Our first CMC trip

Today we went on our first CMC trip, led by Ricardo Peña. There were 8 people in our group total. We enjoyed hiking and talking with them.

The trip started at the St. Vrain Mountain Trailhead south of Allenspark and headed up the valley between Meadow and St. Vrain Mountains. Our aim was to summit St. Vrain for a 10-mile round-trip.

There was only a few inches of snow at the trailhead so we started off hiking. After a couple of miles we reached a point where there was enough snow to snowshoe. We geared up and headed off-trail. Parts were rocky and steep but we soon got to nice deep snow (with an occasional rocky section).


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We 'shoed on- and off-trail for a while to a saddle above the treeline, where we stashed our snowshoes and headed for the summit. Without the protection of the trees we were exposed to high winds -- some gusts were strong enough to knock us off balance. The pelting snow didn't feel too good against our faces. Of course the more Laurel and I tried to cover up the more our sunglasses fogged, so at times we were just following the blurry shapes in front of us. We definitely need better headgear!

Even without foggy glasses visibility was very poor. For a number of reasons we turned back about 500 vertical feet from the summit. The trip was a lot of fun despite the weather. (See our trek in Google Earth)

Thanksgiving Vacation Part 2

On Thanksgiving Day it was overcast in Boulder. We were hoping to wake up to some snow, but no luck here in town. So, we decided to try our luck and hopefully our snowshoes in the mountains. I picked out a trail west of Nederland and a village called Eldora. We started at the Hessie trailhead and hiked the Devil's Thumb Bypass Trail. Parts were very pretty and went along a creek. However, the trail was very, very icy. There was only a little bit of snow, so we didn't break out the snowshoes and we kept wishing we had YakTracks. We stopped for lunch and a couple totally flew by us unaffected by the snow because they had the rubber contraptions on their feet. It was getting late and we were moving slowly, so we turned around before hitting Devil's Lake and made a loop with the Devil's Thumb trail. The picturesque Hessie Falls were totally frozen and covered with snow. We'll have to go back sometime to see them in their glory. The whole hike was only about 6 miles. We then headed home for some good 'ole Thanksgiving hot dogs and mac & cheese. Yum!

Friday was supposed to be a rest day. So, we had a leisurely morning and hung around the house reading and stuff. Around lunchtime we headed out on our bikes to do some errands. We rode about 5 miles down to Neptune's to pick up some things (we got cool MicroSpikes--better than YakTracks!) Then Dan wanted Arby's for lunch (yuck). When we finally got home it was getting cold and we both made chocolate chip cookies.

We did wake up to a little snow on Saturday morning--just a dusting. It was very pretty, so I decided to go for a little run in our neighborhood. A little later in the morning we went out to Betasso and hiked the 3 mile loop in an hour. After running a few more errands we came home for lunch and then I promptly fell asleep for two hours. After Dan woke me up we hit the rock gym for a while. Dan's reading a book about training for climbing so we each did four laps on a 5.9 for a stamina test.

Sunday is our big CMC hike/snowshoe day. The trip Dan picked is supposed to be 10 miles with 3500 feet elevation gain--two summits (Mt. St. Vrain and Meadow). This should be interesting...

Thanksgiving Vacation

In Boulder the schools get the whole week surrounding Thanksgiving off. It's definitely a nice feature. So, I was trying to get Dan to take off work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so we could go somewhere south of here to climb. Our hopes were set on Moab, Utah where we could bike, hike, and climb. However, he had to work Monday and Tuesday so come Tuesday night when we checked to weather to pack for our trip, we learned that it was just not in the stars for us this week. There is a huge low pressure system moving through the southwestern part of the country. Many areas are getting snow and rain--everywhere from here to Moab to Joshua Tree, CA. Hopefully the weather will be better at Christmastime...

Monday I just hung around town, did some swimming and yoga, and went into school for a little while. Monday night we joined the rock gym for the winter. It took us a whole 10 minutes to walk there Monday night (it's only two blocks away!) and now we can go anytime we want. Disappointingly, the grades are sandbagged. After 8 months of working on 5.2-5.6 rock we were able to get successfully on 5.9s (or should I say 5.8s). It was still fun, though.

Tuesday I drove down to Colorado Springs to visit my friend Melanie and her 8-month-old, Josh (who is very cute). It was really fun to visit them.

Wednesday Dan didn't have to work so we had a fun vacation day in Boulder. For breakfast we went to Moe's, a bagel shop. Then I dragged Dan to do groceries with me and we spent twice as much as usual (lots of goodies for the week)! At lunchtime we decided to go for a short hike on Sanitas. It was beautiful and warm out--60s I'd say. Then we hit the rock gym and some 5.10 and 5.11 routes before I went for a run and Dan went for a bike ride. The day ended with a viewing of "Tremors." I'd never seen it.

Oh yeah, we also joined the Colorado Mountain Club. They offer a lot of local (and not so local) trips, outdoor schools, and social events. We signed up for a snowshoe trip on Sunday. It's supposed to be 10 miles with 3500 ft elevation gain. Hopefully we can keep up!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

Mallory Cave

Today we finally hiked to Mallory Cave. We have been meaning to for some time but kept getting sidetracked by other fun things to do.

The trail to the cave was a steep hike, especially at the end! Once we got back down we took this picture of two women scrambling up.

A Fun Hike

This morning we started at NCAR and headed to the Mesa Trail. After about 3 miles we headed towards South Boulder Peak on the Shadow Canyon Trail. We summited the 8,500 foot peak at lunch time. Though it was beautiful, warm, and sunny on the whole 5 miles to the top, it was very windy and chilly once we got there. After a quick bite, we traversed the ridge to Bear Peak at 8,400 feet.

My hope was to bag a third peak (Green Mountain) and rack up 15 miles on the day. However, it was getting late (now that the sun sets at 4:30) and we were getting tired. Once we completed the West Bear Ridge Trail (really neat route!) and the Bear Canyon Trail we were glad we didn't take the long way home. After nearly 7 and a half hours and almost 11 miles the car was a welcome sight!

Dan's last big ride of the year

There probably won't be many (any?) days like today for the rest of the year. It was almost 70 today, so I took off on a long bike ride. In 140 minutes I covered 27.8 miles -- almost 12 MPH average, which isn't too bad considering I went up the big hill to NCAR!


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A tale of the route that Laurel and Dan climbed today that might be Hubris and/or Atlanta but may not be

The weather was forecast to be warm today so our plan was to get to Chautauqua early and climb a Flatiron. We picked two shorter routes in case it got cold. The first was East-facing for the morning sun and the second was South-facing for the afternoon -- by 1 or 2pm the sun isn't hitting the East faces any more and by 2 or 3 it's behind the mountain.

Finding the first route, Hubris, was a challenge. The book describes how to get to the start of the climb: "Start at the same place as Atlanta..." For Atlanta it says: "Start 230 feet southwest from the start of Baker's Way..." Baker's Way is described as being "...several hundred feet from the top of the Witch's Cabin..." Measuring these distances is near impossible, since 1) the trail switches back so much that you may hike 200 feet along the trail but only gain 20 vertical feet and end up 40 feet away, and 2) there are trees and rocks in the way, so you can't always see where you were.

We eventually decided that we must be at the start of the climb, even though the rock didn't match up with the description. In any case it seemed that a few hundred feet up we would meet up with where the route was supposed to go, and the lower section looked like easy enough climbing. The route was supposed to climb a "well-formed dihedral" but there wasn't anything in sight that I would describe that way.

In the shade the rock was cool but once we reached sunlight it was quite warm, especially with a heavy long-sleeved black shirt! I led up the rock as I have on any Flatiron climb: disregard any beta found in a guidebook. Instead, look for cracks that will take pro and aim for them. Runout the easy sections a bit. Tackle some harder sections if there's good pro. Eventually we made it to a large Juniper tree; from that point on we were no longer climbing what we thought was Hubris and had moved over to what seems to be Atlanta.

Atlanta tops out on the North Arete route. Lots of traffic today -- more than 10 people passed me while I was belaying Laurel up to that point. From there it should have been one short pitch to the summit, but since there were many people around we made it two really short pitches. The air was calm for a while but eventually the wind picked up, probably around 50 MPH. Laurel had a tough time rappelling with the wind blowing the ropes all around.

It was a fun day climbing the First, and unlike last summer's ascent, this time there were no thunderstorms (and I got to sign the register!). We didn't have time for the second climb -- we were pretty beat too. Maybe if the weather holds up...

Bike ride, protest, hike

Saturday we went for a bike ride on the Cottonwood and Eagle trails, then pedaled down to Pearl Street for the Prop. 8 protest, then pedaled over to Chautauqua and hiked around the Woods Quarry area.

Breakfast

Look what Dan made me for breakfast! Moose cakes!

Royal Arch Hiking and Scrambling

We thought it might be too cold to climb today so instead we biked to Chautauqua with our rock shoes. We ventured off the Royal Arch trail in a few spots to explore some rock formations and catch a glimpse of the area where we were spelunking last weekend. At Sentinal Pass we stopped to scramble around the big boulders there. Calling them big is an understatement -- some were mini-flatirons!

Getting a little higher up allowed us to see the extent of rock that exists between the 3rd and 4th Flatirons. This mountain has enough rock to keep us busy for a looong time, even if we were to only do one climb on each rock! There were a few pinnacles high up on the hillside that were particularly appealing.

Eventually we made it to the Royal Arch. Since we had our rock shoes with us I thought it'd be fun to scramble up to the top. See me in the picture below?

Hiking in Wild Basin, RMNP

Today we drove up to the southern part of Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked in the Wild Basin area. There was snow on the ground even at the trailhead, but once we got hiking it wasn't too cold. We hiked along the North St. Vrain Creek and then the Ouzel Creek, passing a few partially-frozen waterfalls on the way.

There were also a few boulders worth scrambling up and we could see Mt. Meeker for most of the trip (see photo below). At one point we passed by a cave that looked like it went pretty far back but couldn't scramble in too far due to a 10' drop.

Towards the end of the trail we had to decide whether to head to Ouzel Lake or Bluebird Lake. The day was getting late, the weather was getting cloudier, and it looked like there could be some snow coming, so we headed to Ouzel which was closer.

On the way back we passed by a few campsites. Could be a nice place to stay someday when it's warmer.

See all pictures.

Election night

Last night after watching Senator McCain and President-elect Obama speak I biked down to Pearl Street to see what was going on. Big celebration. People were dancing in the streets (yes, literally).

Spelunking, day 1

Today we searched for the McCarty Cave.

These were not the cave we were looking for:



One of the caves was very cool. It was big and had a few arches and windows:



I climbed out one of the windows and up into a higher vestibule. There was a mostly melted candle set in a depression:



See all pictures from today.

See pictures from yesterday -- we hiked the Niwot Ridge.

The Week in Review

We did get to see Obama speak. Perhaps I should rephrase that, we heard Obama speak from massive speakers. It was very difficult to SEE him because there were 50,000 people there. It was still neat, though, to be part of something that big and exciting.

On Monday and Wednesday I did some substitute teaching. Yup, I was a sub. Monday went well--it was a half day with some middle school orchestra kids. They were a lot of fun and well behaved. On Wednesday I was at Boulder High School for the afternoon. That, as you could imagine, was a different story. The Concert Choir was a rowdy bunch but I survived and no one got hurt or sent to the office (can you even do that in high school? I'm not sure).

What else did we do this week? Hmmm... Monday night we saw "Burn After Reading" with Brad Pitt. It really wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. Thursday we went to an avalanche safety seminar at REI. It was very interesting and now we know what to look for come the snowy season.

Friday night we did a long bike ride into the canyon. On the way back I almost hit a duck. Then we hit Pearl Street for dinner. It was really fun watching everyone in costumes walking around. Unfortunately, we didn't stay late enough for the Naked Pumpkin Run that started at 10:45. Maybe next year...

Quiet Weekend

Unfortunately, my knee is still pretty nasty. The gravel I feel on really took two big chunks of skin out and these spots are taking a long time to heal. So, this weekend has been very quiet. Yesterday we took an hour walk in the plains (no elevation gain because stairs and hills are hard for me) near the Heatherwood area. The little mini-hike had beautiful views of the snow-covered rockies with colorful deciduous trees in the foreground.

After returning home we decided to walk to Target to get Dan some new sneakers. On the way back we stopped in the parking lot of the Whole Pets Store to observe a Halloween pet party. About 25 dogs were dressed up in costumes being paraded around by their owners--often in costumes themselves. It was quite a show. We grabbed hot dogs of the grill and just watched the show.

Dan had to work in the afternoon and I was confined to the couch to rest my knee. To pass the time I tried my hand at watercoloring painting the beautiful scenes we had witnessed earlier in the day. I figure my attempts were about as good as a 10-year-old could do. Let's just say that this is not a viable career change option for me!

Sunday morning we went for another walk in the plains. This time we were walking around the Walden pond and marsh area. It was considerably colder and windier than yesterday, but still pretty. Right now Dan is working on his bike at Community Cycles and then the plan is to drive up to Fort Collins to try to see Obama speak. Right now he's in Denver and they estimate the crowd is about 80,000 people. Hopefully, it will be a little less crazy north of here. When I saw Michelle speak three weeks ago here in town there was quite a turn out. I don't remember how many people they estimated, but it was in the thousands.

The Jump move

Yes, people really jump! Scary. Can't imagine doing that with rope attached and a 10 pound rack.

A Little Bike Ride

On Sunday the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we decided to take advantage of it and go for a long bike ride (in a couple of weeks I don't think we'll want to get on bikes much!). There is an area west of the Flatirons/Green Mountain called Walker Ranch that we wanted to check out. On a hike in Eldorado a few weeks ago we ran into the Walker Loop Trail and it looked like a lot of fun. So, this was the day to check it out!

We hopped on our bikes and headed for the hills...literally. To reach Walker Ranch we needed to bike 4 miles to Chautauqua Park, then another 4.5 miles to the summit of Flagstaff Mountain, then another 3 miles to the trail head of Walker Ranch. Chautauqua was no big deal--about 25 minutes most of week was up a decent hill. Flagstaff proved a bit more difficult. The 4.5 miles is up a mountain, so we gained a good 2,000 feet over the next 35 minutes or so. Reaching the Summit Road (a spur that gets you to some hiking trails, an outdoor amphitheater, and some great views) we thought we were done with the elevation gain. Haa! The next part was even more treacherous. The road was so steep (>7.5 degrees) pedaling in the lowest gear was really, really hard. We both fought thoughts of getting off and walking, but we didn't! The next parking area, Stevens Gulch, offered great views and a chance to stretch. The road kept heading up until we got behind Green Mountain. Then we finally enjoyed a couple of downhills before the final descent to Walker Ranch.


Now, if you're a regular reader of the blog, you know we've done some mountain biking out here. Most of it has been a lot of fun. Sure, there's been a few technical spots where Dan attempts to ride and I just walk my bike, but it's been quite doable. Walker Ranch was not all that doable. I swear, someone needed to mark this trail as difficult and the others as easy or novice. The majority of this seven-mile loop was insane. It was steep (both going up and down), it was rocky, there were sharp turns and switchbacks, and there was even about 1,000 feet where EVERYONE (even the REALLY good people) had to carry their bikes because there were stairs cut into the side of the cliff. Let me tell you, walking your bike up steep hills is not a lot of fun, carrying your bike down a cliff is even less fun. All in all the 7 miles took us almost 3 hours to complete. Crazy!

After a snack, we were ready for the ride home, or so I thought. We were headed down the long, loose-gravel driveway back to the road and I slid off my bike. Yup, I was going too fast, tried to slow down, and then ended up in the middle of the road on all fours. I gouged a good chunk of skin out of my knee and arm and thought I needed stitches. Very fortunately, a ranger was passing by a few minutes after the accident. He had a first aid kit (ours was at home in the climbing packs...stupid us!) and a nice big pick up. Though I could have ridden home (it would have been a long and rather painful ordeal) the ranger offered us a ride. Thankfully, I didn't need stitches but I still did a number on my left limbs. After a few days of R&R I'm sure I'll be fine for next weekend's adventures. I better be!

2nd and Sunset

Laurel and I did two big climbs today. First up was a route on the Second Flatiron called Freeway. It was an interesting climb, especially when we got to the part the guidebook author describes as:

Jumping may be the easiest way to overcome the gap. Jumping, while not a recommended climbing technique, seems innocent and safe enough at this notch.

Well we got to that point and wasted almost an hour deciding how to get down, because jumping looked like a sure way to twist an ankle halfway up this 800 foot climb. There was no easy way to downclimb (this was supposed to be a Class 4 climb), so instead of the jump move we did an interesting 10 foot rappel. The picture shows where the jump is supposed to happen -- from that piece of rock sticking out on to the slab.

On the climb we were met by 3 guys free soloing. It probably only took them an hour or less to do the whole climb unroped. We did the climb roped in 6 pitches, in about 6 hours.

Our hope was to head over to the Sunset Flatironette next, since it is somewhat behind the Second Flatiron. We weren't sure if there would be enough daylight to finish the "Chase the Sun" climb (it was almost 4pm), but it looked like there were good escape points along the way if we needed one, so we gave it a shot. This climb follows a ridge for 600 feet and had some 30' runouts. It was an interesting climb, but parts of it felt tougher than the 5.4 rating -- there was lots of lichen and loose rock in places, as this is not a very frequently-climbed rock.

Before we started we decided that at 6:30 we would bail so we weren't climbing in the dark -- but around 5:30 we were nearing the end of the climb so we just wrapped it up. By the time we got our sneakers on and started to hike it was very dark. It was about an hour hike back down to our packs at the base of the Second Flatiron and then to the car. Definitely worth it though -- the sunset was beautiful (see all pics).

In all, we climbed 10 pitches today, covering about 1400 feet of climbing. We left the car a bit after 8am and returned a bit after 8pm.


When we got to the parking lot, there were a few news crews and park rangers. During our "Chase the Sun" climb we had seen a rescue team off behind the South Block of the Second Flatiron. Apparently someone had fallen and died "between the 2nd and 3rd Flatirons" but given the location of the rescue/recovery team it appeared to us to be closer to the 2nd. Could have been one of the freesoloers we saw. So far no details, but it sounds like the person didn't have any safety equipment.

Snowy Nederland

As expected, Boulder didn't see any snow. But, we decided we would go chase it because, you know, there's nothing like freezing temps in and white stuff in October. We didn't need to go too far to find some. By the time we got to Boulder Falls in the canyon (about 8 miles from town) there was snow on the branches of the evergreens. Once we got to Nederland there was a dusting on the ground. We drove a bit west and south of town to the Eldora Ski Area where we parked at an elevation of 9,200ft. Our hope was to hike the Jenny Creek Trail to Guinn Mountain at 11,200ft. We did get more snow as we ascended the trail and at times there was enough to try out our snowshoes. However, once we put them on, we would quickly take them off again as parts of the trail were rocky and windswept which meant minimal snow.

The base of the trail was well marked, but when we were supposed to turn off the resort access road was not marked, so we hiked the road all the way to the top of the mountain--lots of steep switchbacks. After about 2 hours the road finally petered out and became a trail that followed a gas pipeline. After about a mile out of the ski resort the trail got very narrow and led us through some dense, snow covered pines. Here Dan saw some moose tracks (that's right, there was a big sign that warned us that many moose frequented the area). Eventually we made it to the summit of what we thought was Guinn Mountain. The visibility was so poor at this point (maybe 350ft) it was hard to tell. But, according to the GPS we were there. We promptly turned around and what took us 3.5 hours to ascend took 2 hours to descend. Needless to say after 5.5 hours of hiking in the snow we were cold, tired, and sore especially since the snow shoes were on our backs more than our feet! We got back into town and stopped at Sherpa's Restaurant for dinner.

Flagstaff Mountain and Viewpoint Trails

It misted and rained all day. Laurel says this is the 7th day we haven't seen any sun since we moved here. Didn't stop us though, we parked by the Amphitheater and hiked up and around Flagstaff Mountain. There were some neat rocks that we'll go back to boulder on someday. We also found a decent sized cave (50-100 sqft?) that had some neat problems on the ceiling -- looked hard!

Laurel got snowshoes, we may try them out tomorrow. Boulder shouldn't get much snow but up in the mountains I bet there's plenty already.