Sub-Freezing climbing weekend!

Saturday was all about freezing at Big Elk Meadows and Boulder Canyon...

Nothing went down at big elk, but Diggs, Erika and I all pulled out sends of "The Citadel" despite shivering and running for puffys between burns.

Sunday was supposed to be nicer but we headed to the refrigerator that is NEWLIN CREEK!

A quick start to the day on the Nickness boulder where I flashed Optical Reverb (V5) and JJ worked out some of the moves to B3PO... Witness the wicked double toe hooks: Erika had not yet tried Atari Arete, so we headed to the midway boulders where diggs did a quick repeat...

And Erika sent in only a few burns! Nice jorb ladies!

JJ was psyched on working "The Green Iguana" V8 and I tried to help remember beta while he cleaned the holds.

Here is a terrible photo of what is a very entertaining problem to climb:

We finished up the day in the new sector where diggs and I had some old business to attend to: Uncivilized! I'm VERY psyched to say that we both sent, and Erika was doing well working out the moves.

Despite the freezing cold, a pretty successful weekend! Double sends on projects? You BETCHA!!!! Anyone getting out this weekend?

Danny B-day C-wood sesh...

Due to recent snowing in other front-range climbing areas, Danny's birthday session was brought to the humble venue of Castlewood Canyon. Although this particular auditorium was not built to hold such psyche and awesomeness, below is the unfolding of the days events.

We warmed up at the Buddha cave where Danny proceeded to flash pretty much everything... Including this shot of "REAL SPORTS ACTION".

From there, it was up to the Berthoud caves where we messed around with the thuggy roof lines and spent most of our time with our butts in the dust. Danny made it his personal goal to find all of the huecos of the cave that were social and stick his head in them... Freud would have a field day with that one.

On the way in, I had pointed out to Danny a couple boulders that I had always walked past, but never went to look at. He was psyched, so on the way back to the car, we hiked past the cows that were inside the park boundary (WTF) and scoped them out.

One boulder did yield a highball choss problem that we both sent, and enjoyed the sunshine and views afforded by the area.

I'm not sure it had been done before, but it will likely never be done again as it was raining choss the whole time, the landing sucks (we didn't even bother with pads) and the holds are less than solid. Ahh well. It was still fun and certainly got the heart going!

Happy birthday to Danny, and thanks for coming out and making it a really fun sesh at the Ole Wood!

Snowed out at Emerald... Play ANYWAY!!!

This past weekend, we got snowed out at Rocky, but we still had a great time messing around in the middle of the road below the bear lake lot...

Mercedes was a good sport about posing down and jumping around like a mad-woman!

Merc has some serious hops!

Later we ended up at big-elk meadows where Merc fought through the "Campus Problem" and I had a good time knocking off the moderates on the block.

Psyched to be trying "Get over it" and making good progress... A little cooler temps, and I think its there!

PSYCHED PSYCHED PSYCHED for fall, cooler temps and fun sessions!

Vacation Photos

As I sit here and type, vacation is coming to a close...

It was awesome! This shot was from a bar in San Diego where they were giving out porno-mustaches... I collected a few from friends and came up with a face Kevin could be proud of.

As we had hoped, we had a great time surfing. It took a go or two to remember how to stand up, here diggs is wiping out big time. PROUD. Diggs on a good one!

OHHHH YEAAAAA!!! PSYCHED!!!!

Diggs had quite a few fun rides... Check out that smile!

Sunset at Pacific Beach.

We went out to the Stone brewery and took the tour which included beer sampling (yay)!

Mike smelling the hops Stone throws into their Ruination and IPA brews. MMMMM.

Diggs going "Blech! That's strong!"

We went to Balboa Park in SD and had a great time running around. Here diggs takes a run at the camera on the "Lawn Bowling" court.

Ahh yes. Gotta get a bouldring fix in somehow. Teva flip flops edge almost as well as Mad Rocks! (nyuk nyuk nyuk)

Too cute to live on the lawn bowling court.

I took away a cool shot at dusk at one of the museums in balboa park...

We got home Saturday evening and headed out to Lincoln Lake with Jaeger on Sunday for a little climbing.

Sends were enjoyed by all... Diggs got Chalk on Rock v8, Jaeger nailed down sea bass? v8, and liquid peanut butter v7 (pictured), I knocked out vaporizer v7 and liquid peanut butter as well as JJ's warm ups; Irish coffee v4 and Mimosa v2...

A great way to end vacation, and a nice reminder why we choose to live in Colorado. BECAUSE ITS AMAZING HERE!!!!

Lincoln / The Park

Saturday: Lincoln

Sunday: The Park

Didn't shoot any great photos, but it was fun to give Franchesco a tour of a couple great areas here in Colorado!

I got to finish the project on Saturday and knocked out "The Anvil" as I'd hoped. Psyched!

Diggs flashed "For Irie" V6 in short order! Proud! Her hardest flash to date!

Sunday we went to lower chaos where it was hot and humid, not great climbing conditions. Time was spent on various projects, but nothing was sent.

Evans area A tomorrow! Digging the vacation time!

Eventually, better photos of Lincoln will be found on Jaeger's blog.

Last Weekend Lincoln Lowdown... and guanella too.

This past weekend was NOTHING BUT CLIMBING!!!!!! Amazing. Lincoln lakes was very warm, but it was still a very productive session!

We arrived early with Jaeger, who immediately made use of the roadside facilities... (shudder) After trying the hike in from the East side of the canyon we headed to "Small Arms" where Jaeger put in some excellent efforts but no sends. To his credit, it was WARM.

I have officially dubbed "chalk on rock" an es-tupid climb, and I will not be devoting more skin or time to it. This is a really nice shot by diggity however...

This V5 shares the name of the road sign above and it is probably the best of grade I have seen yet at Lincoln! Diggs crushed it in good style.

Tom on "Northern Aggression"... This line has great moves low and turns terrifying above. Tom and I shared a high-point and Jaeger went on to send. Nice jorb dood.

OMG!! OMG!!! OMG!!!!! I'm psyched to get back to Lincoln this weekend and finish this problem!!! It's called "The Anvil" and goes at about V7. Definitely worth a visit. (can't get a great idea of the line from photo, but I assure all... IT IS GOOD!)

Sunday was spent driving up the back way to Guanella and playing on the new moderates that Thomas Betterton and Rich Haas cleaned up and sent.

Diggs warming up at Guanella:

The lines on the "Mind Matters" boulders are GOOOOOOD! It's amazing no one has taken the time to clean them up prior to this!

Thomas on "Blocky Matters" V6-ish.

I didn't get a lot of great photos of these problems due to the CRAZY HIGH-ENERGY SESSION THAT WAS SURROUNDING THE BOULDER WITH MADNESS, but I will be sure to get some next time I go back.

I'm now looking forward to 10 days of climbing, surfing, and just plain having fun! Updates on how that works out to come...

Photo Update

Updates seem to be coming slow these days in the climbing blogosphere...

But here are some photos of different things I've been up to lately.

I took some photos of bikes for a friend who is doing custom powder coating work...

He's building some really pretty one-offs that I'd be psyched to ride.

View into Lincoln from the road on a stormy day.

Laughing with the boys.

Diggs with new betas for "The Idiot". Nice send lady.

Sillyness mostly.

Jaeger on "Unshackeled" at Lincoln. He sent.

View up canyon from the ridge above area A at Evans.

Diggs getting warm.

Situner finishing up old business. (Diggs Shot)

Diggs on Ludder's Pinch.

Sunset from the Dali wall.

It's been a good summer so far. I'm looking forward to working less, and cool fall temps! All on the way, and all in good time.