The roads into Turkey Rocks are crowded on Friday night of a three day holiday. Luckily, not everyone is here to climb rock and Jeremy and I locate a camping site along the access road to Turkey Rocks. As the sun goes down we have a little long-exposure fun with a glowing frisbee.
The night ends and eggs, coffee and blueberry pancakes great the day as we hike towards another kind of Nighttime Madness, a 3 pitch route up Turkey Rock.
Jeremy refuses my offer to a game of ninja-grizzly-cowboy for the first pitch and lets me tackle it. I find some great jams and the Pikes Peak granite that I love. I setup the belay on the far edge of a spacious ledge, just below the crack that marks Jeremy’s pitch.
Jeremy leads up and eventually a little left to a smaller stance, but a helpful cable that he anchors to.
After following and taking the rack from him I ponder if I should go straight up, or traverse back right into another crack. I pick the straight up version and find some hollow rock but mostly a very off-width chimney that awkwardly bruise my knees ascending. Worn out I slowly tackle some easier ground to the base of another chimney. This one proves more protectable than I’d been led to the believe, and between rests I have a view of Pikes Peak to the south.
Completely worn out I finish thrashing my way up the chimney and onto the summit. Jeremy follows as I think how much he’s going to hate climbing with his pack through those chimneys. Sure enough, he ends up slinging his pack below them to tackle their awkwardness.
A bit of a scramble then walk leads us back to the base where we watch another group start up Turkey Shoot.
Turkey Shoot is a route I’d like to do, but don’t feel the energy to tackle another multipitch climb today. So we pack up and walk over to Turkey Perch, home of outstanding one pitch climbs. Home today to plenty of people, kids and dogs as well. Still, everyone is friendly and the route Gobble Up is open. Jeremy leads most of it before calling it quits and lowering down. I take over and gather enough pieces for the lead to the top of this granite crack, then do a single strand rappel down to clean. We decide to finish on one of the easier climbs at the crag, Honky Jam Ass Crack and then wrap it up as a light sprinkle comes in.
Complete photo album
I love the glowing frisbee!
I thought of you while we were tossing it around, and the zombie attack, Camp Methane, etc.