mr. sartin on the 3rd

the sartins came to visit yesterday after a last minute invite for erik to climb the third flatiron. yay! it's closing for nesting raptors in a week, so this is the last time to climb that area for a bit.


getting started after a brief review. erik was super mellow about everything. nerves of steel!


though i guess he did note some uncertainty about cranking on some hollow-sounding sections.


we paused for some mutual photo-taking before topping out. and then erik suffered silently, slipping into his bouldering shoes one last time. belays were a great reprieve to pop 'em off.



a rather rushed fellow met us up top and introduced the idea of skipping the second rap, which worked quiet well! it seems something along these lines didn't work as well for some other climbers that day/evening. their rope got stuck on the pull and they were stranded in the rain, requiring rescue. but of course, erik handled these rappels like a champ as well.


then we ate pizza and drank beer. yum. thanks for the visit, sartins!

winter

this winter has been a little tough. i fell while running at dusk last month (had headlamp around wrist, just thought i didn't need it yet) and bashed my knee really hard. and scraped myself up all over - even my back! then i stubbed my toe extremely hard while walking the dog, so i couldn't really run at all. or walk even for a bit. i think it's ok after some stretching, strengthening, and contrast bathing (hot then cold), but i think i'll have difficulty with it going forward. we'll see.

anyway, now that everything seems relatively healed, i finally got out and did some running, hiking, and flatiron scrambling this weekend only to find myself pretty sick now. bleh. but this gives me time to write about what we've been up to, so here's a rundown...we had christmas in montrose, which was intense with all the kids! but fun to be around family folk. and their cookies, which alfie really wanted to snack on. he chewed gra's cookie tin up when i left him alone for a couple minutes and wouldn't give up even when i returned. naughty!


we snuck out from the homestead a few times to ski, snowshoe, run (which i did in rigid hiking boots), and hike. only made it to ouray for a jaunt around the perimeter trail. my toe held up ok.




shooting didn't trouble it too much, thankfully.



late night skiing at the black canyon rim also didn't trouble it. maybe it was the cold?





when we got back to boulder, we went on a hike that turned into a run up bear peak. we hadn't yet been up it since it closed after the fires this past summer.


pretty black.




ben guthrie came to visit from argentina. it was really cold, so couldn't torture him like i did when we huffed, puffed, and shivered while backpacking unprepared for snowfall in oregon's cascades. this time we stayed inside a lot and had some cold jaunts around town. here we are on green mountain.



here ben's standing next to a little monument with a plaque that allows you to pinpoint a bunch of peaks around boulder.


i really like it. so does erica.


we met on top of green this weekend after she ran up the south and i scrambled up the east. it was a little stressful starting on the second without being sure of how icy conditions might be above, and without having climbed in months, but it was a fun outing overall.


you know, initially i thought i might have my cold from exposure, but now i'm thinking it might be these sweet little dolls...


we saw the nieces and nephew for noelle's bday. she got a horse! which everyone wanted to ride. all at once.


but there was only one true cowgirl in the end.