Remember Berthoud and Buddah Caves?

Well, guess what? They're still there!

This past Saturday, I had the great pleasure of sneaking out of work early and heading up to everyone's favorite choss pile; Castlewood Canyon! I met up with Shawn, Alexis, and Elizabeth who all had psyche levels running high, and their game faces on! We warmed up at Buddha cave with everyone making quick ascents of the usual. EVERYONE flashed Buddha. PROUD.

Elizabeth make quick work of Phillips Problem V4 and Alexis worked moves on a tougher variation while Shawn and I messed with an obscure v5.

From there, it was up to Berthoud Canal. Alexis was making good progress, and Elizabeth came EXTREMELY close to sticking the big move on link.

When I say EXTREMELY, I mean she was all over it but couldn't contain that crazy swing. She'll be sending next time for sure!

We also messed with After Berthoud V8, and Placenta V6 with Shawn pulling a nice last go send of the latter. The rest of us pulled roof moves until we were totally wiped out.

Nice job Shawn!

I pulled down on an old project (Berthoud Hips) but by the time Beta was remembered, the core was giving up.

Ahh well. Id be psyched to go back sometime soon! I like berthoud a lot and it was a beautiful session of T-Shirt climbing in the middle of winter. PSYCHED!!!

Speaking of excitement...This weekend is MOAB!!!!!! We leave tomorrow morning, and climb through early next week! All are invited and all will enjoy. Hope to see you out there!

Yay Eldo!

Sunshine, smiles and sends perfectly describe this past Saturday which I had the pleasure of spending at Eldorado Canyon with a psyched group of new and old friends.

We all warmed up at the Gill block and had a great time playing on the non-snowy front side. Elizabeth pulled out a "soaked topout" ascent of the back-side V5 which was awesome to watch. NICE!

Ben Elkon played a bit with "606" but found that the holds felt like gummy bears. (except for the part where they are tearing at his fingers) We decided a change of boulder was in order.

My project for the day was "Resonated". Ben and Rich were also psyched, so we rolled down to the stream bed to try this problem while the iced over landing was still solid.

Ben sent this rig in a single session and in COMPLETE control. Very cool and fun to watch.

It was my second day on the problem and though I struggled to remember beta intricacies at first, I was able to ride Ben's send-train and thrutch through all the moves.

I'm REALLY psyched to have finished this problem, and especially with the amped crew that was around.

After the sun was going down, we decided to go support TJ on a rad project in the canyon. Unfortunately, it required an epic Ice-Bridge river crossing, some serious postholing in talus, and a good attitude to stay psyched.

TJ climbed strong, which was awesome (no pictures due to spoting duties... sorry) and then Elizabeth and I tried a V4 / V15 on the same boulder. Her hands were too cold to feel the holds, and my feet too cold to tell if they were solid or not, so we decided it was time to call it a day.

Thanks to everyone who came out and was psyched this weekend! I had a great time!
Also: Moab climbing trip coming soon, and media to follow. EVERYONE IS INVITED, and should come!

First photo and photos of "Resonated" courtesy of Elizabeth.

Gummy Bears and Ice Climbers

On Sunday, I got my first tour of Eldorado Canyon with Rich and 2x Matt M. (Matt Miller and Matt Merrell). We started with warm ups on the Gill Block. Despite the slippery texture of the holds, all of us put some effort in on the V6 crimpfest. Situner fired off the only send, and then got out the camera to take pictures. Rich working out beta: I am really psyched to go back and put more effort in on this one! It's a really awesome climb, but wears through skin quickly!

Next up was Resonate (V9). Matt and Rich and Matt spent some time on this one, and sends are definitely coming soon.

Weird for a climber to say, but hopefully it stays cold and snow enough for the river to stay frozen and have this one be climbable...

Matt and Matt worked out some semi-skin friendly beta.

Determined that commitment was the answer, Rich got on Germ Free Adolescence (V5). He was rewarded with a proud winger from the lip. Both the climber and spotter walked away with relatively minor scraps and bruises... and a story about the REALLY BIG ONE! (photo evidence proves it's not an exaggeration)

Matt decided to give this one a go and pulled off a flash (much to the relief of everyone below!) Nice job Situner!

I was a bit wary after watching Rich's big fall, and although I got on, I definitely didn't have try-hard to want to get to the lip, let alone pull over! I might take advice of Brian Kimball and try this on top rope before going for the gutsy mantle...

Awesome climbing day!

Happy Birthday Rich!

Utilizing Bob Horan Tactics...

No climbing friends could be pulled out of the woodwork for Thursday sessioning, so I headed out to my new Castlewood / Morrison / Haunt, GARDEN OF THE GODS!!!

It was back to the snake pit to finish up something I had been messing with last time. It was beautiful out, and I was the only person around. RAD. Utilizing Bob Horan inspired tactics, I was able to create a few self portraits of me pulling down on some problems. (the main difference between Bob's photos and my own is that I actually CLIMBED the lines I am pictured on)

The one below is a really squeezy arete on poor slopers that has an ass-dragger start. All the makings of some solo-session fun! After figuring out some body position issues, I pulled the crux move, and got to enjoy the next 10 feet of easy, enjoyable climbing. Definitely my favorite way to spend a day off!

I have at least one day off this weekend... can anyone tell me if the Kahuna boulder is still submerged, or if it might be climbable?

Saturday Beer Sesh Installment

This past saturday, the stars aligned. The weather was warm, it hadn't snowed, and I got out of work early enough to hit up a quick beer sesh. in the Garden of the Gods.

Not a lot to report. Did a 7 and a 6 and some fun zero and one problems. It was cool to watch my buddy Nate do his first outside boulder problem. Now I understand why I was so entertaining to Jaeger when we were starting out.

So much psyche!!!!

Suffer for it installment...

BURRRRRR!

Last Sunday, Rich Diggs and I headed out the the Millennium boulder in search of sunshine, sends and glory. Instead, we had clouds, snow and a little progress.

See Rich's fingertip up there? Yea. Gross. How did that happen? Well, he was working Ghost Dance when he did a one handed clap off of the starting hold and nearly exploded his hand. I thought sendage was imminent, but numb hands mixed with small holds didn't give it up.

On closer inspection, it looks like a blood-blister forming UNDER a normal blister! WOAH, and GROSS!!! Hope its healing up well dood.

Rich was understandably bummed after this development, but still continuted to climb. What a trooper!

I tried to mimic Rich's bummed face, and instead looked like a movie scene where the guy in the bar fight gets hit over the head with a bottle, and stands there wobbling before passing out. (Rich's Description)

Then came the pleading "please don't post that" face. I post both here to beat diggs to the punch :)

I had a great time making very good progress on Cannibal Dance Sit and also thought a send might be achievable.

Unfortunately, the small right hand crimp tore a hole in one of my pads, and I had to call it a day. But at that point, we were all becoming human Popsicles and were ready to hike back.

Diggs climbed a bit as well, trying the V7 start to Ghost Dance, but figured out more quickly than Rich or I that it was a bit uncomfortable climbing in such cold, breezy weather.

We all had a great time though, and any day out is always better than a non-climbing day! What has everyone else been up to?

New Stone (New to me anyway)

Last day of the year, 2009 Rich played hookie from work, and I had the day off. What else would we do but go climbing?

I wish all boulders in CO were this close to the parking! We went up to Eldorado canyon where I had not yet had the pleasure of bouldering... We started out on the Gill Block... which was absolutely FREEZING, but had fun doing a couple easier problems for warming up purposes. From there we headed up into East Draw to give Rich a few goes on his mini-proj. Pig Dog.

He had the thing wired from a previous session, and sent in a couple-three goes. NICE WORK DOOD!!!!

By totally ignoring Rich's well-thought out and well-executed beta, It took me several goes to figure this thing out and send. I'm totally psyched. It was a lot of fun!

After our sends, we messed with The Infinite for a bit and got it mostly figured out before having too sore tips to pull out a send. We both did the warm-up thing to the right of pig-dog and called it a day.

Good to be out pulling, and good to squeak one last new tick in before the New Year!