2nd anniversary / 3rd flatiron

this weeks is erica's and my second anniversary. woohoo! we (i?) decided to climb the third flatiron to celebrate this and my wrist recovery.

erica's not looking so sure about this climb. she thought she had just peed on herself, but turns out it was her platypus leaking. didn't learn that until a couple days later though!



getting started off the east bench.


nerves. exacerbated by the fact that i just dropped my biggest hex and watched in hop down the rock. i later climbed down and retrieved it - the rock was super brittle below the standard route, just flaking all over.


anniversary jacket! i could have left at least half the gear at home, considering i made only a few placements each pitch. turns out i didn't even need that hex i dropped. good riddance - for the moment.



happy again.


and really happy to be done.




something special going on here...

longs

erica and i went up to fort collins recently. i decided to climb longs peak via the loft and it made for a good day, despite forgetting my socks back at nikki and erik's house and getting lost a couple of times while driving (i was rather sleep deprived from my neighbor partying at 4am the night before).

sunrise from the loft.


longs' summit and the ship's prow to the right.


mt meeker.


longs and prow again from meeker.


clark's arrow - decades ago a ranger (john clark) provided this graffiti to help climbers find the right couloir to return to the loft.


i napped on the summit before returning via the keyhole, which was fun. lots of nervous comments from folks freaked out by the exposure in the narrows and the trough. the sky was super...clouds popping bright white. i bumped into a lot of older gents just sitting by the trail, gazing north to estes at the developing clouds.

a really unlucky day

several hours after my pabst (below), we were still without water, so i left to get some and some birthday goods. en route, my bike's front tire skidded out on a turn and i broke my wrist. poo! i'm headed in to the ortho's in a few days for a cast. no more climbing for a while. also, no more pabst as i consume vast quantities of ibuprofen.

the second on an unlucky day

i returned to the second flatiron yesterday, friday the 13th. it was a nice speedy break at the end of my work day. the hike up and run down weren't enough to toast my knees, since erica and i had a good run this morning.

after our run we went shopping for a bit. when we returned, we found our water shut off after the guys renovating our place hit the main. oops. i was so happy to find a little water in a nalgene. with that gone, not much was left but pabst!

fumbledeedum

i finally got to fumbledeedum, the adventure hike i mentioned a while ago. unfortunately, i forgot that i used up my camera's battery when i was out with dave last week. oops. camera phone came in handy though.

the route follows the middle ridgeline, not on the top of the ridge, but just below the slabs among the caves formed by the slabs and the chockstones below them.


first cave.


too much fresh poo. up and over.


second cave. what a goodie. climbed the left wall in the dark to emerge in a small slot - had to remove the backpack to get out.


also pulled the bag for this army crawl!


some of the random massive chocks lingering about.


my route, kinda. the geeps got a little confused after the caves, projected me all over the place like i was in a hovercraft.


after, i decided to climb the route that inspired the fumbledeedum excursion before joining erica in denver for some fun with friends. yay.

picnic, boulder style

it's erica's spring break, but we haven't gotten to do nearly enough fun things for her. boo. so tonight we went on a picnic to our most recent favorite spot among the red rocks at settlers' park.





erica is enjoying a really delicious new chocolate here. yum.


this of course made alfie rather curious. got some for meeeez?

seal rock

erica and i got a little climbing in this weekend at woods quarry in the flatirons. the sun was awesome, as were the many chairs formed from giant blocks. the holds, weren't quite as awesome. i got to use the rare crimp & smear combo to negotiate the routes. my butt really hurt from the awkward slab technique, but i had a good time.

the next day, dave and i slaboneered seal rock. that's it in the center & to the left is the goose. unfortunately, i got a little too excited on the approach and went towards the wrong cave on the other side of the valley. oh well - we got to check out some fun boulders and squeeze in a bit more cardio.



nice lengthy approach, even without the missed turn.


fun start, not unlike the second flatiron...a little less featured, though less steep.




looking back from the top of the first pitch. oh, btw, this is dave's first trad climb. my routefinding mistake allowed us to bump into connor, my old boss from the farm. it was his first climb ever, which was pretty cool considering the funky rappel off the top.


seems to be a happy first trad climb. i hope!





cresting the top of the third pitch at the neck of the seal. the wind had really picked up by this point, so i was glad to have made it to a little cleft for windbreaking. connor's party was not quite so lucky - had to stop 15 feet shy of the cleft...brr.


not sure when dave snagged this photo from the cleft - perhaps while i was struggling to take up rope... i'm looking forward to trying out the new petzl reverso to help with this.


took us two pitches to get up to the top, where we were greeted by plenty o clouds.





the rap was pretty lengthy with an awkward start between a giant sloping flake and the wall. it made my finger bleed. pretty impressive for dave and connor, i must say.



we got some fresh rain and winds on the return - smelled great. i was really craving a burger, but instead found myself making brussel sprouts and peanuts, a take on a dish erica and i had a riffs, our new favorite happy hour.