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.



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Devil's Tower

Another great climbing trip! I've never climbed at Devil's Tower before but Fred and I did visit it a few years back. This place has a special place in my heart (I love Close Encounters of the Third Kind!!!) but as a climbing destination, it has always intimidated me. In particular are the famous photos of people climbing El Matador and the extreme stemming up the 'elevator shaft'. Hmmm...my legs are a lot shorter than that...yikes!!



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Day 1

We start on the northeast side of the tower, nice and shady (it was 90 the first two days). I lead the first pitches of New Wave and Broken Tree. Fairly easy leads but a big step for me who thought the most I'd do would be one lead on the last day after getting a feel for the place. The second pitches on both climbs are great. New Wave has a couple of tricky spots but nothing outrageous. Broken Tree is just a blast! I can actually see myself leading this...next year...I think.

Then we go further right to McCarthy's North Face. The longest single pitch I've ever led! It's nearly 70m (200'). It takes every bit of me to finish. Between all the other climbs of the day and the incredible rope drag forcing me to muscle through every simple move for the last 75 ft, I'm absolutely exhausted when I finally get to the anchors. Mentally, it felt more akin to a marathon than a climb. The crux is at the end and I think I'm powering through to a nice comfy ledge. I pop my head over and see another 10+ feet of a slabby dihedral crack climb before the anchors. Jerry speeds up the climb and it's an incredible work out belaying him and keeping pace. With the hour getting late and my exhaustion level, I do something I almost never do...opt out of a chance to even try the stellar 11A climb that follows. When Jerry gets to the "ledge", I rap down and watch Dave lead p2. It's a stout and strenuous lead for Dave and Jerry also takes a couple of falls on it. I have some regrets about not staying and giving it a run but it'll be another goal for next year.

We get to the camp site at dark...our camp mates are more than ready for dinner but we have all the ingredients! Dave and Jerry quickly whip up dinner - buffalo marinara pasta...delicious!! Later in the evening, we head over to the front of the KOA (the best one I've ever stayed at!) and watch the nightly showing of Close Encounters. I can practically recite the lines. Amazingly, I'm so tired that I'm dozing off near the end of it. I head back to my tent and sleep well.

Day 2

Beth, Jean, and I go to the northeast side of tower. The previous day, they had a miserable time climbing in the sun. Beth got sun stroke and had to call it. So today, it's all about what we can do to stay in the shade. Beth leads the first pitch of Broken Tree for a warm up. Then we head over to check out some climbs but settle on Mystic and the Mulchers which John and Bruce just climbed. This is suppose to be easier than McCarthy's North Face, but I find it very spicy with a heart stopping moment or two! It's a much thinner crack with narrow flaring spots - not gear friendly like all of yesterday's climbs! About mid way up, I place a RP, go for the move, my feet slip and I nearly fall. I manage to keep hold and scurry to a very secure stance. Looking down I see that my RP 's pulled out. I had run it out before that so if I had fallen without the RP, it would have been quite a whipper. I also didn't consider the length of this climb (about 140') when I started and took only about 11 or 12 draws. Do the math! Another stress factor is that I couldn't see the anchors for 99% of the climb and was very confused about how much further to go and how much more gear I needed to conserve or not. In any case, I finish the sucker with no draws left, only one medium sized nut, and a hand full of cams. Arg. Lesson learned on both fronts. Later I compare notes with Todd and he nicknamed the climb "Butt Muncher". Enough said?

After Jean and Beth run it, it's about 3 and no one is up for another lead. Dave and Jerry pop up and they say they're done for the day too so that cinches it...we head back to camp, get ice cream, take showers, and chug beers before dinner. Ahhh, dinner...nearly an epic of it's own! The short story is it takes us 4 tries to find a restaurant that's open and/or we want to eat at. We finally end up at the BBQ place just around the corner from the KOA, eat a very hearty meal, and wait nearly an hour for them to tally and add up our bill. It's about 10:45 before the dinner 'ordeal' is over and we're back at camp chuckling it up over wine.

Day 3

Not much to day 3 except the KOA's camp pony gets loose and 'wanders' into our campsite. Wander is an understatement since Bruce lured him over with bread and tried to get him to step into Todd and Kristen's tent while they're still asleep. Yeah - we laughed for a while about that! Dave R, Debbie, and Jean stay for more climbs. Poor Beth stays in camp due to a groin pull. The rest of us hit the road for the long drive back to town. I would have loved to climb some more...next year!

Penitente Canyon,

Memorial Day Weekend Climbing Trip

What a super weekend! The trip was organized by the Tuesday crew: Todd Felix, Wally Malles & family, Dave Champion, Jerry Nortshire, Beth Sholes, Bob & Lisa. Kira and kids also joined us. I carpooled there with Todd, Jerry and Dave - hilarious company. Had a blast around the campfire every night especially with the game figliano, beatleman (?), & swartz. The kids helped us channel Jerry Springer and updated this game is a very interesting way! What a blast.

Penitente climbing is short but hard! I loved the hueco climbs but found the thin climbs coupled with run outs very mentally challenging. Ultimately, I didn't manage to really overcome and lead strong. Next time! Fortunately, the other folks in our group are very strong climbers and I got a chance to climb some of the best climbs in the canyon. Two stellar ones are Not My Cross to Bear and Break Down Dead Head.



Couldn't find all the names of the climbs this weekend but here's my best reckoning:

Day 1:

L: How The West Was Won (nice way to start the weekend!)

L: 7/11, 2 takes (ignorantly was on the 11 side...good to know the name of this one before heading up it!)

TR: Concupisent Curds (hard time starting this but did ok on the rest of the thin climb)

TR: ? 10+ across the way and up the canyon a little from 7/11 (also a hard start and swam the rest)

TR: Looney Tunes (yet another hard start! The rest was thin and nice...fingers hurting now!)

TR: Not My Cross to Bear (almost flashed it! Completely lost gas 6' from the anchors and had to take 3 times!)

Day 2:

L: Mr. Wind

Nearly rained out, but wait for an opening and got a very short respite.

L: Ms. Cool, another spooky lead

Strung up the anchors to the left so we could TR that one...big mistake! The skies really opened up at that point. A small production to clean the route of our gear. It was a slightly overhung thin climb...could not get any where on my own and had to aid up to clean it. Lesson learned!

Day 3:

L: What the Hey (An 80 ft climb w/ 4 bolts...you do the math!! Scary for me and thin on top. Did it but can't say I felt any confidence booster afterwards)

TR: Break Down Dead Head (What absolute fun!! Very much like a gym jug haul climb. Screwed the crux near the top but finished easily)

L: ? climb right of Mysterious Redhead, bailed after bolt 2. Got very thin and just couldn't pull any of the moves clean, even on TR. :(

On the way home with Beth, we stopped off at Buena Vista to lunch at Mothers Bistro...literally the BEST quiche I've ever had. So light and tasty! A must stop anytime I'm ever remotely close!! I brought a slice back to Fred...yummmm he reports. :)

My Ongoing Adventure - Climbing @ Eldo on Tuesdays

Didn't think I could swing it this season but have managed to join the climbing crew and their Tuesdays @ Eldo. It's been great for me! Last Tuesday finally got to climb The Bastille Crack, an amazing classic. I lead p2!! The only other lead I've done is Boulder Direct, a very easy and benign climb. I'll have to back track and try to document all my other climbs this last month...but not today. Might start using fb to do that...hmmm...

Anyway, didn't make it out today with them, very bummed. But I clearly have climbing on the brain since I'm writing this. :)

Off to a 50th b'day celebration. What a daunting milestone. I had a little trouble with "40" (which surprised me!). What else to do but embrace it. Sigh.

My new adventure...IfThenRadio.com

I've been meaning to update my blog about this but finding the time lately is challenging!

I’ve gotten very involved with a tech association in Colorado, CSIA, and long story short, I’ve started a new podcasting venture with a friend called IfThenRadio.com. This is in addition to my primary business with Fred, VeriPoint. It’s been an amazing 5 months since we started in January. Though I never had any ambition of becoming a “podcaster”, I’m meeting so many great people through it and am enjoying it immensely. We are also so very fortunate that Fred’s brother, Will, has radio, music, and film experience. It’s completely because of him we have such high quality recording and mixing.

The podcasts to date are about technology companies and their affiliation with CSIA’s annual events. So far my very favorite podcast is one of newest releases on Kathleen Morten (included in the below newsletter) a local teacher who won “Top Tech Teacher of the Year” and her students. We have a couple of other podcast series in the works. One will focus on high level business trends and “Lessons Learned”. The other is an education series focusing on outreach programs for at risk or low income kids. A couple of the non-profits already lined up are OpenWorld Learning and JAG. In fact because of all of this activity, we are helping to organize a call to action and fund raiser for OpenWorld Learning. The best part is that up to $30,000 will be matched 100%! So if you’re feeling altruistic and want to give back to the community, please donate a few dollars to a great cause and an amazing program.

Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas from Fred and Ida!

Love Charles Seife's Decoding the Universe: http://ping.fm/P1ZNT Been a while since a book's altered my world view.

Cool Clouds

Yesterday afternoon, the winds suddenly kicked up and the clouds over the hills behind my house were spectacular! Some repetition, but there's so much interesting detail in each.


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Photos for Joshua Tree Trip

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Finally Climbing at Joshua Tree!

Chimney Rock at twilight from our our campsite.
(Left my camera in my pack with Beth so more photos to follow after I retrieve it)

I spent significant time at Joshua Tree in the early 90's, mainly camping and scrambling - felt like I was out there every weekend one year. Knowing what I know now, some of those scrambles would be considered "free solos" probably up to 5.5 in difficulty. Though I wanted to, I never did any technical rock climbing there. Yes, I've often wondered how different a climber I'd be if I started then. Fred and I went once a few years back but ended up only on a couple of scary, thin, and run out sport routes. We just couldn't find the climbs we were looking for in the Real Hidden Valley. The guide book directions are difficult to say the least! I've been hesitant to climb there since.

However this week, the stars aligned perfectly. A good friend, Beth, happens to be planning a trip to JT for the same week. It's one of her all time favorite places to be and knows the area intimately. Not only would she be a great climbing partner and guide, she's driving and could schlep all my climbing and camping gear, saving me a bundle on baggage fees!

I met her mid day Tuesday at Hidden Vally, camp site #3, in front of Chimney Rock and it's infamous "space pod". (You can see our camp site in the linked picture - the low rock near the middle with the rocks to the right creating an arcing border is our site.) It also brought back memories of a dude who climbed up the chimney and got stuck. He scurried up easily but was completely spooked by the down climb. First rule of scrambling, know how to get off the rocks too!

I found Beth napping comfortably on the low rock formation, soaking in the sun. It's great to see her so relaxed and content to just be there. Within a hour of my arrival, we have all our gear together and are ready to climb. Our first route is a short drive away to the North Side of Echo Cove, Fun Stuff. A spooky start for the leader, Beth, but otherwise nice. Then we headed over to the Real Hidden Valley for Sail Away. It's a classic and a wonderful climb. It feels like for every 2-3 hard moves you get to a nice stance with a bomber hold or jam. Honestly one of the first sustained crack 8's I've climbed and thought. 'yes, I could lead this!' Apparently I'm using my outside voice...and within ear shot of Beth. So I'm committed and it's a goal for this trip. My first day here goes better than expected. How could it not! With Indian Creek as my last crack climbing trip, nearly anything else feels "easy"!

We meet Beth's other friends also here for the week, Dave, Ginny and Jean, at camp site #1. I make a broth with napa cabbage & enoki mushrooms. Once hot, Is spoon it over wide rice noodles and roasted duck. I was just in LA that morning; of course, I was going to take advantage of easy access to such incredible ingredients! What a meal!

The next day, Beth leads 3 incredible cracks:
Flake and Bake - gentle start to the day with loads of face features.
Pope's Crack - another classic with a heady traverse near the top
Double Cross - Yet another classic long beautiful fun crack. So nice to have Beth as a guide and get on such great stuff. I think I can lead this too (inside voice)...next trip. Dave, Jean and I follow. Ginny comes by with the election results...Obama won...woo-hoo!!!

I also top British Airways, next to Pope's Crack (since our rap anchors are right over it). Beth complained that I wasn't tired or grunting enough following her leads, and wanted me to take a run on this. Holy Crap! It's the absolute hardest 11 I've barely gotten up! I literally flew off several times...hence it's name, I guess (as well as it's incredibly run out between bolts)! The start looks like a crack but is actually a corner that widens and becomes rounded as it goes up. You have lie back on this and smear thin to non-existent face features. I blow off fairly early on. Above the corner is just blankness. On this section, I successively take after a move or two. Talk about groveling for every inch! Well, Beth got what she wanted, I'm totally spent after wards!

After Double Cross, we head to camp with a nice hour of remaining light. I have so much left over ingredients, I make the same meal again and Jean joins our soup party. Dave and Ginny share a nice bottle of 10 year tawny. We burn a pack of firewood and call it quits with the final embers crackling around 10. With everyone off to bed, I lay out with my sleeping bag on the low rock at our camp site. The sky is still, clear, and occasionally dazzling with shooting stars...apparently the Taurid meteor shower at it's height. I savor my last evening as much as possible, recalling the many past nights spent sleeping out under the same stars over 20 years ago. Some rocks curve perfectly to coddle you and this one lulls me to irrevocable sleepiness around midnight. No longer able to star gaze, I head back to my tent and sleep dreamlessly until 7ish to yipping coyotes.

Today's the day for Sail Away...I'm leaving in the afternoon so this is it. I've been chicken shit this entire season and have to "man up" at some point. We get a late start since I have to strike camp this morning and it's noon by the time we get to the base of the climb. There's already a party there. The leader is nearly done and there are 2 beginner climbers waiting to follow. We decide to wait it out...there's typically a line on this classic so just one party is not bad. Beth attempts to lead the climb next to it. There's no way to protect it until you're already 25-30ft off the deck after having to make a hard layback move. She decides this is not worth it...she wants to save herself for her goal climbs she'll be tackling the next couple of days. So I rack up and wait and wait. Watching the beginners struggle up Sail Away makes me tense and nervous. I climbed this the first day and know it's not a hard climb for me. But watching them struggle makes me "see" the route differently. I turn away and just put my head down. Arg.

I definitely don't climb it as well as a couple of days ago. My feet get stupid and I wonder where those "great stances" have disappeared to, especially near the top. Typical for me, I recall basically nothing about the climb...so much for pre-lead beta! I apparently placed a couple of crappy pieces in the beginning but everything else is bomber. The top gets thin and I really had to work through nerves and harder stances while placing 3 final stoppers. Breathe! Ultimately, I top out clean. Phew and Yeah!!!

We pack up quickly and head back to the warmth of the car. We drive just outside of Jumbo Rocks for Conan's Corridor. With only a couple of hours left before I leave and Beth feeling worn out (work's been hectic lately), we decide call if for climbing and make a hike out of it instead. I've realize too late that I've left my camera in the car! What a shame, this is a truly beautiful spot. It's cinches down to a cool slot canyon then opens up to a handful of beautiful lines. I get to use my old scrambling skills for some sections and it's a blast. I must come back here next time.

Finally, we head over to where Dave's group is climbing, Atlantis Wall in Lost Horse Area (boy, I spent A LOT of time back in here! So many nooks and crannines for scrambling and getting away from it all). They were topping Ceremony. Thank goodness I didn't bring my shoes and harness. The start looks suspiciously like British Airways and I would probably hurt myself on it! We get to see Jean perform a slow and beautiful ballet on it. Amazing control and balance. After she finishes, everyone's ready to call it and have some beer. So we head back to camp and sit under Chimney Rock, hoping the sunniness compensates for the lashing cold multi-directional wind. No matter, I savor a Negro Modelo in great company before saying my farewells.

It's been a wonderful trip and I'm extremely happy how well it went. As you can tell from comments above, I'm already making plans to come back out. I foresee many years climbing here. I'm on the cusp of an interesting new relationship with a wonderful old friend, JT.