Graham's visit

Graham, my nephew, visited for a week at the end of August. Just now getting around to posting it! He's almost 15...and has renewed my faith in teens. Another great Seyffert kid! Wow, Will and Linda are amazing parents.

Some fun things we did with him are go the a Willie Nelson concert at Red Rocks (pix below), mountain bike, play guitar hero, go to Elitch Gardens (roller coasters and water slides), and chow down on hot pot.

Fun Filled Week with the Nieces - River Rafting Outing

Emma and Hannah stayed for the week and we had so much fun! The highlight was heading up to Glenwood Springs for a white water river rafting and kayaking day. The first half of the day, was spent 8 miles up river from the town, riding the larger rapids. I think the largest might have been a 3. As you can see from the beginning of the slide show, it's fairly frothy and absolutely fun! It was also COLD! We started in the morning and the sun was not in the canyon yet. Each white water section dumped on us generously...where was the 90 degree temps promised! They had us paddling but we're fairly sure the guide did all the work.



Finally the sun peaked into the canyon to warm us some. As we entered calmer waters, we entertained ourselves by chucking each other overboard. At midday, we came ashore and chowed down on the bbq lunch provided by the guide service. Sufficiently dried, warmed, and fed, we headed back to the river. This time, we had a smaller raft and a couple of double and single kayaks. We all traded off and took turns in the kayaks. The guide gave us some basic tips and set us off. I'm sure nothing was larger than a 1+, but being lower to the water made for more excitement and good fun. When that didn't keep us busy, splashing, chasing down the person with the water gun, and dunking them did.

After the rafting tour ended, we headed back to the hotel. Apparently we hadn't had enough of water. The hotel pool had a killer kiddy water slide. It was amazing how much speed you could pick up in it!! I tried to warn the guys but they thought it couldn't be that bad. On the second to last turn, each one of them picked up so much speed, they slammed in to the side of the slide causing an enormous splash and commensurate shudder of the slide. We have each of them on video below. Boy, did we get a lot of laughs out of it. We retired to the hot tub to nurse our tired bodies from a hard day of fun!

Climbing Log: Boulder Canyon, Happy Hour Crag

The following Sunday, 8/9, Tori is also free, so we head back to the Happy Hour Crag. The previous Sunday, we eye the 8's next to our climb, Twofers and Twofers Bypass. The roof on Twofers looks heady on lead. So to get a nice warm up, we re-do , I Robot. Tori, once again, no problem. I decide to lead it, since I didn't lead the dihedral section last time. Not too bad. I run out the top of the dihedral at the top of it...seemed better just to go than try to place gear in such an awkward position. This time, the finger crack section is no real problem, particularly the crux.

Unfortunately, as I finish this, we see clouds rolling in again. We decide to top rope the 8's and get in several runs before the rain comes again. The roof on twofers is not bad at all as long as you stem your right leg behind you on the crack to get your body as high as possible. There's a for your left hand and nice brick for your right over the lip. Another one move wonder. Everything before and after is a cake walk. We then hop on Are We Not Men then finish with the rain on Twofers Bypass. We found both of these breezes too. Seemed to us, that I Robot was a bit stiffer than these three with exceptions on the one move cruxes. So it goes.

We pack up and head over to the Tea House again, but it's booked for a wedding so we can't have any scotch eggs! :( So we walk over to Boulder Cafe (?) instead and chow down on sandwiches. Ok but no scotch eggs!

Climbing Log: Boulder Canyon, Happy Hour Crag

(Been way behind on postings!)

Climbed in Boulder Canyon 2 weekends in a row, 8/2 and 8/9. Never been there before. The rock is a wonderful friendly granite. Charis, Tori and I headed out for an easy climbing day on 8/2 and Happy Hour Crag fit the bill. It's so friendly, I finally get my first trad leads of the season in! Yeah!!

The online guide tells of overcrowding on weekends...except for us, there was only 3 other groups there. We started on the far left with the easiest climb in the book, I Robot. Tori, who's been trad leading for years, shot up it easily. I followed and found the initial dihedral with a flared crack a little awkward. The finger crack at the top was a breeze...on top rope. After one full found and waiting out a little bit of rain, I find my nerve and decide to lead the easy variation that starts slightly to the left of the dihedral. The start is then only 5.6., and joins with I Robot for the mid and finish. As I start, the rain begins. The bottom section is a breeze! When I reach the finger crack section, the rain picks up...but more disturbingly, the lightening gets closer, rather than letting up. The finger crack is completely straight forward except for the last move before the jug on top of the flake. There's a small smear for your right foot, and you sort of have to gaston the crack with both hands with your left foot cammed in the crack. Just feels extraordinarily committing on lead plus I've never even fallen on trad gear before. I must be on this spot, unable to commit, for at least 5 minutes. Of course, it doesn't help that a bright flash hits the ridge above us . I look down, and Tori has a helpful smile on her face as her hand gestures, move up...go... Finally, I take a deep breath, tell my silly self, "You're able to hang on pinches in the bouldering cave...so no matter what, you can power through this! Dumbass, just do it!!" This is actually a "calming" mantra and I finally just go. It's literally a one move wonder, I get through it, clip into the anchors...and in pouring rain, clean so we can get out of there. I'm actually fairly exhilarated with my first trad lead of the season.

We go clean up at Charis' and head over to the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. Cool place! The lunch menu is akin to indian cuisine. We decide to order a bunch of apps and share. My favorite is the Scotch Eggs, basically a hard boiled egg encased in pheasant sausage and deep fried. My "tea" drink is Hibiscus tea with sparkling wine. Charis had a green tea mojito...the best mojito I've ever had! Everything was exception for lunch. The desserts weren't too impressive though. But all in all, an amazing day!