Old Fall River Road

Faster!

I ran fall river road Friday before work.  Thanks to Wes Thompson, who was my drop off, pick up, and follow along car.  I didn't leave early enough, as bed is always too nice.  I started running a little after 7am and was hoping to run the entire 9 mile uphill run in an hour and half.  When Wes drove past me at 8:30, I contemplated just stopping and hopping in the car, but I only had 2 miles to go.  I put my head down, took a deep breath and kept on running.  I reached the Alpine Visitor Center in 1:44.  Fourteen minutes slower than I had hoped and 55 minutes before I needed to be to work.

Wes drove as a I stretched and rehydrated back to Estes Park.  The record (set by Bill Raiter in 2003) is 1:09.  That seems so crazy to me!!!

Old Fall River Road in the last mile or two. Alpine Visitor Center on horizon.  

I will try it again soon!

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!    

Diamonds and Fives

This week was probably one of my most favorite!

Monday-  I woke up and headed to the local bouldering cave in Estes for a 730am session.  National Public Radio was my only choice of sound, aside from silence of the morning.  At 9 am I headed to the High School track, meeting Maren Bosely and Karla Dubois for a quick sprint work-out.  Afterwards, Maren and I both headed to work at Ed's at 10.
After work I returned to KMAC to find my boys testing a zip line that Wes had put up.  I watched them on the innagural run as I finished my slideshow for the following evening in a camp chair.  The Dubois had invited Wes and I to dinner, so zip line activities ended quickly and he, I, and our friend Matt headed over for some homemade Naan and Jerk Chicken Sandwiches.  Delicious!

Approach up to Arrowhead

ApTuesday- I returned to Karla's house for a 6:30 am egg sandwich.  After a quick bite, we headed up to the Glacier Gorge Parking lot, in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our destination was Arrowhead Peak.  Niether of us had stood on the summit yet of this fantastic little peak that lies off of the Contintental Divide.  We danced on the summit about 3 hours from the car and we were back home in time to shower and present a slideshow.  At 630 pm, I arrived at Ed's Cantina, Jes and I gave a little run-down on our Nose in a Day Women's Speed Record.  A great turn-out with a fantastic crowd.  Thank you to all who came!!!

Quinn, Justin, and Jared--All Ed's Employees

Wednesday - The sound of the alarm floated through my ears after a short nights sleep.  Justin Dubios and I were eating egg sandwiches again at 4 am, this time our destination was up the Black Dagger on the Diamond of Long's Peak.  The Diamond is an amazing east facing sheer cliff stacked with splitter cracks, located at 14,000 feet.  We were climbing the North Chimney a little later than normal, due to our slacker start time, but still not bad at 2 hours from starting time.  The pitch before Crossover ledge was a bit moist.  After I arrived at the ledge and set up the belay, Justin opted to continue up D7 hoping that it would be dry, as Black Dagger is notoriously wet up high.  His pitch was also wet.  He took a fantastic whipper, aided up the rest of it just as thunder began resonating throughout the cirque.  I followed the pitch in grappel, led another 50 pitch over foreign terrain to reach the nearest escape route.  We descended one pitch shy of table ledge in rain/sleet and some very near lightening.

Thursday-  I worked at Ed's from 10am to 10pm.

Bluebird!  Who is this guy?

Friday- I motivated for another Diamond day with a little coaxing.  Weather was splitter, Wesley was going (we haven't climbed alpine together in a year) and Justin had a partner....Wes friend Matt was in town.  We decided to leave a little earlier than our Wednesday start, as I had to work at 4pm.  Our plan was to meet at the Long's Peak trailhead at 3am.  We met alright, but in our grogginess forgot to bring the double ropes.  Luckily, Justin had thrown in an extra 60 in his van the night before.  We were committed to top as two parties of two and were forced to rap together.  WHAT A DAY!  To the north chimney and climbing in two hours from the start, Wes and I reached Yellow Wall Bivy Ledge at 7:45 having climbed 2 pitches.  We waited and I tried to convince him that we should climb to the top and rap Chasm view.  It would have been a push to summit Long's proper but man it would have be awesome.  We simul-rappelled as a party of 4, reaching our packs at 11:15 am.  Wes and I hiked out, napped, and I was off to work!

Keeping it Casual

Saturday -  Alarm was set for 6:45 pm.  Ops.  My wake up call was a ringing phone and an, "are you coming, slut?"  Erin J, a fellow Ed's gal, was waking me.  I was late for a 7:15 am meeting time for Team Ed's 5k race in Allenspark.  I grabbed my running shoes, a bottle of water and speed down the hill.  Five Ed's employees piled into Karla's 1967 VW bus, headed to Allenspark.  We registered, lollygagged around the elk statue and lined up for the 5k run.  I was tired, but suprisingly not sore.  I mentioned to Karla that she should keep me on a 8 minute mile pace, and she laughed saying she was running nines.  I shrugged and tried to keep the competitiveness out of my head.  I already had had a huge week, no need to go balls to the wall.  The gun sounded, I was off.  Bronson was by my side for the first 3 minutes.  The first hill I couldn't help myself, I pulled away and just kept going.  I ran across the finish line confused.  There were 4 sweaty looking dudes wandering around, but no chics.  "I won?" I thought to myself?  NO WAY.

Wes and I on Yellow Wall bivy ledge

Yes way.  I had one the 5k.  I turned around to see Karla sprinting towards the finish barely behind another young chic.  Bronson right behind her, and Maren a mere 30 seconds further.  Ed's girls just finished 1,3,4,5 in this little 5k.  WTF!  Hilarious!

I had plans to meet another Ed's employee at Suzuki boulder after the race and Bronson and Maren decided to join.  We warmed up quickly, having only an hour or so before we all had to be to work.  I climbed my 'project' and almost sent it first try.  I did it with some funky, unfamiliar beta but it felt pretty good so I decided to give it another rip.  Second try fell.  Third try send,  I think its a V5!  Thanks Bronson for inspiring me after all these years!

Bronson and I, this is how we start our races!

gumbies!

That was the week.  The rest ended in work, and more work!

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!  

Nose In a Day, June 5th 2012

Last Pitch on the nose

On Wednesday of this week, Jes and I had a formal go at climbing the Nose in a day (NIAD).  I don't know how to count apparently, thinking we had done it in just over 13 hours.  Turns out it was 14:30.  An awesome feat I should not forget to send a little joy towards.  Not too shabby for our first go, although it is easy to immediately think about how we need to drop about 4 hours from that time.  I am not sure where we can trim that great of an amount of time!!!!

Jes under the great roof

Headed up the stove legs; pitches 7-11

I am nervous and exhausted.  My quad's hurt like a motherF*&%#er and my body is tired.  I want to crush this thing, but I am overwhelmed with dropping nearly 1/3 of our time.  YIKES.  We will give it another rip on Sunday or Monday.  Jes is down with a third go perhaps Wednesday, but I just don't know if I have it in me.


I feel like I need a break from the route.  Is that bad?  I am not used to projecting something so intensely.  Climbing has always been about a new adventure every day, I guess I need to flip my perspective.  I can still have a new adventure on this now very rehearsed rock climb.

Oh did I mention its ladies day climbing?  Sundresses please!

I bit my lips, hoping for enough time to climb Half Dome next week.  I know I can return to Yosemite in October for another attempt on The Nose.  Perhaps it is the fatigue talking.

Yesterday we hiked down from El Captain on the Yosemite falls trail, instead of the usual East Ledges.  We met a solo climber, Francis, at the top and helped to carry his load out.  Francis, spent 8 days on the wall climbing a route called "New Dawn."

Jes' two friends, Emily and Colin met us at the top with shoes, water, and sleeping bags.  Amazing!!!!! Thanks a billion to those two.


After the hike out, Prairie, some other valley friends, and I floated the Merced river.  The icy river felt lovely on my sore body.  We also had a massive tear in our floaty, creating a mandatory swim finish.

Casual Friday climb up Serenity Cr

Today Prairie, Trevor, and I climbed 3 pitches up on Serenity Crack.  I felt pretty pooped.  Attempting to sit still this evening and all of tomorrow.

I find I am impatient with rest days, temptations of sun shining, fantastic company, and splitter routes.  Alas, I attempt to stay focused and healthy for another solid go.  

In other news, Wes flew to Patagonia today for work.  I got to skype with him while he waited in the Santiago Airport.  It will be a few months before we get to spend time together.  I miss his face and while he is supportive of this endeavor it would be even better if he were here by my side.  

Half Dome from El Capitan summit on our NIAD.  

Nose Job!

"The Nose is one of the original technical climbing routes up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb,^[1] El Capitan is now the standard for big-wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.^[2]

"El Cap" has two main faces, the Southwest (on the left when looking directly at the wall) and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow. While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the massive prow."

A note to non-climbers.

If you are not familiar with El Cap, here's some info that may help put it into perspective.  El Capitan is a huge granite wall in Yosemite Valley, 3000 ft tall, and it takes an average team of climbers about 4 days to ascend.  Climbing it in 'fast and light' style (in a day or less), requires less gear and logistics, and is becoming more and more popular- as are speed climbing records!  However, it also takes a completely different skill set and usually a lot of training.  Our intended route, The Nose, is 31 pitches (~31--100 foot rope lengths) and is the most popular big wall climb in the world.  Breaking a speed climbing record on a wall like this is akin to competing at Ironman Hawaii or the Tour de France.

Map of the Nose, in part....its over 30 pitches

My partner in climb, Jes Meires and I have about 2 weeks in Yosemite Valley to rehearse and attempt this feat.  (A link to Tom Evans webpage with daily reports on the happenings is belos.... scroll through a bit and weed out with your eyes until you see mention of "The Nose"  Usually mid-way down after Zodiac and Mescalito happenings.)

The Nose is packed right now, regular ol' turnpike of climbers, haul bags, NIAD attempts etc.  (NIAD= Nose In A Day).    

Our home off all the wall

http://elcapreport.com/

Tom usually includes photos and a little bit a words about who's climbing and where.

Jes and I ran to the Stovelegs today, fresh out of our 20 hour drive from Colorado.  Both of us made it to Sickle ledge (top of Pitch 4) in about 1:30.  Need to cut this time to under an hour ...an hour is okay, but under better.  (that is 1/10 of the way through time-wise). 

Heading into the Stovelegs

I had a mess up with the rope on Pitch 3, and a mess up with the climbing as well.  I went left off the anchor instead of right.  Ops.  

Tomorrow I will fix that problem.  

Overall, I felt pretty good.  Some spots went really smoothly, like starting pitch 2.  Ending pitch 2 I felt a little out of gear and slow.  Grabbed my gear back from Jes middle of Pitch 3, after the mess up and began moving more quickly. 

Rappelling ~ 

Jes had a little struggle with wind and following the traverse nearing the top of Pitch 4. 

Pitches 5-8 have some pendulums but great free climbing that I think I can move quickly through, pending Jes following with a tagline and lower-outs.  Pitch 8-11 will also be mine.  A gradually widening hand crack.  Should also go fairly quickly, free climbing and crack jummaring.  (placing a piece of protection and just pulling on it instead of a naturally granite hold).  

  

I think Jes will take over on pitch 12 through the Great Roof...pending me taking the Boot Flake and King swing for a minute.  

I will take over perhaps 22-?  Maybe to the top?  

We will rehearse the bottom again tomorrow and fix some ropes, intending to jug them and stay to work out the King Swing area thursday, friday and saturday.  Friday's forecast is 90 degrees.  YIKES!  No shade up there!  I have been hesitant to write about this endeavor, failure, skills, doubts and all.  10 hours or less is our goal for this climb.  

Doubts aside, we are in Yosemite, and committed that our attempt on El Cap stand for something bigger than ourselves.  We have partnered with SOS Outreach International, a non-profit based in Avon, CO, that empowers youth through outdoor education and adventure. 

To find out more about SOS, visit www.sosoutreach.org.  By fundraising for this organization, we are making a difference with youth worldwide, regardless of the outcome of our efforts.  In conjunction with that, we are also interested in transforming how rock climbers relate to their objectives.  

My last 'kid' trip in March-- Kain Gultch, Utah.  

Climbing is an inherently selfish sport, and we hope to inspire others who are pushing the limits of the sport to generate fundraising efforts and make their ascents count towards local or global progression, whether it be social, environmental, or educational.  If you have already donated, we send you MANY THANKS! and we hope you follow our journey.

We would love your support in raising money for SOS Outreach.  Our website provides an easy way to donate, and allows us to post pictures and stories from our trip to follow if you wish.  We will be there from May 29 to June 13, spending lots of time on the wall rehearsing pitches and strategy.  On the site there is also an option to donate to us directly to help fund our trip (gas money and LOTS of gear).  If you choose to donate to us directly, please consider a matching donation to SOS Outreach.  

You can visit http://climbforacause.webs.com/, click on Donate Now on the right! 

If it does not work for you to donate money right now, we request that you keep us in your thoughts and send some good climbing juju!

The fundraising campaign will run from now until June 13 when we leave the Valley after our climb.  Of course, every dollar helps, but here are some more creative ideas for donating:

- donate $1 for every pitch on The Nose (31)

- pledge to donate a penny, $.50, or $1 for every pitch we climb while in the Valley (estimated at about 150- we'll keep a log!)

- donate x amount for each climbing party we pass while speed climbing (lots) 

We cannot thank you enough for your support of this objective!!  We are excited and nervous and confident and empowered, and glad to be about to share all of that with the amazing people in our lives.  Please pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested.  THANK YOU!!

~Jes Meiris and Quinn Brett

Colorado Climbing

Otto's Route climbs the back side to the summit!  

Prairie and I atop the spire!

It is 7 days before my big adventure in California.  While I look forward to another trip home to Yosemite Valley, I am also slightly anxious. 

I know I am fit and can move for 15-20 hours at a time, doubts fill my head.  Did I train enough?  Am I strong enough?  I am even capable of pulling this off?

Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold's recent adventures in Yosemite compounds this doubts, I feel more sheepish and under-prepared.  WOW, they are in shape.     

(http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/caldwell_honnold_yosemite_free_triple_crown/) 

Prairie Kearney cleaning and climbing in Unaweep!

I recognize that I am not at their level, not even close.  I just love the spirit of their adventure.  I admire their fitness, mental strengths, and positive attitude towards it all.  

They inspire me to try harder, think more positive, and be nice!  

Thanks guys.   

Jes Meires and I on stopping for a breather on the first flatiron.  

Jes doing a little jugging in Eldo!

I am another Trango athlete who joined the P90X video club during my month long stint at the North Cascades Institute in January during my Wilderness EMT.  It was a decent workout given the limited time for training.  Also a little nicer then running through sleet.   A decent substitute although I do prefer Colorado's sunshine, access and elevation a bit more for training.

West Face of Bastille on Easter!

Since my return to Colorado, I have been fortunate enough to train in multiple climbing locations, with some rad new gear alongside a few of my favorite people.  Red Rocks, always a favorite.  Zion, I leave unfulfilled every time!  Lumpy, second pitch of Whiteman is my new favorite.  Eldorado, never not enough.  Monument, wildly impressed---Medicine Man is on my list.   Unaweep, magnificent canyon but a little dirty---cross between Lumpy and Boulder Canyon.   Boulder Canyon, don't climb here enough.     .....gear review to follow shortly.  

Along the way I have done bazillions of pull-ups, climbed, fallen, and jugged.   Yesterday was King Swing "practice" day....I joked all day.   justify leaping into a corridor full of jagged rocks!  Hey, I jugged the line a few times too!!   (funny little video I compiled).