Thursday, September 29, 2011

Welcome to Colorado


Since I am climbing so much with my move to Ft. Collins, I have decided to do more frequent updates on weekend trips and competitions. Here is a summary of a recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

The first weekend of the school year I went to Rocky Mountain National Park with Adam Kaiser, Ethan Shaw, and Stephen Small. These guys are pretty much whom I spend all of my weekends climbing.  We are all DFW natives that longed to get out of the Texas climbing gyms and out on to the real rock. For a lack of better words, I will call them the crew.

            We set out as soon as we all get done with class. We all were ecstatic to finally get out on some Colorado granite. We spent the first day at the Emerald Lake area. I nearly died as I attempted to adapt to the elevation and thin Colorado air. We all warmed up doing the Classic V5, The Kind. Adam, who is a sophomore, showed us how to really climb Colorado Granite when he sent Belsars Roof V9. We then all headed over to the next climb, Whispers of Wisdom V10/11. This was the most aesthetically pleasing lines I had ever seen. We worked it for a few hours coming up a little short, because of a soaked top out. We ended the day by unsuccessfully attempting Real Large V9 in the dark.

            The next day was an eventful day. We hiked up to lower chaos to see snow for the first time in 6 months. The area was absolutely beautiful and so were the lines. I first sent Potato Chip V7. It was a very impressive crimp line. It took a little longer than I expected, but the climb was completely worth it.  The next climb was Deep Puddle Dynamics V9. We worked the climb for a little while, but we soon realized that we were pretty tired already. Ethan decided to jump into the lake. He then proceeded to talk us into jumping in also. The water was absolutely freezing compared to the bathtub warm Texas lakes. As we hiked out, I broke a camera lens, my pad buckle ripped off, I strained my bad knee, and hit my leg on a rock causing a deep wound in my shin. All of this misfortune was influenced by the unexpected hailstorm. After the hike Stephen noticed the gash on my shin. We went to the ranger station to wipe it up and see how bad the cut really was. The rangers gave me a hello kitty band-aid as their contribution. A little baffled, we grabbed some paper towels and noticed I really needed stitches.

            I was never more excited to be in a hospital. The warm building, dry clothes, blanket, shower, and women who really cared for me, it was more like a spa day. After settling my mom and girlfriend down on the phone, I left the hospital with 4 stitches. After all the misfortune and really not climbing that well, I was optimistic and just laughed at the whole fiasco. Despite a few bumps, the trip was really fun and it truly gave me a taste of the real Colorado climbing.
Ethan

Whispers of Wisdom

Adam


Adam on Tommy's Arete V9

Stephen on Potato Chip V7


Stephen


Deep Puddle Dynamics V9


Captain Shaw

Adam

Stephen