umbrella tree

amanda made me really jealous the other night when she told me about her 5.10+ in the midst of recouping from her foot puncture, so i decided that erica and i needed to get on some rock again. we've been a bit sad about the recent lapse in climbing, but standing around belaying in the cold just isn't so fun, as we learned when we were on "the young and the rackless" a month ago.

remedy: last night erica and i went bouldering at the boulder rock club, where we saw a bunch of semi-famous climbers from the boulder scene. our hands were toasted after - gym climbing always makes me feel like i have millions of needles stuck in my hands, like they've been stretched open. ugh.

today, we visited the umbrella tree at flagstaff mountain, which was one of the first climbs we stumbled upon in boulder while out hiking with alf one day. it gets a lot of sun, so good in winter, bad (burning rock) in summer.

gregory canyon.
 

back of the first flatiron on the left, saddle rock on the ridge to the right, green mountain in the middle. we visited saddle rock a few weeks ago, where i enjoyed a fun, infrequently visited scramble. erica and alfie got a little mad at the wait though...there have been a bunch of signs around boulder's parks warning of mountain lion risk and the need to leash dogs - scarycool!
 

so, umbrella tree. i first climbed the center 5.10, then erica did the 5.7(?) to the left that i'm on here. this was about the hardest 5.7 i've been on, but the bulges sure were fun. erica did an impressive job of zipping right up the crux...i, on the other hand, pondered for a bit before performing a weird half mantle. on the 5.10, there's an interesting (juggy and conglomerate) boulder problem on the top ledge just below the anchor - i was super pumped, so it took me a minute, a motivating word or two, and a few false starts to top out.


as you can see, i gots me a beard! i was supposed to trim this for thanksgiving. oops.

naughtiness

alf was a very bad boy this week. he ate a couple pounds of chocolate earlier in the week, which offered an unusual sight when we returned from dinner...a few very large piles of dark brown matter and a dog who couldn't even get up off the floor, even for kibble or pork fat. it took us a couple minutes to realize what was going on and what he had eaten. since it was pretty dark chocolate, we thought he was maybe a goner, but alf survived. not without some intense expulsions and moaning, though. oh, we later made brownies from the unspoiled chocolate that he left in the bag on the kitchen floor. they were great!

a couple days after chocofest, erica returned home to find this (oh, and the floor and carpet are always that nasty, nothing special there):
 
 
 

alfie got in to another cupboard and ate a half pound or so of flour - what a naughty!
 

after both of these events, alfie refused to eat anything, which made administering his seizure meds interesting. he finally got back to his normal self today, though again he had pulled down a couple of things in the kitchen - no food, just pan lids that cut open his nose. will he ever learn?

though i've been very upset with him, alfie and i had a really good afternoon yesterday. we went for a quick hike up bear canyon in south boulder while erica studied for finals. we saw a bunch of really fuzzy deer grazing and basking in the sun and as we headed up the cooler canyon, he was such a good (no fussing), speedy (with time for sniffs) guy despite being in the midst of recovery from a flour plug in his gut (which enjoyed a dramatic, irretrievable expulsion halfway through our trek).

i had such a good time that erica and i went back this afternoon (sans alf) after we saw amahl at the methodist church this morning. it was a good performance, though erica reminded me of some key lines that were missing. anyway, the hiking was fun, especially when we crossed the creek to find the cave on that adventure hike that i mentioned previously. the slabs were a little too iced to get up there, but the trail offered some good views of the cave, which is close to the second farthest ridgeline just above and to the right of erica's head.
 
 
 
 
 

that's bear peak and boulder peak in the background. i'd hoped to make it to the top of bear (on the left), but erica reminded me of the staircase down the east side plus her bone spur was acting up, so we just enjoyed the ridge that's peeking out from behind her shoulder.
 

or at least i did.
 
 

underdog

alfie had his third birthday last night. erica and i went on a walk with a very pregnant jen and chris followed by yummy happy hour at the kitchen next door (kale chips! dry dock pumpkin!), which then caused us to forget it was alf's bday! very sad. so today i'll celebrate by posting alf's most recent trip to stardom.

more flatirons fun

erica and i returned to the flatirons, hoping to work off some of our many thanksgiving plates. we decided to switch roles and she would carry the camera. as it turned out, i misjudged the route and we had to downclimb off the back rather than rap the top. erica was a good sport and scout as i cleaned the anchors and worked my way down. this led me to consider a flatirons adventure hike.

lots o potholes = easy, mellow climbing. didn't stop me from getting nervous when i removed all our gear from the tippety top!
 

big beard!
 

lunch break in the flatirons

i was kind of stressed out at work this week and a little sad that i wouldn't get to do some climbing i'd been looking forward to, so i decided to take a quick lunch break in the flatirons and returned to freeway, which i actually followed instead of getting off route. it was nice to have solid rock the whole time.

flatirons! the second is dead center.
 

second again. the large outcropping at the top right is called the pullman car, which is the summit.
 

the route starts right off the trail.
 

a little closer...
 

the first pitch.
 

and the top of the first pitch. from here, i chatted with a couple of boulderers who were at the base. i had been kind of stuck in a thin-ish spot and had to traverse a bit. i was maybe a little embarrassed, but i guess they didn't notice when we met again as i biked to my office.
 

boulder.
 

bottom of the pullman on the left. there's a 5.6 route that sneaks into the gully left of the pullman, then you can hop up onto it. will get to that eventually.
 

pullman again. when i got off route last time i was here, i could have continued into the tunnel you see to the right of the base of the pullman. it looks kinda fun.
 

the jump / diving board. little tough to differentiate.
 

as you can see, it parallels the rock below it, but the huge flake extends from pretty far below/behind the tip, which makes it seem oh so far away. as i got up here, the wind suddenly picked up quite a bit. i hunkered down and made a call cancelling my lunch appointment
 
and took a moment to document the horn where i built a sling ladder for erica to lower herself "like a sobbing whale" as she later commented.
 

this angle is the reason for the sobbing...little tough to see what you're getting down on with the overhang.
 

and here's the tip of the diving board, with the landing spot dead ahead below those flakes that have pulled off. comforting!
 

really comforting.


i did the jump, scampered on up in an increasing breeze, ran off the top, biked back to my office, grabbed my bag, and went on to the office of my cancelled lunch appointment. unfortunately, i dropped my favorite sweater on the way and had to return to get it. en route to sweater retrieval, i snapped my brake and rode old school style, with skids and whatnot. it reminded me of why i don't do that so much these days...my poor knees!

young and the rackless

erica and i went up the canyon early on friday afternoon to do some climbing. good thing it was early. we started up a four pitch sport route called "the young and the rackless". seemed like silly and simple fun... it's rated 5.9, but the party that developed the route rated it 5.10b. i think that might be accurate if you don't have as much span as i do - erica found it a little tough at the headwalls.

from the top of the first pitch.
 

erica so smiley before realizing that the start is a little funky :( she also started yelling a "huge spider" in front of her face. she later revealed that said "huge spider" was in fact a daddy longlegs before trying to convince me that they are 1.) poisonous (but their mouths aren't big enough to bite people) 2.) spiders, neither of which are true. fibber! gladly, she made it up the first pitch.
 

starting up the second pitch. crux for shorties.
 
we made it halfway up the climb before deciding it was going to get too dark (and i was already shivering quite a bit). it was erica's first rappel (and retreat), which was exciting all around.

yum!

this dish was really good and simple.

boulder's happy

in fact, it's the happiest.

flatirons

i've been obsessed with boulder's flatirons recently. this is due to a variety of factors: 1.) les lent me some gear for free climbing, which erica has been supplementing with anniversary gifts (and coming christmas presents); 2.) some coworkers want to hike in the flatirons every so often; and 3.) i'm not as excited by hikes alone these days, sadly.

anyway, a couple weeks ago, some coworkers and i went on a post work jaunt to the royal arch, a hike which erica and i loath due to the "stairs"...strategically placed boulders that thrash your knees. we did this in the middle of the day when we first arrived in boulder last august. ick. climbing is a much more fun way to gain elevation, so i decided to scramble up the arch on this most recent jaunt, which then got me hooked on the idea of other scrambles in the area.

that weekend, erica and i decided to climb the second flatiron via a route called freeway, which many people free solo (climb without ropes or aid), but we figured we should put our gear to use. here's erica on a pitch halfway up.
 
there's a special spot on freeway that some call "the diving board" because you have to jump from one flake down to the slab beneath you. it looks rather intimidating. i spent a minute or two lingering on the diving board before making the jump, but erica wasn't having it. i rappelled back down and set up a little sling ladder for her. i giggled and she nearly cried all the way down to the lower slab. aw.

later last week, i went back and soloed it, but chose a slightly different route. i didn't quite make it to the desired route, which left me on rotten, lichen-covered rock for a fair amount of time. next time i'll find the other route i hope.

so this weekend, erica and i visited the regency, which we hoped to link to a few other scrambles, but we ran out of time. we'd had a really big day - erica had delivered her oral argument first thing in the morning (good job!), we'd made it to the rei garage sale (intense!), and had some time with our little fool before negotiating the chaos of the hill (boulder's undergrad area which was celebrating homecoming with boozing in the middle of the streets, bass, and general debauchery) to reach the relative seclusion of the regency.
 

erica was really roughing it as we hoofed it off trail. i got really excited about the ease of access...just an hour from home to the climb.
 

erica, on the other hand, was a little less than excited about the bushwhacking, which might have caused some grumpiness. she recovered soon enough.
 

the regency. also lichen-covered. not much rotten rock though.
 

i think erica might have been behaving a little passive-aggressively, because she later told me that she failed to belay me up and was totally not holding the rope. good thing she uses a grigri!
 

getting ready to go, looking much happier.
 

i didn't think we were going to make it around that big block on the left too easily, so i was quite surprised that erica's great suggestion to "just look left" presented some very handy ramps.
 

as you may know, erica and i were considering moving to nederland, but i think the views, ease of access, and extreme variety of places like the flatirons and the lower canyons make me happy to not be up there, getting socked in with snow. we'll see how long my love affair lasts though...snow's due in boulder in just three days!
 

climbing in ouray & eri's first 14er

erica and i went climbing in ouray with her folks at a place called "the alcove" which is across the street from the main hot springs. our first route had some big blocks that sounded hollow behind the main route, which caused les to think of the block he was climbing (which was the size of my car) separating from the wall with him on it. he sat out the rest of the time.

 

alfie was very attentive.
 

his aunt ellie was sleepy. alf also settled down right before we left. aw.
 
 

erica led for the second time. which was awesome.
 
 
 

the next day we climbed mt sneffels, starting from the blue lakes trailhead at the east fork of dallas creek. this is another less traveled route, but is way safer than taking the standard route with all the summer tourists screaming "rock" every few moments.

i packed our clothes, which left erica without a jacket and some fabulous pants. she borrowed her mom's bright yellow jacket, which made for a great outfit. we left around 4am, which erica hated. i just drank a lot of coffee and got giggly. especially when we had to squat in the woods together before we got to the trailhead. coffee.



 
 

erica looks happy here, but that changed. actually, she set the pace really well!
 
 
 
 

we got to blue lakes before the sun hit 'em. they didn't look too blue to me.
 

but they were nice and still, full of fish,
 
 

and surrounded by wildflowers,
 
 

dead bees,

 

and unusual terrain.
 
 
 
 

erica was not very excited about scrambling, but was a good sport.
 
 
 
 
 

but then she began to despair.
 
 
 
 
 

she could only think of getting down...no such luck!
 

cause we were going to the summit! to get photobombed....
 
 
 

coming down was interesting. erica was really scared and had some difficulty with a particular movement.
 
 

 

she also had some difficulty navigating the scree, which made her grumpy, but made me laugh and mutter bizarre things to myself.


but she made it.
 
 
 

and got to look at more pretty flowers,
 

traverse big switchbacks all over again,
 

look at bees,
 

and look down on the now very blue blue lake,
 

which made everybody smile.
 
 

even the grumpy sap tree.
 

our route.


when we got back to montrose, we went out to eat. erica had to call in for attire assistance from julie, who brought her some jeans. but i think she really fit right in and would have been fine at the restaurant.
 

just look to the left of her forehead. see?
 

that's right. walmart.
 

so, it was a fun day and overall a really great weekend. alfie also had a big weekend
 

with his aunt ellie,
 

which tuckered him big time.