family visits

the sartins came to visit us in early january. little joseph loves to eat things. any thing works, but crayons are pretty swell. we're really excited for nikki, erik, joseph, elise, and sammy sartin to return/move to colorado. about time!
       

a week later, erica and i went to the east coast. been quite some time! the snow storm was nice - the rock gym was empty!
   
   

safety check? 1.
 

2.
 

3.
 
   
   

when we got home, we met the mays for dinner and picked up alfie. like joe, little noelle also likes to do weird things. evidently so does her dad.
 
 

holidays in the trose

julie and les endured a long visit to montrose - julie whipped together all sorts of christmas goodies and decorations. yum.
     
   
   
 

alf's obligatory elven photo:
 


he got excited by his aunt spooking the cows.


les brought us out to dry creek, which had some fun sport routes. we gathered beta and returned a couple days later.  

fun layback.
 

ellie was in tow, so les observed from above. and hauled our gear out - thanks!
 

we also made it down to ouray for some ice climbing. the canyon was mighty cold.
         

on new year's eve we returned again and walked the perimeter trail. evidently the spot we're standing on was closed to protect bighorn sheep, but there wasn't a sign on the route we took. oops!
   

box canyon!
   

photo fun. this was the closest we got to fireworks. too sleepy for 'em.
     

we did some more ice climbing on new year's day, my big three oh.
 

alfie was as usual pretty pooped from his montrose romps.
 

but he was really excited about this new ski bag perch.
 

umbrella tree

amanda made me really jealous the other night when she told me about her 5.10+ in the midst of recouping from her foot puncture, so i decided that erica and i needed to get on some rock again. we've been a bit sad about the recent lapse in climbing, but standing around belaying in the cold just isn't so fun, as we learned when we were on "the young and the rackless" a month ago.

remedy: last night erica and i went bouldering at the boulder rock club, where we saw a bunch of semi-famous climbers from the boulder scene. our hands were toasted after - gym climbing always makes me feel like i have millions of needles stuck in my hands, like they've been stretched open. ugh.

today, we visited the umbrella tree at flagstaff mountain, which was one of the first climbs we stumbled upon in boulder while out hiking with alf one day. it gets a lot of sun, so good in winter, bad (burning rock) in summer.

gregory canyon.
 

back of the first flatiron on the left, saddle rock on the ridge to the right, green mountain in the middle. we visited saddle rock a few weeks ago, where i enjoyed a fun, infrequently visited scramble. erica and alfie got a little mad at the wait though...there have been a bunch of signs around boulder's parks warning of mountain lion risk and the need to leash dogs - scarycool!
 

so, umbrella tree. i first climbed the center 5.10, then erica did the 5.7(?) to the left that i'm on here. this was about the hardest 5.7 i've been on, but the bulges sure were fun. erica did an impressive job of zipping right up the crux...i, on the other hand, pondered for a bit before performing a weird half mantle. on the 5.10, there's an interesting (juggy and conglomerate) boulder problem on the top ledge just below the anchor - i was super pumped, so it took me a minute, a motivating word or two, and a few false starts to top out.


as you can see, i gots me a beard! i was supposed to trim this for thanksgiving. oops.

naughtiness

alf was a very bad boy this week. he ate a couple pounds of chocolate earlier in the week, which offered an unusual sight when we returned from dinner...a few very large piles of dark brown matter and a dog who couldn't even get up off the floor, even for kibble or pork fat. it took us a couple minutes to realize what was going on and what he had eaten. since it was pretty dark chocolate, we thought he was maybe a goner, but alf survived. not without some intense expulsions and moaning, though. oh, we later made brownies from the unspoiled chocolate that he left in the bag on the kitchen floor. they were great!

a couple days after chocofest, erica returned home to find this (oh, and the floor and carpet are always that nasty, nothing special there):
 
 
 

alfie got in to another cupboard and ate a half pound or so of flour - what a naughty!
 

after both of these events, alfie refused to eat anything, which made administering his seizure meds interesting. he finally got back to his normal self today, though again he had pulled down a couple of things in the kitchen - no food, just pan lids that cut open his nose. will he ever learn?

though i've been very upset with him, alfie and i had a really good afternoon yesterday. we went for a quick hike up bear canyon in south boulder while erica studied for finals. we saw a bunch of really fuzzy deer grazing and basking in the sun and as we headed up the cooler canyon, he was such a good (no fussing), speedy (with time for sniffs) guy despite being in the midst of recovery from a flour plug in his gut (which enjoyed a dramatic, irretrievable expulsion halfway through our trek).

i had such a good time that erica and i went back this afternoon (sans alf) after we saw amahl at the methodist church this morning. it was a good performance, though erica reminded me of some key lines that were missing. anyway, the hiking was fun, especially when we crossed the creek to find the cave on that adventure hike that i mentioned previously. the slabs were a little too iced to get up there, but the trail offered some good views of the cave, which is close to the second farthest ridgeline just above and to the right of erica's head.
 
 
 
 
 

that's bear peak and boulder peak in the background. i'd hoped to make it to the top of bear (on the left), but erica reminded me of the staircase down the east side plus her bone spur was acting up, so we just enjoyed the ridge that's peeking out from behind her shoulder.
 

or at least i did.