Winter Days on Sunny Stone

The good winter days are often the best days!  The air is still, the rock is cool, you can spend all day in the sun without getting burned, and because they are rare you appreciate the nice days more. Our winter began with warm weather, and a great day at Roy, New Mexico.

 "Buttercup" is pretty tricky for V5, but I figured it out, and climbed it, before the end of the session.

I highly recommend this problem!

 We were there on a weekend during Christmas Break, and we still had the Jumbles all to ourselves for the day.

We managed to hit Sweetwater during a good day in February.  We added a few new lines to the warm up wall in the Norwegian Sector.  

When the stone is good at Sweetwater, it's amazingly good!

 Ashley and Sierra used the day to train for a trip to Hueco.

 A Sweetwater view, photos don't to the distance justice.  Those are the Wind River Mountains in the background, over 70 miles away.

Ashley and Sierra spent a whole week at Hueco, had a great time, but didn't get any great photos.

When the weather was poor this winter I looked at a lot of boulders.  Sierra hiked the granite with me.

 And I looked at sandstone high on the hills of Sinks Canyon.

 And sometimes we bouldered despite less than perfect weather.

Sierra's been interested in seeing what she can do on a rope.  She redpointed "Hardware" 5.12 on her second attempt.

 Did "The Wilds" 5.12a in conditions too cold for my fingers.

 And she redpointed "Moe" 5.12b in a session.  Here's Dave giving it a valiant effort.

Before Science Fair in Laramie we got in a couple sessions in northern Colorado.  Sierra flashed "Punk Rock Traverse" V5 at Horsetooth Reservoir.

 She did "Corner Lock" V4 on her third attempt.

 And unlocked the reachy (for her) crimp line on the left side of Pitch Penny.

We were only able to pack one pad for this trip, so I worked on the only difficult line I was comfortable trying with one pad, "Beast House" V9 at Arthur's Rock.

I didn't do it, but I did a move I'd never stuck before.

Torrey Valley delivered great conditions on a couple weekends.

 We climbed every line and variation we could come up with on the Bunk House Boulder.

 And one fun line on the "Chances" boulder.

The ice was very clear on the creek.

 I had Sierra pose on a finger crack in the ice.  Then I posted it to Instagram.  I thought the reflection and the snow boots made it pretty obvious what was going on, but it appears that some people were fooled by it.

The wildlife in Torrey Valley adds to the experience.  Sheep watched while I worked on a new compression line.

My highlight for the season was finishing the first ascent of "Just Being" V7/8 at Sweetwater.  My fifth session on the line, I worked out a sequence and had good enough conditions to keep the right hand crimp.

Here's video.


I've also been working on writing projects, and spring has gotten off to a good start.  I should have more news to post soon.