skiing sourdough

nikki, erik, erica, and i trudged out around brainard lake a couple weekends ago. it was soooo cold and windy (gusts to 55mph), but sourdough trail was thankfully sheltered pretty well. it made for a swell outing.


we stopped at the high point and checked out the backside of the flatirons. rising to the left of the left pine tree is sugarloaf, to the right is green, the sacred cliffs descending into bear canyon, with nebel horn popping up on the rise to bear. south boulder is obscured and still closed to traffic.


erik has a flashy new jacket (go nean!). i have a flashy big beard.


erica and i came back this past weekend and skied the south side of the trail. this was a bit less tame but, given the awesome weather, much busier.


stopped at the same spot for some good cookies. erica's getup was awesome.


what wasn't awesome was my poles' baskets both disintegrating right at the trailhead. quite a shock! i hadn't used these in a few years, but never imagined they'd just become daggers. this was fine for the shallow snow at the start, but was pretty terrible in the four foot drifts. there were some strange folks hiking out in those drifts despite the fact that they all had snowshoes. the trashed trail didn't help matters. grr. i got grumpy.


saving the best for last... it was hard to stay a grump with this kind of entertainment.

jenny comes to boulder

jenny came to visit cu last month. yay! we got out a bit and saw some folks around boulder: a film star, documentary film subject, and an ultra/mountain runner.

on touch down, we sampled some grilled meats, primal baked goods (ick), and beer in denver. the next day, we did a little climbing on the second. i'd wanted to try this with a 60m rope the weekend before jenny's arrival, but didn't get a chance. we ended up doing a tiny amount of simuling. i hear jenny and amanda got a stern warning on this from their gym rat, but i was glad jenny threw caution to the wind. and didn't fall.

jenny approaching the top of the first pitch:


hanging at the top of the first pitch. nice big ledge here - i'm sure it was worth the simuling to get there...


because jenny was not at all happy at the top of the next pitch! i had to wrestle that hand off the rock so she could tend to the rope.


she said no, no, no!


ay. on the third pitch, just before the jump.


doesn't she look ready to tackle anything? well, somehow, jenny didn't know about the jump. i don't know how this happened... but for more details, take a gander. anyway, we made it to the top, took a peak at the mountains from the back of the first, and called it a day. on to larkburger! good prep for a full day of interviews.


after jenny's intense day of interviews, we scrambled up fumbledeedum.


erica got a little mad at the first rock stretch - getting me good here.


jenny appears to be in good spirits here, which was good for leading the cave. later, she was not so happy with the exposure and declined to swing a leg over a boulder to join me on a cliff. i think there was some hyperventilating going on, but she got it under control for erica's sake.


and both put on a smile for my sake. yay.


the snow started coming down shortly after this - mud city! on returning to town, it was time for stout, stocking up on chocolove and peace love. yum. sadly, that was about it for our visit before jenny flew on to other schools. good luck deciding!