cursing, body jamming, 'jane fonda' jamming and very little pro he popped out on top of the first pitch. Needless to say if you go climb this, don't expect 5.8, more like run out, scary as hell, overhanging, squeeze chimney!
All said and done, the rest was easy and we crashed back at the base, tired and relieved to be off.
The next few days were fun times in FC before heading out to Utah to meet the fam. So many good memories of Ol westwater...and there's nothing like a desert river sunset.
Another beautiful trip with no incidents...but lots of big surf, seal launches, and sick cliff jumping antics from the Red Rock Alliance kids outta' SLC! Sorry, no pics yet...waitin' on the pops.So long sweet summer, welcome back fall and school. Less than a year left...ahhh, not soon enough!
posted by Ian at
4:21 PM
2 Comments:
oh brother! daddy's sooo jealous! the closest thing we have in China to camping is getting locked outside your appartment 'cuz MY dumb@$$ losses thing way too easily, and finding a lump of dirty, ant infested crab-grass to sleep on 'till the super could let me in... i hope to get out to the mountains soon though... man, i need something other than concrete for a little while! keep pluggin' baby! before you know it, you'll be nursing up a storm! smooches!
nice dude,
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