100th Aniversary

This September was Rocky Mountain National Park's 100th anniversary. Being an obscure goal setter to keep myself interested, busy, whatever you call it, I decided to climb 100 alpine pitches in the park.

Ariana  PHOTO: Max Barlerin

At first I was trying for as many different formations in the park as possible.  This objective was going well, but saying no to the Diamond is like saying no to red wine and chocolate. You just feel better giving in.
Hallets peak is similar. It's a wonderful solo. Its a wonderful half-day climb. It's groovy to climb three times in a work day. ;).

I digress.

I counted 109 pitches. I counted the North Chimney as one pitch, as we simul-climb or solo. Having climbed it four times = four pitches.  My dearest margarita loving friend suggested a kindly correction.  If I am to count pitches, I should be counting them as per the guidebook.
So I need a recount.  The number is higher.

Either way. I achieved my obscure summer goal.  I climbed on formations that I hadn't climbed on previously. Like Chiefshead.
WTF.  Max rallied. I worked a rescue until 10 pm the day previously. 60% chance of showers and many alpine days throughout the week had me tired.
Sorry, I blacked out.  Did I just tell you I was tired.

Geronimo--PHOTO:Max Barlerin

I was hesitant. Definitely just hesitant. Bed seemed nice. 4am came quickly.
Max made coffee. He dragged my ass out of bed, tucked me into the truck, nearly pushed the yogurt into my mouth at the trailhead.

Okay maybe not that bad.

We started hiking. Clouds swirled slowly. Non-threatening poofs spooning the granite spires. Lovers not ready to part with dawns first rays.  We passed Spearhead with a minor glance. Max was on a mission for a new line on the northeast face if Chiefshead. As we neared the cliff, the lines still looked good.  Blue sky poked her head out just enough to support a mission upwards. Off we set!!  A ballsy 5.12 pitch off the deck, eventually led into some lovely 5.11 corners and cracks with 2 sections of low fifth class linking dihedrals.  We topped out just after noon and descended quickly. During our lunch break, I began my push for another climb on the Spearhead. As we packed up and meandered. Water droplets released from above. Persistent annoying mist, not a downpour. Bummer.

Arrowhead. double WTF.


I had never climbed on it. Saving it?  Blowing it!  Adam Baxter and I climbed Birds of Fire on the Northwest face of Chiefshead the day prior, bivied and rallied for day two in Arrowhead.  Arrowplane. SickbiRd.

The list.
Casual route
Black dagger
Pervertical
Ariana
The Beaver and Staircase
The North Face
Keyhole ridge
The SW- Saber
Dalke- Cathdral wall
South buttress direct- Notchtop
Spiral route - Notchtop
Great Dihedral -First buttress of Hallets.
Culp-Bullsier  - Secomd buttress Hallets
Better than Love - Secomd buttress Hallets
Culp-Bossier with variation start - Secomd buttress Hallets
Flying Buttress - Meeker
Directisma - Chasm View Wall
Geronimo - Northeast face of Chiefshead
Birds of Fire - Northwest face of Chiefshead
Arrowplane - Arrowhead

#amazeballs.

Arrowplane..Arrowhead

Touch of Green on Birds of Fire

Home Sweet Home

Top of the Park

Good Morning from the Cirque

Baxter getting into the Black Dagger

Goofin off on Table Ledge

New Route, No Problem.  Max on Geronimo!

Keyhole Ridge, Longs Peak

Notchtop and her goods

Rizzo enjoying the view from Notchtops Summit

Clean teeth-- Clean climbing!

Ariana winks.  

Precisely etched corners refract the dawns early rays.  The orange, no, the pinkish-red glow of triangular granite looms overhead.  An evolving electric blue sky hugs from behind.  A gurgling pitter patter of fresh snow melt slips its way through lime green tufts.  
Color and energy abound.  

The Diamond lives up to its namesake this July morning.  

Brilliant

We approach quietly, soaking in the scene.  Long's Peak and its East Face stand proudly at 14,000 feet. 

14k Diamond.  

Two parties are tucked in a boulder bivy on the west side of Chasm Lake. They are friends of ours from Durango.  Just six of us hoping to claw upward through dreamy granite splitters.  Lucky to be with friends, lucky there wasn't more.    

Alluring

The North Chimney is no joke.  The Diamond's proximity to the Front Range, a handful of 'moderate' climbs such as Pervertical and the Casual Route, combined with the proliferation of climbing in Colorado---eh, the world -- makes it a crowded alpine 'crag' some days. The Diamond has become a popular first alpine climb.  Sadly, delicate grace and mountain humbleness has not yet been cultivated. 

Pernicious

Loose blocks tumble, grazing by heads and ropes---if your lucky!  Death and serious injury do occur.    

Stomping our way up steep snow, a wet cross over onto a rock apron finds us shoed-up and tied-in.  Jens sets sail up the North Chimney in one long pitch.  We dance the fine line of casual-moderate-terrain-effortless-cruising and wheels-off-the-wagon-loose-rocks-shit-could-hit-the-fan.

Unscathed, we sashay across the massive Broadway ledge.  

Jens following the golden crux pitch

Ariana teases.   

I begin to ascend the perfect dihedral's-- stretching to the ropes end.  My lead felt fluid, but my head was already spinning in anticipation.  

Thoughts refract.  

On-sight? Failure? Motivation? Ability? 

Jens arrival to the ledge snaps me from the day dream.  Gear is exchanged and he dances upward. 

Another moderate pitch sets us at the base of Ariana's goods.  A golden pillar sliced with a shallow finger crack.  I didn't pause, I am not even sure I made eye-contact with Jens. 

I played through.    

Timid at first, cautious of rejection.  Ariana's finicky nature precedes her.  

My breathing is labored.  Chasm lake glimmers and tiny boulders 2000 feet below edge my peripheral.  I place a wire, with a firm yank it holds fast.  

I shrug, still uncertain.  

Feet--feet-- stay on your feet.  

I step left precariously than upward, placing a small cam.  

Bah 

A grunt escapes as I delicately jam upwards.  Blood pulses into my forearms.  Ariana holds steady, providing thin finger locks and meek shallow hand jams  These provide temporary relief, calming my breath while balancing on tiny edges.  I miraculously find tiny stances and continue ascending.    

AhaHHHH 

Many more loud grunts echo through the Chasm cirque.  Exhausted, I throw myself through the final moves to the anchor.  

HOLY SHIT!!!  I exclaimed or thought or whispered.  

Jens follows gracefully, with a toothy smile and a giant exhale he arrives ready to tackle the final pitch.  Another full value brilliant hand and finger crack with a slabby crimp finish. 

Soon I am moving upwards.  While not as pumpy as the crux pitch, there is no backseat during this 140 foot pitch.   

With a glance at the time and a quick conversation of up or down...we couldn't resist.  

UP, one more at least!! 

I jetted up the last 5.9 pitch to Table Ledge.  With an ever important dentist appointment at 3pm--we thread the ropes and worked our way back to Broadway and the once far far away scree field.  Chasm lake still shimmering but the Diamond much darker.  

Her brilliance exhausted for the day-- Ariana let two cruise by first try!!   

What a day!!!            What a dream!!!!              What a dentist appointment????

Table Ledge Success, Ops --11:45--Time to Jet!  

This is not my beautiful life...or is it!!!

My good friend Dustin!!

In-between the untimely departure from Yosemite and the ridiculous journey we just embarked on
 --- Greenland --- time made itself available at home here in Colorado.

Recently completed rock climbs.

Psychatomic, Monastery, Estes Park.  5.12d -- 5th try on lead

Undertow, The Slab, Boulder. 5.12b -- 2nd try ever (1st try was the warm-up climb of the day  ---ops, effed on-sighting!)

Undertow

New Music, Lumpy Ridge. 5.11dR-- Top roped 8 years ago....so an Alzheimer's on-sight?  Funky pro, but super good!

I also had a good run at the First Flatiron last week also.

A busy errand day in Boulder-town had me itching for a run up the First Flatiron.  Driving to Chautauqua Park, I was easily side-tracked by my good friend Kelly Cramer.  She just moved into a new place and I hadn't seen it or her in months.  Upon arriving, she offered me a PBR.

I didn't decline.

After a wee bit of chatting, the suns' twinkle off the First Flatiron became too pervasive.  I fled, slightly buzzed.

The run, led by Dustin, began a little more quickly than preferred (but looking back, it set the tone nicely).
I kept up, then moved ahead.  Having only been back to Colorado for 10 days, it was with great surprise I arrived to the base just under 13 minutes.
Still breathing heavily, I strapped on my shoes and let the paddling begin.  Was it the PBR or a month in the Valley?  For some reason the sandstone, this day, felt like the grip tape on my skateboard....so much friction!!!!

A smidgen over 11 minutes later I stood on the top!! Stoked, best rip yet!

HOME Sweet HOME!

I had a few great solo adventures on Lumpy ridge.  One day in particular included; Magical Chrome Plated Semi-Automatic Enema Syringe, Tennis Shoe Tango, The Great Dihedral, The Dog, White Whale, Osiris, and Pear Buttress.  While wandering back to the base of The Book, a walking error caused a wicked ankle sprain.  Adrenaline was still pumping, so I started up Pear Buttress.  Pain washed over me near the top.  I paused to enjoy the summit and hobbled back to the base, yet again.  My day wasn't over.  Bronson was coming to belay me for a lead go on El Camino,  5.12c.
It went with a few hangs.  The ankle hurt but not enough to use it as a non-send excuse.

I hoped to return before Greenland madness but he walk out from Lumpy was difficult, therefore making another pilgrimage back to the cliff undesirable.
    

Psychatomic!

A Walk in the Park

Wes enjoying Thatchtop-Powell Ridge

Rainstorms at 9pm are not the usual where we live.  Monday the afternoon rainstorm came, but didn't leave.  Dark clouds lingered and thunder began to roll a second time.  Wes and I had plans to hike up to the Diamond Monday night and bivy for two nights.  We thought about it, and decided to cut it down a night.  We would leave in the morning along with our friends, Andrew and Buster.  They also had plans to climb the Diamond on Tuesday.  After some discussion and listening to the continuous moisture falling on the ground, Wes and I made a late night switch.  

Longs, Pagoda, and part of Chiefshead.  Spearhead in Middle

D7 was moist a few weeks ago and with our two friends vying for it as well, we moved to plan B.  "A Walk in the Park."  This has been on my tick list for a few years.  Justin Dubois did it in 2009 and ever since that eye opening day, I have been inspired and slowly convincing anyone that they should do it with me.  It involves a solo traverse of the Glacier Gorge in its' entirety.  Thatchtop, Powell, McHenry's, Chiefshead, Pagoada, and Longs.  Storm Mountain and Half Mountain can also be included.  Monday night my friend Wes finally agreed! 

I slept in a little longer than usual as my lower back has a pinched something or other.  Just laying in bed I could feel it, so motivating for a big day was a little overwhelming.  Thank goodness for too much ice cream.  I don't have a freezer so was 'forced' to finish almost a whole carton.  Gross.  That was one of the motivating factors at 5 am, burn off the half gallon of snickers ice cream.  :)

Wes--Thatchtop to Powell

The timer started at 6:45 am at the Glacier Gorge parking lot.  We hiked quickly uphill, jogged the flats or the gradual up hills, with Wes in the front.  I was lagging a little.  Thoughts of the ginormous day and a little bit of back twinge kept me from pushing it from the start.  We arrived to Mills lake in 27 minutes.  Not too terrible.  
The Shelf/Solitude cut-off, although slightly strewn with blown down trees and very muddy, proved easy to find.  I hiked first up the hill with Wes breathing down my neck, "I'm psyched!" he exclaimed!!!





One hour and 59 minutes Wes reached the summit of Thatchtop, "34, 35, 36 seconds, come on Quinn," he hollered at me.  Our goal was to reach the top in under 2 hours.  I double timed the last few steps making it just under the wire.
"Lets recover on the downhill," I panted, no time for a summit register--we kept moving.  

Our next goal was 4 hours to McHenry's Peak, I don't know where these time marks came from.  The night before, I think, I just translated some previous landmarks and times.  It takes about 2 hours to get to the base of Spearhead.  Thatchtop is closer but much more steep, so two hours would be mean we were going pretty fast.   

From thereafter I think I just estimated an hour to each summit?  McHenry's is summit number 3.  

Wes Thompson and I in McHenry's Notch

We booked along from Thatchtop, getting some fabulous ridge climbing and exposure along the way.  We summited Powell in 2:45.  Because we were eating along the way (or sucking on cliff bars since I couldn't breathe enough to actually chew), we didn't stop much.  

From the top of Powell through the Keyboard of the Winds, was new terrain for both Wes and I.  We descended Powell with one slight cliff-out error.  We reached the Notch at 3 hours.  Leaving our approach shoes on (North Face running shoes from a thrift store for Wes and Nike running shoes for me) we scrambled up the Notch.  This didn't feel exposed or much of fifth class.  Pretty mellow.  We reached the summit of McHenry's in 3:20, yahoo ahead of our made-up schedule.  We stopped here for a photo, a snack and a brief breather, less than 5 minutes.

 Stoneman Pass--find Quinn!

Chiefshead looked like a long slog in the distance.  No climbing, just a scree pile at 45 degrees.  Yuck.  Stoneman pass, though, is an amazing landmark.  The gradual ascent behind is a granite sidewalk.  Pretty awesome.  The trudge up to to top of Chiefshead was tiring, but I felt like I finally was in cruise mode.  I think we were on top at about 4:30.  

Pagoda ridge was next, the crux of the solo.  A baby Sierra California ridge traverse.  Gorgeous!  I can't remember our time on the summit of Pagoda, but we quickly descended again, picking the straightest line possible to the Southwest Ridge of Long's Peak.  Wes was sipping on water pooled on top of boulders at this point, having only brought one liter.  He drank one before Thatchtop, refilled at shelf/solitude, and had been slowly consuming the refilled liter.  I brought my camelback with 2 liters.

Cool feature on Pagoda Ridge

Arriving at the junction of the Narrow's and the Trough of Long's Peak, the Southwest Ridge plunges skyward.  We stood a top Longs Peak at almost 7 hours exactly from our start time.  With clouds looming and both of us long out of water, we opted for a descent of the North Face instead of Keyhole Ridge.  The North Face often has water running down it and we were hoping to fill up another liter or so for our descent.  Dry year, the North Face was the only place on the entire route that we were able to catch a drip that would actually fill a water bottle in under 30 minutes.  Both of us collected a liter, and pushed on down to the Boulder Field.

Pagoda's glorious Ridge

After a brief discussion, we decided to forgo Storm Mountain (which neither of us could remember if it was "required").  There are a few trip reports of people doing the Walk, or the Arrowhead traverse where they take the Storm Pass trail out.  Which means they avoid both Storm and Half Mountain.  Wes and I wanted to avoid that lengthy switchback trail that doesn't return you at your car.  We opted to stay near the ridge, just skirting the summit of Storm.  We jogged a little of this alpine tundra but with our tiredness and boulder dodging, a sprained ankle was inevitable.  We were tired, there was thunder, the ice cream had worn off, bla bla bla.  

Sickbird!

In hindsight we should have nabbed Storm, as we ended up on top of Half Mountain anyway in a hail storm.  Ops.  Wes spotted a descent route down off of Half Mountain that returned us to the shores of Mills Lake.  Turns out this is the same way Rossiter descended, although descending straight north off of Half Mountain would be the straightest line!!  It would probably cut off a little more time. 

From the shores of Mills, Wes readjusted his fashionable fanny pack, and we were off running again the whole way back to the car.

Total time, 10:13!    

NIAD Trip Report

Jes' and her shadow.  Pitch 13--Tom Evans Photo

"Oh, you want to hear something with beats?" Bill Wright says to me as he fiddles with the car stereo. Four twenty seven on Sunday, June 10th, Jes and I were carpooling all of 500 yards---from the Manure Pile pull out to El Capitan Meadow with Bill Wright and Hans Florine.  After climbing the Nose and descending the East Ledges we new we would be pretty excited to have an extra car stashed --shortening our hike.

Roughly 10 hours and 19 minutes later, "I got the moves like Jagger" floated-- fully orchestrated-- back into my head as I clipped up the bolt ladder on the last pitch of the Nose.  "Yes, yes I do" I thought, as I stomped on a bolt for a foot hold.  Aid climbing!!

Jes reached the top anchors minutes after me.  Simultaneous with her finish and clicking stop on the timer, she was handed a Murphy's Stout.  Strange order of events.

Swollen Fingers

Instead of yelling on and off belay, we often yell this phrase.  

Piton Pete, a valley legend, cracked and passed one in our direction.  He, his partner, and another gal from Joshua tree (whose 2 partners were still down below) were all at the last anchor of the Nose.  The giant gong show included but was not limited to; 2 strewn single portaledges--both fully inflated, 5 ropes all in full use, wafts and visuals of well traveled poop bags, and a lottery winnings worth of climbing hardware.   It was like a where's waldo game of climbing paraphernalia.

Tom Evans Photo, Quinn leading above Eagle Ledge

Aside from the over populated top pitch, the climbing day went pretty much without a hitch.  I started climbing slowly, reaching the top of the first pitch in 18 minutes.  I gradually increased my pace, finding a nice solid rhythm and reached Dolt Tower (top of Pitch 11) in 2 hours 40 minutes.  Jes and I switched leads here.  She took off up to El Cap Tower.  We simul-climbed up through the bolt ladder and the Boot Flake.  A party of 3 young men from Michigan let us pass, seeing us coming from a few pitches off.  Thanks boys!
Jes stuck the King Swing first try, pulled me over with our short tag line and I took over the lead again off of Eagle Ledge.  The last time we were here on a practice run Piton Pete was living on Eagle Ledge.  We had to crawl through his nest after the King Swing.  He even offered and made Jes coffee!

Eagle Ledge on first go around, Jes finishing the King Swing

At Camp 4, Jes and I swapped leads once more.  She approached the Great Roof quickly, as well as another party of two.

These gentleman were awesome, full of enthusiasm given their previous epic evening.  They didn't sleep much, having to work well into the night trying to free their haul bag, it snagged somewhere along the grey bands.  Dave, from Colorado, was hollering with excitement the whole time Jes and I approached and passed!  Thanks guys!

From there Jes and I just kept plugging and chugging.  Somewhere around Camp V I realized that if we were off in less than 3 hours we would break the record.  Somehow we had cut 4 hours off our previous attempt and were still feeling strong.

Last pitch madness.  

"Lets GO!" I hollered at Jes, "we can do this!"  We traded leads for one last time at the base of pitch 27.  I free climbed the bottom section of the Changing Corners, short-cut up the bolt ladder and crack jummared my way up to the last pitch.

 I arrived to find the other 2 Joshua Tree girls (Bernadette, Mitzi, and Beth are their names), at the anchor starting the last pitch.  "Do you mind if we pass?" I gasped.  Jes and I had passed the girls on Sickle Ledge days before on our first run on Wednesday and they were quite friendly.  This time I was met with a few F-bombs--- directed mostly at their predicament, not entirely me.

Meadow

The Nose essentially follows the sun/shade line

Apparently, the girls had been chilling at 'the wild stance' for 2 hours, waiting for Piton Pete and his cluster to get out of the way.  I explained that we were really close to breaking the record, I wouldn't be a bother...its a bolt ladder easy to work around, and I don't leave anything behind really anyway.  I looked at my watch to make sure it was worth it.  It was 3:09, we started climbing at 5:22.  We were close.  We chatted for a few more minutes, waited for their leader to get a little further along, and then I made my moves, like Jagger.

Sorry, no leather pants!