Block Break

       I was talking to Jaeger on the phone the other day and realized that he had no idea about the Colorado College block break.  So before talking about the climbing, I will explain why Colorado College is the best school for climbers.  CC had what is called the "Block Plan" where you take one class at a time for 3 and a half weeks, and often have class for up to 6 hours a day.  But after working hard for a block, you get a five day weekend.  There are 8 blocks a year and after each there is at least a five day break. 

       So this block break, Nathan, Tim, Dane, Sam and I loaded up my car and headed west.  We spent Wednesday at Rifle, which I now know I will have to return to.  Then continued on to Indian Creek for two days of gear plugging.  After just those two days, I do not think I will be bouldering to much anytime soon.  Plans have already changed from Joe's to the Creek for the next block break.  I climbed a lot of classic 5.10s and sent my first 5.11 and 5.12 on gear.  

      Next, we headed to Castle Valley and climbed the stellar Honeymoon Chimney (5.11+) on the Priest.  After hearing from multiple parties that had bailed for various reasons pertaining to the poor protection and gear on this climb, Nathan, Tim and I were a little psyched out.  Nathan and Tim put up the first pitch (130 feet of offwidth to squeeze chimney with two bolts and some chalkstones). Then Tim had a great lead on the 2nd pitch (steaming with a piton and a few good cam placements) and I lead the amazing full body stem (think being horizontal with both hands on one freestanding tower and both feet on another looking down 200 feet of open chimney below you) to hard face climbing that is the 3rd pitch.  The 4th turned out to be victory hand jams and fingers to the top of the tower.  We finished the trip up by camping at Colorado National Monument and going to the local Bull Rodeo in Fruita.

Nathan on the beautiful Coyne Crack 5.11+, just one of dozens of amazing climbs at the Supercrack Buttress.

Coyne Crack again

Nathan on Finger in a Light Socket 5.11+

Me on Coyne Crack

Sunset at the Creek

Off to Rifle, Indian Creek, and Castle Valley for five days.  PSYCHED!!!! Updates to come.  This blog might have to get renamed from Hayden's Bouldering.

Butt Shots at the Garden

After class today, Tim and I snuck off to the Garden for two hours to spend some time on Kor's Corner (5.12).  The climb starts out with five pitons of face climbing and then moves into 30 or so feet of good fingers in pin scars with reasonable gear and poor feet.  Parts of this climb are a bit lacking but the crack section is pretty cool and I plan on working it a bit more when other places move out of season.  Here are some shots of Tim's butt that I snapped while belaying.

The Pterodactyl

After falling off the top of Skipper D repeatedly, Nathan and I headed over to a new project that Jamie had cleaned up the previous weekend.  Jamie had done the stand but was back to try to put up a sit.  Jamie had a number of amazingly close burns, where he was falling on the last hard move of the stand.  Near the end of the day, Andre was able to link the whole thing together to snag the first ascent.  

Parchaudge

On Saturday, Nathan and I made the trek up to Rocky Mountain National Park.  After a brief session at Veritas, we met up with Brian, Jamie, Nic, and Andre and headed up to Upper.  I had hiked around in Upper twice, but never actually climbed there and was excited to see some new problems.  Jamie gave me a nice tour and I got to try a number of cool problems.  Overall, I am much more psyched on what I saw yesterday than anything else I have seen in the Park thus far.   Here are some shots of Nathan working Parchaudge at the end of the day.

Rocky Redeems Herself

After my first real bouldering session at Upper, I have decided that Rocky is almost as good as Evans.

Rapture

After a heavy afternoon thunderstorm and a detour to the Doughnut Mill, Nathan, Tim and I arrived psyched to put some more work into Rapture.  We all agreed that Rapture climbs much better than Spew and is also much more consistent.  We all had a few good links.  Tim and Nathan both took some nice 25+ footer whips pushing through for a send.  And at the end of the day, I was able to climb the route to the chains.  It took me 5 tries, and I would say on send it felt easier than Spew.  Here are a few pics from the day.

Hindenburg Project

Yesterday, Nathan and I headed up to Ute Pass for a quick little session.  It was a bit warm but I was interested in checking out a project that Max had chalked up a week or so earlier.  We found it pretty easily and went to work figuring the beta out.  After a bit, Nathan suggested a high heel, which got me to the crux that I was not able to stick.  I decided to scope the last moves from a nearby tree and when I weighted one of the key holds I broke a good amount of it off.  It will still go but this one is going to be hard, probably 8 to 10.   I am headed to Elevenmile today and will try to grab some photos this time.

Back in the game of things at CC

Yesterday, Byron, Nathan, Dane, Tim and I pilled into a car to go do a little rock climbing and it felt really really good to be doing so.  I had not pulled on real rock for exactly a week and I was itching to get a good pump on.  I managed to send Spew (5.12d) on my third attempt of the day and then tried to flash Rapture (5.13a).  It was a good effort but my endurance just was not up to it.  The moves all went and felt good though so hopefully next time it will be to the chains. Byron is getting back into shape with noticeable improvement in strength.  He worked the V7 on the far left of the Spray boulder, where he came agonizingly close by grazing the crux hold a number of times.  No doubt in my mind Byron will be send soon, which will be his first climb of any significant difficulty in over a year.   Tim and Nathan made some really good links on Spew and Dane got his first dose of Colorado rock after transferring to CC this year.  All and all a great session that was followed by some delicious vegetable curry.

Its been cold down in Southern Colorado recently, the river crossing was surprisingly easy!