A Week in Vail

We spent last week in Vail with Ashley's extended family. We had four bouldering sessions, and I spent one day searching for new boulders.

Session 1: Last Sunday, we climbed on the Aircraft Carrier boulder near Red Cliff. Eric, who we met at the Wild Basin Boulder a few weeks ago, gave us great directions, and we found it easily. The highlight of the day was climbing "Star Crossed Lovers." When you imagine a perfect boulder problem, something like it should come to mind. Ashley also did a harder sit-start problem a few feet to the left. I was very disappointed that I forgot my camera bag that morning at the condo.

Session 2, 3 and 4: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday we spent at the Kluttergarden just outside of Red Cliff, a great set of boulders in a beautiful aspen forest. It has changed slightly since my last visit, 5 years ago. Someone has built wooden sitting benches at almost every boulder.

The temps were good, but the humidity was incredibly high.

Holds felt slick and looked wet after being held. We got stormed out a couple afternoons. Not good for sending at our limit, but we still had lots of fun. We didn't see any other boulderers during our sessions. Quite a surprise at such a good area.

The area's stand-out problem is "Return of the Jedi."
The crux of "Return of the Jedi."

Ashley climbed the problem, and I came very close. I'll post video of Ashley on it soon, and I'll be heading back for another go in the fall. The area has many great V5 and V6 problems. Here are photos of Ashley on various moderates.





On Wednesday, Ashley watched the girls while I went searching for new boulders. There are some great looking boulders shown on hiking websites from the Mt. Holy Cross wilderness area. Like this
and this of the same area near Tuhare Lakes.

With this area as my goal, I went 8 miles west on Homestake Road and parked at the base of Jeep Trail #759. I started hiking up the Jeep Trail, and came across this giant boulder in the aspen forest.

It had some chalk on it's North face, but a few more highball lines could be done on it with proper cleaning and courage. I looked around it a bit, but didn't find other large boulders nearby. Another mile up the jeep trail I saw this boulder in the firs.

It also had cleaned lines, and chalk. The hike to this point was a mile and a half, all uphill. It doesn't make sense to me that someone would hike this far uphill for the problems I saw, but a quick search didn't reveal any other boulders nearby.

I was expecting the Fall Creek Trail to be marked, and have a permit station like the trail at Mt. Evans. It didn't, and I ended up passing the trail. If you don't want to miss it, look for some strange wooden structures blocking motorized users just after the no snowmobiling signs. Unaware that I had missed my turn-off, I kept hiking. I think that the miles of Jeep Trail in this area probably has a greater ecological impact than all the vegetation degradation inadvertently caused by boulderers in the state. Bouldering does have a concentrated impact under popular boulders, but the areas are quite small when compared to miles of this.

I even found a stashed jeep!

Soon I came to Holy Cross City, and realized I was off route.

I kept hiking uphill anyway, and got this overview of the Fall Creek Trail Area.

This boulder caught my eye, and I could see the trail I wanted to be on.

I hiked back down the Jeep Trail, and got onto the Fall Creek Trail which enters Designated Wilderness. The boulder that caught my eye from the overlook wasn't visible from the trail, and I ended up passing it without getting to check it out. All the rock in the area was perfect gneiss.

The rock resembles that found in Chaos Canyon, but something about the geology has caused almost all the rock to be in boulders the size of small cars or smaller. If you're into two move, sit start, first ascents this is your mecca. If not, it probably isn't worth the hike. Occasionally, I found a boulder large enough to have good problems, but they were very spread out. This area will never be anything like Chaos or Evans. Here are some of the best faces I came across.



My shoes got soaked from water flowing down the trail, rain clouds started coming in, and I had hiked far enough that I decided even if another "Kind" or "Mushroom" boulder lay beyond the next bend in the trail I would never carry a pad so far to climb on it. I never even made it to the Tuhare Lakes boulders whose photos brought me to the area in the first place, or got to check out the best boulder I saw from the overlook. It will be at least a year before I get back, so I thought I'd share what I found. Maybe one of you will find the area worth checking out. Be warned. The hike is brutal. I predict this area will only become popular when future generations are athletically enhanced through chemical, genetic or mechanical means. Until then, the very occasional boulderer that loves hiking, camping, or has a jeep with a winch, might enjoy the area.

A Guidebook's Influence

In 1996 I bought John Sherman's guidebook to Hueco Tanks and drove to Texas. Climbers from all over the United States and Europe were there. I spent the first day climbing on and around the Mushroom Boulder, and camped that night next to Pete's parking lot. Pete's small restaurant and shop served mostly climbers. He wasn't a climber, and was grumpy sometimes, but he and his wife both seemed to like having climbers around. They kept a scrapbook of letters they had gotten from some of the most famous climbers in the world. That night at the communal campfire I listened to the music of three Austrian climbers playing guitar, accordian, and trombone. Hearing one sing "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" with a thick accent was hilarious, strangely beautiful, and very memorable. I was on the trip by myself, but never felt lonely. There was a rich variety of people to climb with during the day and talk to at night. It felt like I was in the middle of something new and exciting. What Pete called "a new religion." I felt lucky to be witnessing it. John Sherman's funny and well written guidebook deserved a lot of credit for creating the situation. Hueco Tanks, and the book that brought us there, turned myself and many others into devoted boulderers. A couple years later the park imposed major restrictions. Many climbers felt that the climbing crowds brought by the guidebook were to blame for the restrictions. Years later, while on a ranger supervised bouldering tour at Hueco, I was given another explanation. In response to some questions I had about the issue, the ranger said that graffiti on North Mountain and two illegal excavations were the primary cause of the restrictions. The park managers didn't feel like they could continue to let the general public into the majority of the park without supervision. He said that climbers were considered one of the most responsible user groups, but that the same rules had to apply to them as everyone else. According to his story climbers weren't to blame for the restrictions. Everyone got punished due to the behavior of one gang influenced graffiti artist, and a couple people trying to steal artifacts. I'm not sure it's that simple, but that is what the ranger implied.

In 1999 Phillip Benningfield's "Colorado Bouldering" came out. I was so psyched. I'd been bouldering mostly at Rotary Park using a guide Craig Leubben had written for "Climbing" magazine. Suddenly instead of having a few places to boulder, I had reliable directions to over 40 areas across the state and the problems they contained. Ashley and I took a week long road trip to Durango and Telluride. We stopped at Morrison on the way there, and Marmot Rocks on the way back. Bouldering at a new area everyday on that trip was so much fun. For years my bouldering goal was to climb as many of the problems listed in the book as I could. This meant I spent a lot of time climbing easy problems and visiting new areas instead of projecting hard problems. I quit counting after climbing over 400 problems in the guide. Looking back on it, I had more fun playing that game than I'm having now trying to keep my 8a score from falling. I should go back to focusing on my old game. It's been almost 10 years since the book came out, and I can't think of any access issues that have arisen because of it. In fact, it helped a lot in getting Biglandia officially opened. Carter Lake rangers closed the area because they didn't know anyone was using it. The guidebook allowed me to show that climbers had used the area for a long time, that they valued it, and it was worth the ranger's time to make some calls to have it re-opened. I also learned from this incident that areas can be closed when climbers keep such a low profile that they aren't included in recreation planning documents.

Davin Bagdonas wrote two guides to Vedauwoo bouldering that lead me to spend countless incredible sessions up there. Despite the well written guides, I almost never see other boulderers at the best Vedauwoo areas.

In my experience, the connection between guidebooks, impact, and access problems hasn't been clear or predictable. Sometimes popularity makes an area harder to close. Public Land Managers need public support. If issues arise, the more climbers there are that care, the more power that they have. Sometimes guidebooks reduce impact and crowding by spreading people out. If it weren't for "Colorado Bouldering" and "Vedauwoo Bouldering" my family and I would have spent a lot more time at Emerald Lake and Chaos Canyon during the last 7 summers. Due to guidebooks, we've spent the majority of that time at Vedauwoo and other areas such as the Wild Basin Boulder. Often secrets travel more quickly than regular information. In a similar way, semi-secret bouldering areas seem more fashionable than areas found in guidebooks, and end up becoming more crowded rather than less.

There are many ways to learn about bouldering areas. You can hike a lot, ask for tours (this often feels like begging), search the internet, and examine climbing videos like a detective watching crime footage. I use all of these methods, but my favorite way to learn about climbing areas is to use a good guidebook. A well written guidebook is an incredible public service to the climbing community. Guidebooks help us get to new areas, plan our sessions, help the climbing community grow, and reduce elitism. I view the contributions of John, Phillip, and Davin as being completely positive, and hope they know some people greatly appreciate their efforts.

Chaos at Night

I spent last week in Estes Park attending the Rocky Mountain Nature Association Teacher Field Seminar. Class went from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm everyday, there was an evening dinner, and a Ranger program to attend. I enjoyed it all, but it didn't leave much time for climbing. I managed to get out after class on Wednesday for a session at Chaos. I worked on Gang Bang, but I can't catch the swing on the first move. A very strong Japanese climber was working Aslan. When he does the first move, he swings out and swings back. When I do the first move, I swing out and just keep going. After using up most of my power, I tried Taurus which is just behind Gang Bang. It looks like it should be easy, but the direction of the holds makes it harder than it appears. It's a good one move wonder. I was coming very close on it, but it got dark. I climbed until the holds were hard to see. I didn't have a headlamp with me. The hike down by starlight by myself was fun and a little scary at the same time. It took a lot of attention to stay on trail and not trip on rocks. A squirrel ran around me, at one point, chirping and I couldn't see it at all. I had the irrational fear that three Japanese climbers, who started hiking down a few minutes before me, might hide beside the trail and scream at me when I passed. If that had happened, I would have screamed too. Probably at an embarrassingly high pitch.

One afternoon, I got into the Estes Park library and spent fifteen minutes on the internet. The FRB messageboard was very busy last week discussing guidebook opinions. I didn't have time to get involved, but it got me thinking a lot about the influence bouldering guidebooks have had on my life, access issues I've been involved with, and what direction bouldering should head in. The posts, along with a lot of new information from my class about Rocky Mountain National Park lead to many ideas. I'm still working it all out, but I've got a lot to write about when I get a chance. Till then, here are a couple things I saw during the class. Bear claw marks on an aspen near Cub Lake, and a line of rocks archaeologists believe were part of a wall, used to herd elk towards an ambush, built by humans living in the area three to four thousand years ago.

Pumpalicious

Today we went back to the Wild Basin Boulder. After a long day on Thursday, we weren't ready yet for a big hike into Evans or Rocky. Amanda and her husband Brandon met us there. Conditions were a little slick, but we all managed to climb some problems. Ashley's been psyched on this boulder since she envisioned a project on it a few weeks ago. Ashley sent it today after about four days of work. It's a traverse of the west face of the boulder that climbs into the pinch hold and tops out on the "Pinch Problem." The start and end points are contrived, but the line generally follows the path of least resistance. Every hold on the west face has been cleaned and is covered with chalk so it's possible that this line has been done before, but no one has told us about it. I thought a great name for the line would be "The Wild West Traverse", but Ashley is sick of me naming her problems, and decided to take a stand. She named the line "Pumpalicious." I tried everything I could think of to make her change her mind, even asking "Doesn't that name sound dirty?" Nothing worked. Ashley is sticking with the name unless someone else has a plausible claim on the first ascent. Here is video of the line. I should have asked someone to hold the camera, but I didn't expect Ashley to send it so quickly.

I did a much easier line that traverses the west face and ends up the V2 problem right of the "Pinch Problem." I'm sure someone has done this line before, but Ashley climbed it before I did, and dubbed it "Wimpalicious."
It was a very fun day. Here are some shots of Brandon ending the day with a dyno problem.

Emerald Lake

Yesterday we climbed with Jacob, Amanda, Ricky, and Jordan in RMNP. Ashley and Jacob went to Chaos first, and met the rest of us at Emerald later. I had a good day on my project, but I've decided to wait until temps are cooler before I get on it again. The second crux is friction dependent. After we all got worked on various projects we went to a boulder about 70 feet west of the Kind boulder. It has a couple fun moderates that feel hard at the end of the day.
Here is Jacob on one of them.

When I finished climbing, I took some portraits.
Amanda

Jacob

Ashley and Autumn

Two at the Kind

While Ashley worked on projects at Chaos. I spent a couple days last week at the Kind boulder. Showing it to friends, and hanging out between attempts on my somewhat contrived, lowball and circular "Kind Loopis" project. Friends, acquaintances, and visitors from other states and countries generally followed a similar routine. 1. Warm-up 2. Climb "The Kind" 3. Get on "Mr. Wimpy."
4. Only move on if you climb "Mr. Wimpy."
Thursday was a beautiful cloudy day. We got a few sprinkles, temps were good.
Todd doing step 2.

Ricky on step 3.


Saturday was sunny and hotter. I had a rough day on my project. Either it was too hot, or I hadn't rested long enough after Thursday. Negative progress, but I witnessed an interesting exchange. A group of guys I know from the gym was working on Mr. Wimpy. Their conversation went something like this. Marty: "My armpit smells weird since I shaved it. Tony you gotta smell my armpit."
Tony: "No. Why would I want to smell your armpit?"
Marty: "If you top out Mr. Wimpy, you have to smell my armpit."
Tony: "O.K."
Tony topping out Mr. Wimpy.

Tony keeping his word.

Me: "That's going on my blog."
Tony: "O.K."

Ashley had a really long session on Saturday. I waited for hours at Dream Lake not knowing what was going on while she was scoping out Upper Chaos. It was a longer talus hike than she had expected. The girls played in the stream, and I watched hikers. My mind wandered. I saw some things, and thought about how unfairly climber impact is treated. If we lived in a fair world, there would be exchanges on hiking message boards going something like this. Any resemblance between this fictional exchange, and real message board exchanges is somewhat coincidental.

Front Range Hiking Messageboard

Stashed TP at Dream Lake- by Hiker on the Trail
"I followed a couple social trails near Dream Lake, and found about 30 piles of stashed TP. It was so nasty! This sort of irresponsible behavior is going to get hikers kicked out of the park. I even saw hikers trampling over "Restoration Areas."

Re:Stashed TP at Dream Lake- by Lenny
"Not this issue again."

Re:Stashed TP at Dream Lake- by Sock Feets
"Hiker of the Trail is all over it yo! There was a time when hiking at Dream Lake was rare enough that TP could be stashed, and no one would ever find it. Those days are over. If I see stashed TP I'm packing it out. Follow my lead, bishes! W3RD"

Re:Stashed TP at Dream Lake-by Merton
"Most of the TP is left by selfish out-of-state hikers who will never visit the area again. It sucks that locals have to take care of this problem to maintain access to this world class trail."

Re:Stashed TP at Dream Lake -by NPS Ranger
"The rangers have noticed this issue, and they follow this message board. Hopefully hikers as a user group can find a way to take care of this issue themselves other wise the rangers will be forced to impose hiking restrictions."

Re:Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by bouldering boy
"Kick the hikers out!"

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by Ms. Hikewell
"I've contacted the rangers and organized a "Hygiene Hike." Meet at the trailhead at 8:00 on Saturday. We'll pack out stashed TP in the morning, and hike in the afternoon."

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by Hard Hiker
You weak legged losers are ruining my hiking experience. You don't hike in the Park much. Me and my buddies never see you out there. Hikers like you are bad apples ruining the taste of the cider. Ms. Hikewell you should go on Prairie Home Companion and strangle yourself while NPR listeners everywhere can tune in to your last choking gasps."

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by Sock Feets
"Dawg! That was out of line. Elitist Crud! Ms. Hikewell is doing a good thing. Mikey, please delete that last post. W3rd"

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by Hiking Honey
"The elite hikers at Dream Lake are doing hikes beyond the physical imagination of most of the hikers on this board. They shouldn't be expected to hike out their TP."

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by Estes Hiker
"The problem is the Marmots in Rocky don't eat the TP like they do in the Evans Wilderness Area. We need to introduce some Evans marmots."

Re: Stashed TP at Dream Lake - by K Why
"Bubble Butt hiker bappy blip TP hip. Cuddly Squeezes"

We don't live in a fair world. Climbers, boulderers, and the impacts they cause are put under the microscope while the impacts of hikers and other mainstream activities are completely ignored. Don't go off trail near Dream Lake if you can help it. The TP issue really needs to be addressed by someone. Messageboards are almost as disgusting, but I can't stay away.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We're back from a seven day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Ashley thought we could save gas by camping in the park. I'm not sure it worked, but we had a great time. On Tuesday last week, the skies were mostly clear, but storms gathered right over the Wild Basin boulder. Half way through our session, rain and hail came in. We ended up caught under the boulder, as rain dripped closer and closer, and lightning crackled overhead.

Thursday we all hiked up to Chaos. Getting our daughters over the talus, and snow was pretty rough. I was exhausted before I even got on any problems.

Autumn was even more tired.

We still had a good day, mostly working out moves.

On Friday night a dry cold front came through, and cooled everything down by at least 15 degrees. Saturday conditions at the Wild Basin Boulder were perfect. I climbed the slightly less sandbagged V6 on the boulder. A dyno problem that moves right from the start of the "Pinch Problem." Here is a beta shot.

I also made progress on the "Slot Problem" which is the other "V6" on the boulder. I managed to really get my hand into the slot on it, and found out the slot is actually a really bad sloper that I can't move off of. If you get on the problem, or have been on it, let me know what you think. It just might be the most sandbagged problem in Benningfield's guide. Some friendly boulderers named Eric and Seth showed up. We shared Wild Basin contrivances, and info on arcane Colorado bouldering areas.

Eric having a go on the "Slot Problem"

Seth sending a highball they cleaned previously, between two established problems.

Yesterday we went back to Chaos, but the daughters only hiked to Dream Lake. We took turns watching them there while we each got a session in by ourself. Without the daughters, the hike and talus crossing flew by. For about a half hour, I think I had Chaos all to myself. It was wonderful, and a bit intimidating at the same time. A quiet, focused session.

The trip was a great way to begin our alpine bouldering season. Here is video of the "Potato Chip", and Ashley sandbagging us on the "Slot Problem."

Happy 4th of July from Ft. Collins!

The finale of the Ft. Collins fireworks show. Shutter was left open about 10 seconds.

Swoosh Session

The original plan was to visit RMNP yesterday, but it looked really rainy and cool in the morning so we changed plans. We've been hearing good things about the Swoosh area, and it looked like a reasonable day to check it out. As we drove up to Red Feather we got above the fog and clouds. We stopped worrying about rain, and started worrying about heat. The sun was powerful, but a gentle breeze that was slightly cool kept things bearable. Jacob met us up there, and gave us a tour of the problems close to the parking area. Here are a few of them.
Fred's Roof is moderate, but was the most classic problem we got on in my opinion. A spicy landing heightens the commitment as you turn the lip.


From there we went to Hurricane Katrina. It looked great, but a long reach to the first crimp kept us from doing it. Ashley did two crimpy problems to the left, one from a sit start. They looked fun, but felt sharp. My pinky got punctured, and I quit trying them.

Our next stop was The Product aka Chuck's Rail. It was very different than I expected. Photos I'd seen didn't show the angle of the problem. I thought it was a flat sloping rail over a flat landing. It's actually at a 45 degree angle and the landing is at 45 degrees as well. Ashley enjoyed working on it.

I scouted around a bit, and found a nice looking boulder to end the session on. It had three good looking lines on it. The center looked the best and the most difficult. I knew my skin was too far gone for it, but Jacob gave it some tries.

The crack to the left was a great line to end the session with. High quality, not difficult, but high enough to get my attention.



The Swoosh is an incredibly beautiful area, with more patina and a higher problem concentration than you'll find at most Red Feather areas. Yet much of the patina is fragile and sharp. Worth trips, but don't expect rock as smooth and solid as the Buttermilks.