Updates

I have made some nice progress on a cool project in the New Sector, along with some work on Silven's new line there, plus some good effort on Jacque Cousteau. I also found three sweet new blocks and am excited to climb them as soon as possible. I will be returning next Monday. Then yesterday, Kieffer, Drew, Nikki and I went to Mt Evans. I fell off the last move of Gorillas in the Mist a bunch. Kieffer topped his first boulder problem out at Evans, which obviously was The Ladder. We also worked on a cool tornado shaped block in the swamp just up canyon from the Ladder (anyone know the name?) and I was able to send at the very end of the day. I threw a quick video together, check the HD here. Today it is off to Seattle to see my family for a long weekend. I might get some climbing in but considering it was 103 yesterday there, I will probably just be chilling in Lake Washington. The big news of the week is that my senior capstone class for my geology major is going to Argentina for a month this spring. Very excited. Tim and I will be staying for two weeks long since Spring Break is right after the class and will doing some climbing. However, we do not know what yet.

New MVM video and other updates

Well my blogging has certainly slowed down this summer. Its been hot and it often rains in the afternoons making it hard to get out. Two weekends ago, Noah and I attempted to climb Road Warrior (5.10d, 5 pitches) at Mt Evans' Black Wall. However, we only brought two pieces that were large enough to protect the two crux pitches and bailed to a more protectable route to the left instead of risking 100+ foot falls. However, I have (sadly) not climbed since then. I did get a video of me making the first ascent of an amazing compression problem on Momentum Video Magazine. Hopefully I will get out on some cool stuff soon and have some better updates. Until then, cheers.

Maroon Bells Hike

This weekend I went for a beautiful hike with my family from Aspen to Crested Butte and back.  On Saturday we hiked 17 miles over East Maroon Pass.  Then on Sunday I met up with Johny, who lives in Gunnison, and spent the day climbing at an amazing little crag situated in the San Juan Mountains at 10500 feet.  It rained a bit on us but it was cool and there was not one else there.  Then we hiked back to Aspen on Monday via West Maroon Pass.  Here are some photos from the hike.

Summer in Southern Colorado

It has been real hot down here in Southern Colorado recently but I have been trying to still get out.  Today Byron, his cousin Chris, and I went for two hikes in Elevenmile Canyon to look for new boulders.  The second hike was a dud, but on our first loop we descended through a ravine with a number of boulders with nice features on good rock.  Hopefully we will get back there soon and do a couple of them.  On our way home, the sky was going crazy as a storm hit Pikes just as the sun was setting.

Sing the Sorrow

Justin inquired about some photos I took a while back and after using them in the Spring into Access slideshow we did, I had totally forgotten about them.  Shown is JJ sending Emerson's Sing the Sorrow.  I FA'ed the stand from two chest height holds at around V7 but it was not a super obvious start and the same day Jamie added a more logical sit.  I forget what I called the stand, but I think it will probably just end up being remembered as Sing the Sorrow Stand.  Jamie suggested V10 for his problem.  It is interesting how the influx of climbers from the north last fall brought a handful of new double digit problems to the canyon, while many of the "moderates" put up by myself and other southerners were upgraded or remain unrepeated.  But I guess that is the nature of climbing areas developing in separation by a few people.  I know I still remain totally perplexed by grades and just try to call it how it feels to me.  Anyway, we could talk about numbers all day but none of us need to hear the same shit over and over so here are the photos.

Walk Softly Sit

Here is a short of me trying one of the many projects down I have been working on in Southern Colorado. Justin Jaeger got (more like stole from Rylan Marshal...) the FA of the stand start a couple seasons back but the sit always seemed to just get talked about as there were other projects that seemed much more doable. I have linked into the crux stand start move a number of times from the sit but I think I will have to wait for cooler fall temps to do this one. HD here.

Photo of Chris Schulte on Climbing.com

A photo I took last month of Chris on Big Worm is up on the news section of Climbing Magazine's website.  Check it here.

Spear Me the Details

Rich and I headed off for another big, adventure climb on Saturday.  This time to Rocky Mountain National Park.  While I have spent many days in RMNP, it has always been to go bouldering and this was a very, very different experience.  Our objective was Spear Me the Details (5.11d, 700 feet, 8 pitches).  We decided to make the 6 mile hike in Saturday night to the base so we could wake up early enough to avoid as much of whatever weather came our way the next day.  The hike in was very rainy for the first bit but the skies cleared and things started to dry off by the time we made it to our camp site.  We got up around 4:45 the next day and we were at the base, climbing a couple hours later.  The first couple pitches were very cold but soon the sun moved over Long's and started to warm the rock.  The rock was wildly featured, reminding me of Hueco Tanks meets Mt Evans (unfortunately the boulders never got very big in this glacier cirque).  I lead the two 5.11 pitches, cleanly leading one and taking once on the other.  It turned out we avoided all the weather and were back at the car by 8 pm.  We headed straight to Estes Park were we enjoyed a deliciously large meal.  Below are two photos stolen from Summit Post and Mountain Project respectively.  Spear Me the Details heads up just right of the prominent eye feature low on the formation directly towards the summit.