Labor Day Weekend Post #1, Two Days of Cody Bouldering

Ashley's been good to me. Watching the girls all day on multiple occasions while I get to climb on beautiful alpine blocks at the Falcon's Lair. Not only do the trips take me away from home for full days, they also keep me from having the time to clean new boulders that Ashley can get to. So lately, Ashley's been getting her workouts at the gym, and sport climbing at Wild Iris. But over Labor Day weekend another option opened up. A cold front came through on Friday evening, cooling everything by almost twenty degrees. The timing was incredible, and conditions were perfect for a trip to Cody. We both climbed on Saturday at the Africa and Dirt Boss areas. The highlight of the day came early, with Ashley's send of the fingery traverse into "Spear Chucker" called "Babies for Breakfast."

Ashley climbing the crux of "Babies for Breakfast."

"Babies for Breakfast" felt good to me at first, and then the power I needed just slipped away. I couldn't do it, and that made Ashley happy, at least. I'll try it again next trip.

Then the rest of the day. We got sandbagged on "Dr. J" which we never did unlock. I did "Drive By" because it was there. We climbed "The Toolbox" but it's a drilled boulder problem. Ashley seemed o.k. with it, but it felt wrong to me that it was ever created, and that it lead to so many other drilled pockets elsewhere at Cody, and for that reason, I didn't enjoy it. "The Prow" right of "The Corner" was easier than I expected, and after doing a few other variations we were quite worked.

On Sunday, I rested while Ashley had a second session. We spent the day at the Maze and the Bat Cave areas.
Ashley warmed up by climbing the classic 60 foot long V1 "West Face Traverse" of the Symmetry boulder both ways. I took what were probably the BEST PHOTOS EVER!!!, but my camera somehow was switched to a random, very wrong, setting, and they all turned out black. Ashley didn't want to pose on it, or do it a second time, so here is the problem in two rather lame frames. It begins in the low horizontal left of Sundance.
And goes all the way around the right arete on rock that perfectly mimics Horsetooth Reservoir.
Ashley worked on "Camel Toe" for a while, and we ran into Kerrik, a friendly, and strong local boulderer. He was in the middle of a difficult circuit, but he hiked down the hill to introduce himself, and was nice enough to tell us about a few classic problems that aren't in the guide.

Ashley wanted to end the day by getting on some problems that she was likely to finish. "Ground Effect" only gets one star in the guide, but for someone Ashley's size it's a great line that begins in a perfect hueco back in the cave.

Ashley squeezed through the gap on "The Mercenary" without dabbing.
And really enjoyed "19th Century Assassin" just to the left.
She warmed down on the Maze's warm up, "Turtlehead."
Very fun days spent on the sandstone boulders of Cedar Mountain! We drove home and I worked into the night so I could spend my Monday off at the Falcon's Lair, as seen below.