On Saturday we drove down to Colorado Springs to climb with Matt and Ryan. We met Matt at his place just outside of Garden of the Gods. After getting permits at the GoG office, we went on to Red Rocks Canyon Open Space. This is a great park that's been bolted by local climbers. The only downside is that it's all sandstone. This type of rock is difficult to climb because it's like sandpaper.
Dan led a 5.6 with a really tricky first bolt. He then led a 5.7+ (mad scientist) and we TRed for a while. Then we went over the the quarry section/end of the whale's tale. I led a 5.4 to a large ledge. Then Matt and Dan joined me on the ledge and Dan led the second pitch. We were able to rappel before the thunder clouds got really close. Oh, did I mention we were at a hanging belay and this was Matt's second time climbing? He was a really good sport and did his first rappel--a two rope one at that. Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that Matt still wants to climb with us again even after this day!
On Sunday I ran for 93 minutes (7.6 miles--more than halfway of the 13.1 mile marathon!). Then Dan and I rode our bikes to the Mount Sanitas trailhead. We hied the Sanitas Valley Trail and then the Mount Sanitas trail. It's a 3-mile loop that gains over 1,200 feet elevation. The hike was really fun except for the fact that it was 99 degrees out. Thankfully, humidity was probably only 15%. Towards the end of the hike we broke out our climbing shoes and bouldered for a while on more sandstone. Afterwards we biked back home.
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