chasm lake

nikki, erica, and i went up to chasm lake on saturday. that's nikki and erica passing the mega cairn. (click to enlarge)


erica and nean kept an impressive pace the whole way up. i thought we would definitely tag mt lady washington (to the right in the below photo), but erica's moon boots (hokas) aren't the most stable for loose terrain and her blisters were acting up - not the best for next week's imogene pass run.


but erica pretty much ran the whole way until we got to around 12k - a good sign for next week!


bandizzle.




chasm lake, with the diamond in the background. didn't see any climbers - maybe due to the late hour.



retreat.


done. on to larkburger!

cast off

i realized that i never shared photos of my break or getting the cast off. here goes! you can pretty clearly see the crack and the chunk that popped out. ick.


the cast was pretty well imprinted on my skin, which was nice and pasty and ripe for peeling.




i was a bit surprised by the bruising and the dark, ingrown hairs. nasty - and they're still dark!


the shrinkage was also a bit of a shock.


but the sloughing was...a delight!

tea & tractors in the trose

les mentioned teakettle and/or coffeepot about a year or so ago, which caught my attention...near 14ers with semi-technical tops - sounded fun!

we finally got to it last weekend, when erica went down for a trial run at elevation (up the blue lakes trailhead) and we met up with the sartins. the start of the climb was right from the parking lot - the road up yankee boy basin was in pretty awesome condition, cutting off many approach miles.

getting down to it.


originally, we thought we'd climb potosi as well, but decided to save it for another day.


climbing the coffeepot crack.



rapping back down.


on to teakettle.


coffeepot and potosi in the background.


i tried to get settled for a photo on the good old timer - wasn't quite fast enough!


what's this?


nerdery!


les didn't seem so sure about this.


but he came around.


and then up.



though not without injury.



the descent was a little loose, causing both les and i to fall and ride out mini rockslides that involved some more blood.


but it sure was beautiful.


later, joseph enjoyed his first tractor ride/drive. he moved a bunch of dirt.


this required great concentration and perhaps a bit of help (and envy!) from his sister.

good morning colorado

erica and i have been celebrating our 2nd anniversary lately, which last night meant late night nachos at mountain sun. we kept telling each other, "you don't have to finish them you know," but we couldn't stop...until it was too late and we had almost finished the mountain of chips.

our appetite was perhaps regrettable: our full guts made it hard to sleep, so when i woke up at 5 from a dream/nightmare about never-ending rappels, i knew i wasn't going to be sleeping anymore. i decided to take alfie on a little jaunt to a favored spot at red rocks. it was nice.