2 in the Snow, 2 on the Rock - RMNP, Cameron Pass & Shelf Road

January 10, 2012

As most of you snow snobs probably know all to well by now, our winter playground has stunk this season! Kristin and I have only been out two times:( At this point last year, we had countless tours under our boards. Its been kinda of rough... well except one bright side to the warmer temps has been the continuation of climbing.

The two tours this season have been:

"Terrain Park Area" near Hallett Peak, RMNP

Cant wait to go back to RMNP, there are some awesome terrain opps: a favorite being Little AK near Knobtop peak.
GPS Tracks (google maps)

Dragon Tail Couloir w tracks
click to enlarge

Montgomery Bowl, Cameron Pass

This past Sunday Kristin, Drew and I cruised up to Cameron Pass after a much needed storm, for what we where hoping would be some good turns. Not bad at all! Finally
GPS Tracks (google maps)

Montgomery Bowls highlighted w tracks
click to enlarge

Hallett Peak on left and Dragontail couloir on right: RMNP
a line for the early spring if we ever get snow

1 of 4 huge bucs seen in Estes Park after our tour in RMNP

Cameron Pass Sector: from top of Montgomery Bowl near Diamond Peak

After getting some much needed turns in on Sunday we returned to Golden to switch out splitty's for climbing gear. We then spent Monday and Tuesday climbing Shelf in 60 degree weather. Ha I even returned with a farmers tan!

Kristin on Once Upon A Time 5.11a

K on Gen X ation 5.11a

Pre rock wrestling concentration

Noteworthy Sends:

Gen X ation 5.11a

Next posts will include the following adventures: Costa Rica, followed by AK, then climbing somewhere, then a yurt trip in the San Juans of CO, then AK again:)

Season Lasts - Shelf Road, Buffalo Creek

November 30, 2011

We kicked off the last week of November with some catch phrase and sour cream apple pie at the Lansing's for what was an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. A few days later we crushed some stone down at Shelf Road for a few days in what turned out to be the falls best weather for climbing, low 60's and nothing but sun. We left shelf wondering if it was the final climbing trip of the year, especially with the snow starting to accumulate. The final day of our off week we went up to Buffalo Creek for some amazing singletrack. I love Buffalo Creek!

Buffalo Creek:

Remnants of High Meadows Fire of 2000 - Does make for some awesome singletrack


Granite Moab - Buffalo Creek area offers a lot of rock features and sections of trail strictly on rock


Survivors


Camo - Where's Kristin?

Shelf Road:

Muscle Beach 5.11a/b - A Vaino Kodas, Bob D'Antonio masterpiece 2001

Noteworthy Sends:

Morpheus 5.11b

Muscle Beach 5.11a/b

Shelf Road ' N

October 18, 2011

A campsite filling group of us traveled down south for 4 days of climbing on Shelf's always impressive limestone.


The crew - Jerm, Lisa, Ryan'o, J-Rock, mua, Kster

Shelf Road: Nearing 1000 vertical pocketed routes on bulletproof limestone. Shelf probably sits #3 on my list of favorite limestone crags visited this year. (Spearfish, Ten Sleep, Shelf) One great attribute of Shelf is however the possibility for winter climbing.

Newly released Shelf guidebook: Bob D. Antonio (2010). I believe this is book #3 or #4 published for the area. This new release is the first to contain all shelf crags and to utilize color photos. Warning: There have been a few reported errors in the guide. One such example exists on the Spiney Ridge section of the guide book and involves two classic routes: Toxxxic Entertainment (5.10a) and Purple Toe Nails (5.11c). The route tracing drawn/transposed over the color photo are shifted. Making Purple Toe Nails look like its neighbor Toxxxic Entertainment. The error caused me to jump on Purple Toe Tails instead of Toxxxic Entrainment as warm up number two for the morning. In fear of not on-sighting a 5.10a as the flash pump reached painful levels I thankfully reached the anchors. After reaching the ground and grasping my forearms in embarrassment, I was greeted by another couple saying "Nicely done, that's a hard route" I responded "that's the hardest fn 10a I have ever done"! "NO NO You just on-sighted Purple Toe Nails a classic 5.11c" Thank goodness I was just about to go back to camp and drink beers. Anyway heads up with the new guidebook:)