Today, I and four other guys went down to Santa Fe to play frisbee golf (or disc golf as some prefer to call it). Henrik and Jae had to play with no handicap and the rest of us got one extra throw per basket. The frisbees often went wide (at least for some of us) but we all managed to get some pars. Henrik had the least throws but with my handicap I got first place. The price was free dinner and beer afterwards, which we had at 2nd Street Brewery. The victory tasted very good indeed. However, there were indication of changing the handicaps for next game.
In the evening we all watched the swedish steel reinforced Redwings beat the Penguins. A good ending to a nice day.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Weekend in Boulder, Co
This long weekend was spent in Boulder, Co. We headed up there after work on Thursday and got to the hotel between Denver and Boulder around 1am. In the morning we drove to Boulder and checked in to the hotel there. We did not have a climbing guidebook but luckily REI was in the next block. My suggestion was to go to Flatirons where there is both rope climbing and bouldering. We parked at Chautauqua park and started hiking up the trails. Apparently, the best climbing was at the 3rd Flatiron according to Yoshi's guidebook. As we got up to the trail to the 1st and 2nd Flatiron there was a sign about the 3rd Flatiron being closed due to falcon and eagle nesting. New plans: after looking through the rope climbing guidebook and my bouldering guidebook we decided to go to Eldorado Canyon instead. When we got down to the parking lot we saw several signs on that billboard about the closures. Ten eyes had not seen them on the way up.
The drive to Eldorado Canyon was pretty swift and we parked after the state park entrance. We asked some firefighters for directions and crossed the bridge over the stream. The bouldering guidebook had a few topos but no overview so without the directions from the firefighters it would have been hard to find our way around. A small note that the rope climbing guidebook forgot to mention was that the routes in Eldorado Canyon are more or less exclusively traditional. A nice boulder which was the first one on the trail was unfortunately surrounded by water. We tried to go to the next area but crossing a ridge seemed too sketchy so we went back and went to the boulder right by the road on the other side of the stream. Milton Boulder is a pretty tall boulder with solid but slick rock. We did/tried a few problems before the wind made it impossible to keep the pads from flying all over the place.
The next boulder area was further up the road and very accessible as well. A tall arete was defeated as well as some other easy problems on the A boulder. I joined a local on a balancy V2 but never managed to send it. Yoshi did a sitstart with a hard dyno/swing to catch the next hold on the B boulder. There was also a nice slab on that boulder and I added a sitstart to it.
In the evening we walked into the city center after using the hotel's hot tub. We had dinner at Lazy Dog and it was around 10pm before we got our food. Two glasses of beer and a burger in the stomach made me extremely tired so I had to fight hard to keep my eyes open.
The morning after we had breakfast at the Original Pancake House next door. It was very tasty. We agreed that we were too tired to go climbing so we stuck to the original plan: hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The web page suggested a few different hikes and the hike to Mills Lake sounded like one of the better moderate hikes. On the way to the trail head we saw numerous elk and they were very fearless. When we got to the trail head it was snowing and the hike would be on packed snow. It was quite a contrast to the weather down in Boulder this morning. I had left my gloves and hat in the hotel room, since I figured I would be sweating during the hike and not get snowed upon. I pulled my hood over my cap and kept my hands in the sleeves as we took off. It was pretty slippery on the snow. It was snowing on and off and in the sun it was very warm but then suddenly a cold wind would cool you off. Up to Mills Lake is a 2.8 mile hike and it was a bit strenuous with the snow and the pace that we kept. The major part of the lake was still frozen. We had lunch there and took pictures of the scenery. In the description it said that we would have a nice view over Longs Peak which is a 14er, but we were sure it was hidden behind some other peak. The hike back was easier as we were mainly going down. Instead of going back to the same shuttle bus stop we continued 0.5 mile up to Bear Lake. It was a disappointment after the steep hike. At the ranger station there I found out that Chaos Canyon bouldering area is not far from Bear Lake. Next time I guess I will bring the pad and the other gear up here. However, I saw somewhere that the hike can take up to two hours.
At night we had dinner at BJ's which is a microbrewery in the center of town. The pizza was good and the beer as well. We were all tired and called it a day after dinner.
The last day the other guys wanted to go to Boulder Canyon while I wanted to check out Flagstaff Mountain. I dropped them off at the Avalon crag which was not that easy to find using the description on mountainproject.com. I went back into town and had breakfast at a very nice place: Folsom St Coffee.
The drive to Eldorado Canyon was pretty swift and we parked after the state park entrance. We asked some firefighters for directions and crossed the bridge over the stream. The bouldering guidebook had a few topos but no overview so without the directions from the firefighters it would have been hard to find our way around. A small note that the rope climbing guidebook forgot to mention was that the routes in Eldorado Canyon are more or less exclusively traditional. A nice boulder which was the first one on the trail was unfortunately surrounded by water. We tried to go to the next area but crossing a ridge seemed too sketchy so we went back and went to the boulder right by the road on the other side of the stream. Milton Boulder is a pretty tall boulder with solid but slick rock. We did/tried a few problems before the wind made it impossible to keep the pads from flying all over the place.
The next boulder area was further up the road and very accessible as well. A tall arete was defeated as well as some other easy problems on the A boulder. I joined a local on a balancy V2 but never managed to send it. Yoshi did a sitstart with a hard dyno/swing to catch the next hold on the B boulder. There was also a nice slab on that boulder and I added a sitstart to it.
In the evening we walked into the city center after using the hotel's hot tub. We had dinner at Lazy Dog and it was around 10pm before we got our food. Two glasses of beer and a burger in the stomach made me extremely tired so I had to fight hard to keep my eyes open.
The morning after we had breakfast at the Original Pancake House next door. It was very tasty. We agreed that we were too tired to go climbing so we stuck to the original plan: hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The web page suggested a few different hikes and the hike to Mills Lake sounded like one of the better moderate hikes. On the way to the trail head we saw numerous elk and they were very fearless. When we got to the trail head it was snowing and the hike would be on packed snow. It was quite a contrast to the weather down in Boulder this morning. I had left my gloves and hat in the hotel room, since I figured I would be sweating during the hike and not get snowed upon. I pulled my hood over my cap and kept my hands in the sleeves as we took off. It was pretty slippery on the snow. It was snowing on and off and in the sun it was very warm but then suddenly a cold wind would cool you off. Up to Mills Lake is a 2.8 mile hike and it was a bit strenuous with the snow and the pace that we kept. The major part of the lake was still frozen. We had lunch there and took pictures of the scenery. In the description it said that we would have a nice view over Longs Peak which is a 14er, but we were sure it was hidden behind some other peak. The hike back was easier as we were mainly going down. Instead of going back to the same shuttle bus stop we continued 0.5 mile up to Bear Lake. It was a disappointment after the steep hike. At the ranger station there I found out that Chaos Canyon bouldering area is not far from Bear Lake. Next time I guess I will bring the pad and the other gear up here. However, I saw somewhere that the hike can take up to two hours.
Mills Lake.
View over the 14er Longs Peak.
At night we had dinner at BJ's which is a microbrewery in the center of town. The pizza was good and the beer as well. We were all tired and called it a day after dinner.
The last day the other guys wanted to go to Boulder Canyon while I wanted to check out Flagstaff Mountain. I dropped them off at the Avalon crag which was not that easy to find using the description on mountainproject.com. I went back into town and had breakfast at a very nice place: Folsom St Coffee.
A V2 arete at Flagstaff Mountain, Boulder.
A V3 on the Red Wall, Flagstaff Mountain.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The semi-regular weekend afternoon at the Pond
After a quiet morning I finally went down to the Pond. It was very warm so the quest was to find problems in the shade. With a few minutes before the nice sitstart on the backside of the C boulder would be in the sun I had to climb it quickly. It felt easier than last time I did it so I am not sure of the grade. In any case, it is a nice problem. I walked over to the Scoop, V3, which I had problems with the first time here. There is a tree that you could fall right into if you miss the good pocket right below the top. I tried the moves and they felt easy today so I gave it a try and a success it was. It is a nice straight forward problem (at least with the sequence I used this time). See a video of the Scoop from the tojorisen blog here.
Feeling satisfied with the easy send of the Scoop I hiked up to the Upper Deck in the gazing sun. Carrying two pads and a backpack is somewhat frustrating from times to times, especially when it is as hot as today. My plan was to try Lost Descent and Spooner again. I had watched a video of Lost Descent so I now know that you do the same top-out for both Lost Descent and Spooner. However, the beta did not help me today. One crucial hold to go right to the top-out was a bit to slopey for this hot day. I came slightly closer on Spooner's sitstart but yet again to warm for slopers today. I tried to figure out were the R and Q boulders were and I believe I found the R boulder but the location of the Q boulder remains a mystery. On the way home I scrambled down the hill to the Cube to have a look at the highball: Doo-doo Wrecka arete V5.
Elks on the Caldera.
As I drove past the Valles Caldera a lot of elk were down on the meadows feeding. A coyote tried to get close to them but was scared off. After a while a large bull with big horns was about to cross the road close to the parking lot where I was but unfortunately it was scared away by another car.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Spider Canyon and Peck's Peninsula, Ponderosa
I had seen that there are some boulders further up the forest road from Ponderosa so today's mission was to check these out. I started at the Spider Canyon and hiked in the two track and found some blocs but they were chossy and not appealing. There are GPS coordinates for some of the boulders but that did not help me as I do not have any GPS unit. After the dissappointment after not finding anything exiting at Spider Canyon I continued to the Ridge (a.k.a. Peck's Peninsula). The view from ontop of the ridge is nice.
The scenery from ontop of the ridge by Peck's Peninsula.
At the Ridge I found several of the problems that I had spotted online. The Funky Spider looked really cool as well as the Pinball Simulator (or First arete). I did not bring the gear down to the boulders but I definitely have to go back to try them. There seemed to by some guys that we camping at the bottom of the bouldering area so that would be a nice thing to do a weekend.
The scenery from ontop of the ridge by Peck's Peninsula.At the Ridge I found several of the problems that I had spotted online. The Funky Spider looked really cool as well as the Pinball Simulator (or First arete). I did not bring the gear down to the boulders but I definitely have to go back to try them. There seemed to by some guys that we camping at the bottom of the bouldering area so that would be a nice thing to do a weekend.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Bandelier
Overview of the Frijoles Canyon with the cliff dwellings at Bandelier.
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| Overlooking the ruins. | A ladder to a carved out room. |
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| A cactus by the long house. | A stranger in the Alcove cave. |
I got to Bandelier National Monument around 4pm. Robert let me through the gate and I ran into Andrew by the shop. Watched the video and bought the map of the main loop. After the main loop I hiked over to the Alcove Cave. The Frijoles canyon is very lush which surprised me. It makes a nice contrast to the rock faces.
Andrew told me about a concert at the Brewing Co. in Santa Fe the same evening. A group from the park were heading down. I got there a bit late so Missy Higgins had already started to play. I liked her voice and the soft singer-songwriter style of hers. Brett Dennen was next on stage and it was ok. His best performance was in a duet with Missy. Finally, Mason Jennings entered the stage and he was pretty good. The best part was a duet with Brett.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Upper deck at the Pond
As I just was about to start to warm up at the 20 minute boulder at 'the Pond' a guy from Albuquerque showed up with his husky. Apparently he knows the area well and also has found some areas nearby. He was heading up to the 'Upper deck' area which I had never visited so I warmed up quickly and caught up with Eric at a new problem on a boulder uphill from the 'King for a day' boulder. He did not manage to link the start so we walked to 'the Wave' boulder where I wanted to try a slab problem that I have tried twice before. Unfortunately, the problem is in the sun all day so it was already warm. To my surprise I managed to get my left foot to the key foot hold on the first try. After a few more tries I topped it out. Next I did an arete problem which was very nice and graded V3/4.
A nice easy problem on the 'K do me, do me boulder' at the Upper Deck.
I do not think I would have found the 'Upper deck' area on my own. The hike was pretty steep and the loose sand made it hard. The boulders at the 'Upper deck' lie close to eachother and there are several cool problems on them. Eric showed me around and then we headed to 'Lost descent' V5 (V6 sds) and 'Spooner' V7 which Eric wanted to try. He managed the start of 'Spooner' but did not find a sequence for the mantle. It is a really cool problem that I want to spend some time on. Although it is way out of my league right now I think it suits me. You can find both problems in the Ponderosa Weekend movie. The sit start on 'Lost descent' was very hard and we both tried to go straight up for the mantle while I now think one should go right and do the same mantle as for 'Spooner'.
Beehive arete V2 on the Beach Boulder at the Upper Deck.
After Eric left I played around on the 'Beach' boulder but the rock was so warm so I did not succeed on neither the V4 arete nor the V2 arete. I had a look in the guide book and walked around the area to have a closer look at the problems. The 'Swiss cheese' V7 problem on the 'Tree slab' boulder looks really nice but I guess one has to be there in the morning to work on it. Before heading down again I did a nice easy problem on the K boulder. On the way down I stopped by 'Catherine slab' and did the left version although it was ever so hot there.
All in all it was the best day at Ponderosa so far.
Overlook of the canyon of Jemez Springs.
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