Pete and I left the front range after work on Thursday and made our way to a campsite not far from Salida. Rain clouds and thunderstorms were hitting the southern Sawatch peaks but mostly moved south of us. After a night of howling coyotes we woke to a clear dawn and drove over Monarch Pass [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Teakettle Mountain
Posted in backpacking, climbing, hiking, tagged Dallas Peak, Teakettle Mountain, Yankee Boy Basin on August 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Eldorado Canyon
Posted in climbing, tagged Breezy, Eldorado Canyon, rock climbing, West Crack, Whale's Tail, Wind Tower on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Work schedules and the possibility of threatening weather dwindled our little group outing on Wednesday night to just Jeremy and I. We’d originally though about visiting the Lower Peanuts wall, but decided to stay closer to the entrance of Eldorado Canyon State Park and visit the Wind Tower. We hadn’t brought a full guide book, [...]
The Monastery
Posted in climbing, tagged Outer Gates, rock climbing, The Monastary, Whine Celler on August 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Sunday began with a leisurely drive to Lyons where I enjoyed a civilized start to the morning at The Stone Cup with an americano and Dick Dorworth’s book Night Driving. Jeremy (who I met at last weekend’s Guide Skills course) and his wife Jenn soon arrived. In the course of conversation we realized they’d been [...]
Mount Yale
Posted in Colorado 14ers, hiking, tagged Denny Creek, Mascot Peak, Mount Yale on August 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’d previously visited Mount Yale’s summit, but hadn’t been out for just a regular hike in a while so Helen convinced me to join her and Torrey the lab. After camping the night before off North Cottonwood Road we drove around the peak to the Denny Creek trailhead to hike Yale’s standard route (at least [...]
Guiding Skills: Day Two
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Climbing Life Guides, Eldorado Canyon, Eli Helmuth on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
On day two of the Guiding Skills course we started out with a parking lot based discussion of fixed anchors (bolts and pitons). Eli displayed a varied collection of bolts and pitons pulled off climbs. Today was Jeremy’s turn to lead and he’d chosen the West Overhang route on Wind Tower. The start of the [...]
Guiding Skills: Day One
Posted in climbing, tagged Climbing Life Guides, Eldorado Canyon, Eli Helmuth, Guiding Skills on August 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Since I’d been feeling a bit like a rock climbing guide recently, I decided I should work more on my “guiding skills” with a real professional. Eli Helmuth of Climbing Life Guides was offering a weekend course covering the types of skills taught in a full American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) course. The other participant, [...]
Spearhead
Posted in climbing, tagged Glacier Gorge, North Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, Spearhead on August 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
After a 3:30 am wake-up, Pete and I are heading to the Glacier Gorge trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park. Thankfully, our drive has been shorted by being able to stay with a friend in Estes Park for the night. When we arrive at the trailhead we take a few minutes to scan the clear [...]
Navajo Glacier and Dickers Peck
Posted in climbing, tagged Airplane Gully, Apache Peak, Dickers Peck, Indian Peaks Wilderness, Navajo Glacier, Navajo Peak, Tungsten Mountain on August 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I hadn’t been to the Indian Peaks Wilderness yet this summer, so when Steve posted a message at Fourteener World looking for a partner on Sunday I responded right away. However, I asked that we take the Navajo Glacier route up to the peaks and add in an ascent of the strange spire between them, [...]
Crestone Needle
Posted in climbing, Colorado 14ers, tagged Broken Hand Peak, Crestone Needle, Ellingwood Arete, Ellingwood Ledges, South Colony Lakes on August 10, 2009 | 2 Comments »
After work on Friday, Pete and I drove down to the South Colony Lakes trailhead and joined the capacity crowd there. All the nearby campsites were taken and Pete was planning to sleep in his truck, so I just tossed out my sleeping bag near the tailgate and hoped I wouldn’t get run over by [...]
Wind Rivers: Depature
Posted in backpacking, tagged Island Lake, Pole Creek Trail, Seneca Lake, Titcomb Basin, Wind Rivers, Wyoming on August 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
After descending from Twin Peaks we rested a little then started to pack up camp. We had a roughly 17 mile hike back to the trailhead and figured we could do part of it this afternoon. Almost immediately I noticed an increase in wildflowers that had been absent during our time staying above 10,800 feet [...]
