Beautiful Frustrating Disappointment

It's my favorite time of year, which has made the bad conditions we've had during our last two weekend sessions even more disappointing. We work hard during the school year to climb outside one day a week. That's all we can get, so we really want the day we get out to be a good one. Last Sunday we took a trip to the Aspen Glade and everything was looking gorgeous. I was so excited to have a perfect session.

We did one warmup and then the wind came in like a freight train. No way I could keep it together while pumped on the final crimps of "Gun Street Girl." We fled from the insane gale and went to the relatively sheltered route "When I Was a Young Girl, I Had Me a Cowboy." I got a workout, but it still feels beyond me. We ended up hiking out early.

Two weekends back, on Saturday, we had our first session on Fossil Hill. It's a large cliff on a mountain top, with mad exposure. At times I was looking past my feet at the domes of Sweetwater Rocks 70 miles away. The air felt cool at the car, but the sun was brutal on the south facing cliff line. Feet on fire, and palms sweaty, we bailed after I fell off the end of our second climb. A route called "Casual Entertainment."

We tried to make up for our short session with another short session at the Source. It was good, but we didn't have much time. We added a few new sit starts, and rechalked the holds on some lines that had disappeared back into the lichen after a month without traffic.

One of our nicest recent sessions was after school, on the Rubber Blanket Boulder. We're working on some enduro link ups of shorter problems we've done. Ashley sent "Milton's Little Bi+%@*$ Traverse." It's quite pumpy, about 50 feet long, and now it's on my to do list.

Sierra relaxing by the Rubber Blanket Boulder.


I'm crossing my fingers that the snow doesn't hit as early as it did last year. We aren't ready for it yet.