Under Pressure

Mercedes seems to do extremely well working under pressure. When she found out she was going to Austrailia and wasn't sure exactly when she was supposed to be back, she went into full scale project-send-mode, and the two of us when full scale for an epic climbing weekend! (two weekends ago) Starting on Friday night at Morrison, she did Tendonitis Traverse from the low start first try, in the dark (no pictures). It was 82 degrees when we got back to the cars at 9:30PM. JJ will back me up on giving Merc double points for her send in the heinous conditions.

The next day we went to Red Cliff where she finished off Return of the Jedi V8. In two burns. It was her first V8... she skipped V7.

Alexa joined in on the fun and worked Minturn Mile. She actually does climb when Lucas isn't around.

On Sunday Mercedes and I headed to Emerald to try The Kind. I apparently need more pressure, as I failed to send yet again. I'm going to use the "it was my third day on" excuse for this one...

SO - Congrats to Mercedes! We can't wait for you to come back!

Upper Chaos Canyon

On Saturday, Matt, Fiona, Karyn and I got our first tour of Upper Chaos Canyon from Dave and Kevin. The hike is long, but the views are spectacular.

The meadow boulder couldn't be in a more beautiful setting. We ran into the Fort Collins crew, and had a great time climbing all day with perfect temps. Karyn, Fiona, and I tried the prow up the center of the meadow boulder...this thing is hard when you can't keep feet.

I was chucking for the hold, but to no avail...

From there we moved on to Skipper D.

Fiona working out the starting moves...

Kevin is getting close, trying to figure out which of his 6 variations of beta is the way to send.

Dave started the send train before I could get the camera out.

Collin made quick work of this awesome line.

Jason borrowed a velcro shoe and sent once the heel of his shoe wasn't popping off.

Matt's proud send...

And one more (because I spent a lot more time taking pictures than climbing)

We also stopped by El Jorge, where Dave put down the far Left El Jorge. He managed to avoid the camera all day...

Today we are tired.