On Saturday we went climbing with Frodo (a.k.a. Matt of Angstrom fame) in Boulder Canyon. This was his first time climbing so we brought him to Castle Rock, where we brought Violin Jim last summer to try his first climb. Frodo used his characteristically strong hobbit feet and massive arms to get him to the top of the rock and back again--several times.
Dan led the crack to the right of the main route, but to the left of the chimney. There was already another party who had a rope at the anchor, so Dan set his own with a cam, tricam, and a nut. The three of us climbed three different routes off of this anchor. The first was probably a 5.6 which I would characterize as a practically a gully climb. The second was the chimney. Matt had some wicked stemming and manteling going on as he climbed it. The third was the face in between the two major crack systems. When we tired of these three, I climbed up, broke down the anchor and rapped off.
We then moved down the road a bit back to Nip and Tuck--where we were last weekend. This time we set up a top rope on an easy climb on Nip. The bottom offered a nice problem--it was a bit overhanging and there was a mantel over a ledge to get you to the slab at the top. I think we all hopped on this climb twice before we called it quits for the day.
I think Matt's first day was a success. He walked away unharmed except for a few blisters and a bloody finger or two. It sounds as though we might make a climber out of him yet, as he wants to go out again with us next weekend. Works for me :-)
After we cleaned up, we all walked down to Ras Kassas' Ethiopian Restaurant for dinner. I swear, all food tastes better after a day of climbing (not that this food doesn't normally taste good--this place is one or our favorites!). To stretch our legs a bit more, we walked to the 29th Street Mall and listened to some live jazz.
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