Photarz phor Phoolish Phacez!!!

No two ways around it... my injury time has made me weak. I have been getting some time behind the camera though... check it:

Eric on the Girl Dyno: (Red Cliff)

Happy Diggity:

Diggs working Rupture: (Morrison South)

Eric on Rutpture:

Diggs finishing Return of the Jedi (Red Cliff)

Eric on "Jedi"

TJ coloring outside the lines:

Sarah working Squirming Coil (Morrison South)

Eric finishing Disani (Morrison South)

Erica crushing Star Crossed Lovers (Red Cliff)

Eric getting a feel for the moves on Star Crossed Lovers

Eric burling through the opening moves of Minturn Mile (Red Cliff)

OH YEA! I actually went sport climbing with TJ yesterday... and now have a rope project to finsih. I'm SOOOOO weak after all the down time! Ahh well, it's good to be pulling a little bit again. PSYCHED!

Eldorado Canyon

Due to my retail schedule, I had this past Sunday off for Easter. What the heck else would I do but go climbing????

Eldo Canyon was pretty chilly for this late in April, but the temps were perfect for bouldering. Our first objective was the Gill Block where we warmed up on jugs and then got distracted with the IMPOSSIBLE V3 slabs on the front side. Those of you who have ever tried to photograph TJ know why this shot is significant. (Mainly the fact that it exists for the rest of you.)

Diggs used her little monkey fingers combined with some solid footwork to top out "Crimp me silly" V3

TJ and I tried (and failed) to follow in her footsteps but the slab was just not our thing... TOES HURT IN BOULDERING SHOES ON SLAB!!!!

Diggs and TJ were psyched on some other lines on this boulder, and made some progress. Diggs was trying 606 (V10) and moving through the starting moves very well!

Unfortunately she only gets a few goes because the holds are so heinous! (I agree with Ben Elkon's description... INSULTINGLY SMALL.)

TJ messed with "The Grinch" (V11 / V12) and got a feel for the holds.

I was psyched on a problem called "3 feet high and rising" (V7) further down canyon, and once their skin was feeling the crimpers we headed there.

A couple tension moves lead you to a big throw to a sloper. SUPER FUN!

TJ (re)sent quickly and although I did it in overlapping parts, could not put it together. I also seem to have hurt my left shoulder a little bit, so lets hope this is just a tweak and not something serious!

Psyched to go back and send sometime, and super psyched our Easter session didn't get rained out! Where's everyone headed this weekend?

Just a few photos i'm psyched on...

Best/Worst idea ever:

Situner in Clear Creek... Photo by Danny Madson Situner in Clear Creek... Photo by Danny Madson

Diggs in Joe's Valley... Photo by Danny Madson

Situner in Joe's Valley... Photo by Danny Madson

That's right... Danny's got some skillz with that magic picture box.

Springtime Newlin

Thanks to those of you who have read this blog in the past and are giving me a foot in the rear to get going again!

This past weekend was all about getting SHUT DOWN at Newlin but having a good time anyway.

Diggs was messing with a line known as "Bear Trap" V7 and can do it in two parts. Unfortunately the link-up didn't come on this trip.

The crimp is SOOOO wicked! I worked on "Old Guard" a bit, also making progress, but no sends in that dept. either. Not a terribly productive two day trip, but certainly nice to be outside and even climbing in shorts and a T-shirt at times again!

Hurry up alpine season! We're waiting.

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!