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!
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