A Gentlemans Agreement

Early in 2009, I made the first free ascent of an aid line in Zion called Gentlemans Agreement. This is the crux pitch, it goes at 5.13 something. I was lucky to have Keith Ladzinski take some cool photos (check out his site http://ladzinski.com/). Yes this is a tips finger crack dihedral. I actually pulled my back out liebacking this section!

You did what? Part 2

Jason in the "Batcracker".

Nelson in a tube dropping off into the abyss below.

Jason happy to exit the "Rectangle".

Jason and Nelson not thrilled at the wait to get into the cave.

The punchbowl wall at Lime creek. A mixture of choss and good rock.

So after the river fun we decided that it was time to head out (although I felt that I could remain at Steamboat Rock all weekend). The drive was long and the time was passed with Nelson providing us with many stories of his past years on the road. One of my favorites was the one about him nearly being pronounced dead in a car (he was just sleeping but wasn't waking when some folks were trying).

We arrived at Lime Creek climbing area near Eagle, Colorado late and crashed in another beautiful alpine setting. I didn't rest too well because of the mouse that was scurrying around the back of my truck with me. Unfortunately, he won and I was out on the ground after about an hour of hearing him scramble back and forth along the floor. The next morning we all felt a bit haggard from all the swimming and hiking at Dinoasaur National Monument. It was hot and it took a great deal more energy from us than we expected. I hadn't visited Lime Creek in many years and knew that it was a nice place to check out every once in a while. It's no Ceuse, France, but at least it's not the same old front range climbing. We clipped bolts on some of the steeper routes and got pumped early on and finished with some of the technical vertical slab climbs. The day ended early as the temperatures got hot really fast. In order not to waste time I decided to take the boys on a tour of the Fulford Cave which was just down the road.

The cave stays about 45 degrees year round and was going to be a great alternative to the heat of the day. I prepped my partners for the possibility of some other folks in the cave and as we arrived after the hike, there were about 40 people exiting the cave. By the time we entered, Nelson and Jason were kinda bitter about the experience (they changed their attitude once we started down the pipe though). The three of us cruised through the caves many twisting and muddy tunnels, crawling and croutching and walking and squirming. After they were good and muddy we moved into the Rectangle and I was happily suprised how they greased the tight squeeze barely wider than your hips and shoulders.

After signing the log book and cursing the Boy Scouts who made them wait, we moved through the rest of the cave. The only thing that was a bummer was when we exited the cave. We had left our full water bottles outside the entrance and when we got there someone had taken them. What doesn't make sense to me is why someone would take a full bottle of water from the outside of the cave when they knew that people were still in there. Oh well, chalk that up to ignorance I guess. Those boy scouts still have a lot to learn.

Shallow Water Bouldering

This is the first footage of this kind ever recorded. Nelson is about to tackle the rock at the base of Steamboat Rock in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. Notice the perfect spot by Jason.

You did what?

Some shallow water bouldering! Jason tearing it up.

Jason and Nelson getting ready to tango on the sandbar.

Me aiding the first pitch.

Carrying some gear from the boat to the route.

Our pile of goodies.

Nelson and Jason filling up the kayak, with Steamboat rock in the background.

Our tent site along the river.

Well this weekend was a busy one that wore me out!

It began with driving nearly 7 hours after work to the upper left hand corner of Colorado to a place called Dinosaur National Monument. We were heading to Steamboat Rock which lies at the confluence of the Yampa and Green rivers and stands a few hundred foot tall. Layton Kor climbed the plum line up the sandstone wall and I was out to free the first aid pitch (hope to free at least). I traveled with Nelson and Jason, both of whom were up for an adventure.

One of the difficulties was the fact that we had to cross the river without getting our gear wet, so we borrowed an infaltable kayak and paddled across. Since none of us are very expereinced on the river it was nice to see that all the water was flat and there were no rapids downstream to wreck our day.

So we arrived late at night and slept in a traquil site along the river under some huge trees. There was a light breeze and thousands of stars in view. As we faded into our slumber, it was easy to count the shooting stars burning up in the atmosphere above because every August is a great time to see space junk getting caught in Earth's gravity.

In the morning, we filled up the boat and crossed the easy flowing 200 ft wide river. Jason and I crossed with the gear and I went back to get Nelson and the camera gear.

On this climb I began aiding up the thin and sometimes nonexistant crack with my rock hammer, pins and knife blades. Each placement getting me a bit higher on the route. It was the first time that I had ever led a hammering pitch and it was kinda cool. I eventually reached the top of the pitch and set a top rope in order to practice the free movements of the route. Unfortunately, Jason and I had good success at the bottom of the pitch, but found that there was not enough features in the sandy dihedral to free climb to the top. I knew that there was a chance that the route would be impossible and I hoped that it wouldn't be but not ever climbing trip is perfect. It was successful in that I learned how to keep gear dry on the river and perform river crossings and that I enjoyed the experience. I look forward to my next river/climbing trip in September in Utah.

After we retreived our gear from the route it was time to swim and have some fun in the river because we were getting crushed by the heat of the sun.

training

Bring It On

Fjordland means bridges over deep glacier carved vallies. This is one of the many huge bridges that we crossed as we headed deeping into the island country of Lofoton. The water is clear and there is a ton of vegetation on the shoreline.

One of the many spectacular waterfalls that we passed while in Norway and Sweden. These things freeze up in the winter and become amazing ice climbing routes just a few minutes hike from the road!

Sunset on saturday at the Cherry Creek State Park outside Denver. I was going to post a nice shot of Jane not wearing too much while laying out, but I figured I shouldn't. But she looked NICE! : )

Her she comes as the thunderstorm builds off to the east of the park. I took this one while roller blading.

Jane and I at breakfast saturday morning. Tasty blueberry pancakes and delicious green chili's on the eggs! I was having a bad hair day!

The past few days have been great. This weekend I was able to climb a bit, go on a long 7-8 mile rollerblade training skate. Even got to good old Costco and saw the world of huge everything. I always wondered where people found those giant bags of flower or gallons of pasta sauce. They did have a wicked meat department though and we bought a bunch of avacodo's mmmm. : )
Jane ran a ton of miles and humored me by biking next to me as we visited the Cherry Creek State park just outside of Denver. We went all the way around the reseviour, past the shooting range, the campground, the radio controlled plane zone, a swamp of two and the marina. Once we actually found the good bike path that was smooth we were cruising and enjoying the afternoon sun. At the end after the big hills, I was very fatigued because I had to push Jane up all the hills on her cruiser. For some reason she didn't mind them at all!