Cynical Pinnacle

Though the stars did not align for us to get out to Indian Creek this weekend, Dave, Wally and I took advantage of super weather Saturday and went to Cynical Pinnacle in the South Platte. Neither Dave nor I had been there. It was a steep approach but not as bad as Wally remembered from past trips out there.

We climbed Center Route, sweet 3 pitches to nearly the top of the spire. I lead p1, very nice with a mildly spicy layback finish. P2 was a very burly 9+…good lead Dave! P3 was a blast and Wally motored up it. At the top, there’s a “bonus” 11b, Class Act, to top out on the spire. Dave was the only one that managed to top out. Wally and I suffered from freezing our a$$es off syndrome and our hands became too stoopid and useless to master the thin traverse. Regardless, a super climbing day, especially for late November.

So how better to celebrate? Buck Snort!! It’s actually gotten better…microbrews on tap now! But being what it is, we ate quickly and decided to head out to better digs to celebrate. Just as we’re deliberating, I get a fb alert that Kira and kids are heading over to Mead Street Station in the Highlands so Ike can play with the band. Erin joined us there too. It was a fun surprise and we had a blast cheering on Ike and celebrating with Kira’s family. A super topper to a great day of climbing.



Having trouble viewing the slide show? Click here to view the album.

Climbing Log: Turkey Rocks

Climbed Turkey Rocks in the South Platte this weekend with the gals - Silvia, Tori, Kira, Kre, Joseffa, and the kids (Giulia,Ike and Jos). The weather was suppose to be rainy, especially on Sunday. Originally, the plan was to go to Indian Creek, in Utah close to Moab. But the thought of rain on soft sandstone is beyond frightening. Hence we chose to stay closer to home and take advantage of the better forecast for Saturday at least. If Sunday turned sour as forecasted (50% chance), then it was only a couple hours to head home.

As luck would have it, the weather held out on Sat, only spitting in the late afternoon. Sunday however was absolutely beautiful! The wind abated, it was partially sunny, and in the 70's - a perfect day to be out!

I won't go over too much detail about the climbs as time does not permit but wanted to get the climbs logged in. I didn't lead a thing - my first 7 was fairly stiff and enough to put me in full chicken mode. Here, Here! to all the gals that did lead, especially on the final day - wow those climbs are hard!!

Day 1 -
Turkey Perch: Honky Jam Ass Crack (L- Tori), Ragger Bagger & Reefer Madness
All the kid climbed HJAC and were amazing!

Day 2 -
Turkey Tail: Turkey’s Delight (L - Joseffa & Silvia) & Rasmussen (L - Kre / I can't believe I made it to the top of this even on TR!). The tough ladies (i.e. not me) also did Whimsical Dreams (L - Joseffa)

Turkey Perch: Left Handed Jew (L - Silvia & Tori) Giulia made it to the top of this & hung out nonchalantly as mom self belayed herself up to retrieve her. Giulia was too light to be lowered! Concerned? Not at all...she entertained herself by swinging on the rope and going "whhheeeeee!"

Once again, not a lot of photos but here are some cute ones:

Cherokee Ranch Castle

Mom was here for a visit before her trip to Germany. Took her to tour the Cherokee Ranch Castle just down the street from me, maybe some 15 miles. It's built in 1926, on a bluff with incredible vistas of the valley, foothills, and Rockies. The stories about the second and primary owner of the property, Tweet Kimball, brought such life to place. Incredible woman.

It was a beautiful clear morning as you can tell by the color of the sky in several shots. Sure, some it due to the camera exposure, but you can't get that rich color except on days like these. It's gorgeous lately; fall now so we're in for more wonderful temperate days. I love this time of year. Each day, more leaves turn...I need to set of and start taking fall pix. Love the rich colors.

I'll have to go back with my "real" camera. Took lots of pix with my pocket camera and something happened to corrupt 90% of the pictures I took. Very sad. But maybe if I get out there in the next couple of weeks, I can capture some of the castle surrounded by fall colors.

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!

Climbing Log: Castlewood Canyon, Grocery Store Wall

Climbed at Castlewood Canyon with Janet. Short routes but interesting. Topped everything...'cuz you can. For my Dallas, TX friends, this reminded me of Mineral Wells. This wall is conglomerate so fairly rough but lots of interesting huecos and embedded pebbles. We started fairly mellow with with Licorice Stick and Rain Dance.
I found the start of Rain Dance Crack, to be a difficult thin move but otherwise very nice. We ended surrounded by mosquitoes on Gorilla Milk Direct so called it after the initial climb. We'd like to get back there again but on the east side where the rock looks more like sandstone and the cracks more sustained.

Action Filled Week!

...and I'm so tired! My whole body is sore. Not like when I was in my 20's or even 30's. There's just no bouncing back no matter how hectic. I think I need a rest week, not just a rest day! :)

Here's the recap:

Wednesday - Climbed Clear Creek Canyon, Lower Capitalist Crag, with Andrea after work.
Friday - Hosted Boulder/Pizza night
Saturday - Rode Buffalo Creek trails with Paul, Sandi and Mike
Sunday - Climbed Lumpy Ridge, George's Tree, in Estes Park with Silvia

Phew! I'm exhausted but completely happy and excited about having an action filled summer this year!! I’m also going to try and keep my blog more current with the rides and climbs I’m doing. If nothing else, it’s a nice place to log my activities…god knows I have trouble remembering the simplest things nowadays!

Climbing Log: Lumpy Ridge, The Book, George's Tree

View taken of Long's Peak during hike back to car.

My alarm sounded off at 5:30AM (a novelty for me!) and I picked up Silvia to climb at Lumpy Ridge in Estes Park. The last time I was there, Fred and I climbed a 5.6 on Sundance Buttress. A spooky slabby traverse on the 3rd pitch had me quaking in my boots! Ahh, old school ratings! Nothing better to put you in your place. There’s also the infamous afternoon thunderstorms to add to the character of Lumpy Ridge. But today, the weather’s perfect! A touch of wind, mild cloud cover by mid day to shelter us from the sun, and temps in the 70’s.

We arrive, probably around 8:30 AM, and hike about 1.5 miles to The Book. We settle on George's Tree, where maybe I can lead the 3rd pitch. The first two pitches can be summed up in what Silvia yelled down to me right before launching into pitch 1, "Welcome to flare [crack] school!" No kidding!! I do okay on the p1, but on p2, the flared crack widened and deepened which renders my toe jamming useless. I actually watched Silvia do the toe/heel foot jam and told myself to make a mental note to do the same. Of course, when time came, I smear, slip, and slap to no avail. After taking twice and Silvia kindly yells down beta about the toe/heel jam. It works! I grunt, shimmy, and inch my way up through that section then to the belay ledge. Pitch 2 and I'm wiped! Silvia points upward to the next crack section and asks if I want to lead it. After that last zinger, I knew I was out of my league. I remember someone saying that there is nothing graceful about crack climbing (unless you're one of the top folks). You use just about any body part available to you to make a go of it. It's a true full body workout. God know why I have a bruise on the top of my shoulder?!

For p3 we end up a little off route and do the left side of The Box. Thus, for our we traverse right up a doable crack, then traverse left up a dihedral to get to back on track. As a result, there's so much rope drag that we stop short of the top out and set up a belay about 20-30 feet below. P5's fairly easy, but my legs are spent and shaky by this point and each step up is a work out.

What a spectacular view from the top! Did I bring my camera up? Nope, down in the pack, of course. We take in the view for a little bit before heading down the exit scramble. I really enjoyed the scramble, reminded me of my Joshua Tree days (I never rock climbed, only scrambled). All that scrambling there made this second nature and a blast. My legs burn during the final minutes of the hike out and we get to the car around 6:30PM - what a long day! Weary yet rejuvenated; I'm truly excited that there are more days like this in store. With climbing partners like Andrea and Silvia, the possibilities are endless!

MTB Log: Buffalo Creek, Shingle Mill Variation

I met up with Paul, Sandi & Mike (new Texan transplants) to ride the Buffalo Creek trails, one of my all time front range favorites. From the Little Scraggy Trail Head, we took the Shingle Mill spur and looped back via the Morrison Creek trail. It was a gorgeous day out and my first ride there this season. I'm feeling pretty good about my mountain biking capacity so far. Since I barely rode last year, I thought I would really suffer this year. But this being only my 5th ride of the season, I don't feel as if I've lost any significant ground. Very encouraging. I'm committed to ride at least once a week this year. Doesn't seem like much but I'm also committed to climb at least 3 times a week, one of those being outside. So far so good these last couple of weeks.

Climbing Log: Clear Creek Canyon, Lower Capitalist Crag

After work, I climbed Clear Creek Canyon, Lower Capitalist Crag, with Andrea. What a strong climber and gentle soul. We started with Cheap Labor, pretty mild until the last 2 bolts on the blank face to the anchors. Small thin features had me chanting "trust your feet, trust your feet...". I didn't and took twice. I finally mustered my courage, trusted my feet, got precariously high enough the clip the last bolt. Thank god I was pink pointing!! I'd otherwise have to make another move after that to get the draw in and frankly I don't think I had it in me to commit through. Andrea then led Aries (I think), a fairly run out spooky lead. Fun climb and was glad I didn't lead it. Finally in the waning light, Andrea led Stroh's, an 11A. This thing completely spanked me! I couldn't even get to the second bolt!! I fortunately, had the humility and foresight to ask Andrea to put the rope through the anchors on her lead in case I couldn't do the climb. She only had to re-climb and clean the first 3 bolts used as directionals. We packed up with the last of the light and headed to Ali Baba's for a satisfying Mediterranean meal and great conversation.

Iris Garden

Had a very nice outing with Judie at the Iris 4 U Iris Garden. It's in the middle of Sheridan, an older suburb of Denver. Quite a departure from it's environs. The variety is overwhelming! Some are very fragrant. There was one blue one that smelled, well, frankly like "blue" (think Jolly Rancher or Gatorade).

Here's a very small sampling of the garden:

Alan's visit

Alan came down the mountain! It's been too long since we last saw him. Sometimes it feels like we see him and Krista less now than when they lived in Salt Lake! We rode Saturday behind the house. Poor Paul was having an off day so we headed back after the tree landing (for those who know our trail) and got started on dinner. Alan, Fred and Joe rode a bit past the cabin so Alan could get a look at the aspen/fern groves up there. I'm sure the columbine are sprouting by now too.

After the ride, we were joined by Beth, Janet and Steve for a festive dinner of our standard "lump of meat" (grilled pork loin), grilled portabellos, grilled corn, pan seared vinegar garlic shrimp, sauteed crimmini mushrooms, and a wonderful summer spinach salad with raspberries and nectarines (by Janet). We ended the evening with an ice cream turtle pie, port and chocolate care of Beth. I love these joint effort dinners.

Red Rocks Concert - Emmy Lou Harris & John Prine

Went to our first concert this season at Red Rocks. Emmy Lou Harris opened for John Prine. Both were wonderful. Emmy Lou seems to be more beautiful as the years roll on. She has such an ease and gentle charisma on stage. You can imagine her being a country diva on stage; instead she's simply at home.

Prine, what a consummate performer! I think the last time I saw him was about 15 years ago at the Strawberry Festival. Unfortunately for him, he's not under the same graceful aging spell as Emmy Lou. He stiffly walked with a slight limp to the mike. I wondered how this would affect his performance. But the moment he began, he was lively, light and playful. Whether he played alone or with his 3 piece band, Red Rocks resonated with his presence and music. It's still hard to believe that a 3 piece band can "fill" so much space. They also treated us with several duets; twangs intertwined, her's crisp, his lilting.

Here are some pix with our little camera...