A Devilishly Good Time

Well! This post is way overdue, but the day I planned to post it, I rolled my car, and it took me a while to get back to it.

Back on July 14, after I finally got the new tire for my now defunct car, Jason and I drove to Devil's Tower. We got in late, drove out to the National Forest and camped. In the morning, we headed into the park (or, "National Monument", technically) for our first day of climbing.

It's quite an imposing piece of rock!

For our first climb, we chose to summit via the first pitch of Patent Pending (5.7 or so) to Assembly Line, a 5.9 hand crack that goes on, more or less, until the end of time. I really thought it would never end. It was a major test of endurance. We were both totally exhausted when we got to the top.

Racked up to lead the first pitch of Patent Pending. The pitches are long, so we brought lots of gear....

Jason leading Assembly Line

Jason and Me on top of the Tower

For our second day, we chased the shade, going to the west face in the morning, and heading around to the east side in the morning. In the morning, we climbed a 5.9+ pitch called Man Without a Planet, and in the afternoon, we climbed a classic 5.9 called Soler. The climbing at the top of the tower is less than stellar, so, having reached the summit once, the rest of my stay at the tower, we skipped the final pitches and rappelled off after the good climbing.

Friday, Jason headed home, and I took a rest day. Saturday morning, I met my partner for the weekend, Carl. A bird biologist working in Wyoming to help the power company stop electrocuting eagles, Carl was interesting and a lot of fun to climb and hang out with.

Carl and I also chased shade, climbing McCarthy's West Face Free Variation (5.10a) in the morning, and a route called Broken Tree (5.10b) in the afternoon. I was very pleased to get Broken Tree clean. It had a couple very difficult crux moves which I didn't think I was going to make, but did.

Sunday, we started the day with El Matador. The first pitch is mostly easy, with a short 5.8 crux. The second pitch is the business: A short technical crux in the first 30 feet or so leads to the endurance crux, over 100 feet of stemming between two opposing dihedrals. The crux is keeping your calves from exploding.

Carl following the first pitch of El Matador

The Second pitch of El Matador

After El Mat, I was beat. I just wanted to curl up and die somewhere. We had lots of day left though, so we headed to the East side to to El Cracko Diablo (5.8+). Jason led the first, mostly easy pitch and threw me at the longer, more sustained crux pitch. I whined, cried, complained, sewed it up, almost ran out of gear, walked a piece, back-cleaned pieces, and wanted to quit most of the way, but I made it to the top, and was happy I'd done it. It really was a great climb.

Carl headed home (well, to the hotel he was calling home, in the course of his work), and I drove back out to the National Forest for one more night in the shadow of Devil's Tower.



Monday, I drove to Cook Lake, and hung out by the lake reading for a while, then headed toward the Black Hills. On the way, I got a message from Kate and Jay, two climbers I had met (thanks to Carl, who was super-outgoing and talked to every climber we encountered) at Devil's Tower, saying they had decided to go climb at Mt. Rushmore, so I met up with them Monday evening. Yay! People to climb with. :-)

And so, the sun set on my Devil's Tower experience.....


Route List for 7/14-7/19:

• Patent Pending Pitch 1 (5.7, Trad) (Onsight)
• Assembly Line (3 pitches, 350-400 ft, 5.9, Trad) (Followed pitches 1 and 3, onsight pitch 2, 5.7?)
• Man Without a Planet (5.9+, Trad) (TR clean)
• Soler (Onsight pitch 1, 5.8+, Trad; Followed pitch 2 clean, 5.9-, Trad)
• McCarthy's West Face Free Variation (Followed pitch 1 clean, 5.9+, Trad; Followed pitch 2, 5.10a, Trad, with a hang or two)
• Broken Tree (Onsight Pitch 1, 5.7, Trad; Followed Pitch 2, 5.10b, Trad, clean)
• El Matador (Onsight Pitch 1, 5.8, Trad; Followed Pitch 2, 5.10d, Trad, several hangs)
• El Cracko Diablo (Followed Pitch 1, 5.8, Trad; Onsight Pitch 2, 5.8+, Trad)
  

Death of Crunchinator

It started like an average rest day...lazily. I got up, made breakfast, and got ready to drive into town to do some emailing and various town things. I have been climbing and hanging out with Jay and Kate, two most excellent human beings I met at Devil's Tower. We were all taking a rest day. I got up earlier, and left for town first.

On the drive to town, everything suddenly stopped being normal. I was coming around a curve, heading down a hill, when suddenly, my wheels started to slide. I tried to react to the fishtail, but things started happening really fast. I tapped the guard rail, and the rear of my truck swung around. I was now sideways, perpendicular to a downhill road, and to my direction of travel, in a top heavy vehicle, with extra weight on top in my gear box. Not good. I felt the car start to tip and there was nothing I could do except wait for the ride to end and hope I came out of it alright.

The truck came to rest on the driver's side. I remember noticing that it was still sliding after thinking it had stopped moving. I guess it must have spun around while it was sliding, because it came to rest with the wheels facing downhill and the front away from the guardrail...definitely not the way it started. I think it rolled onto the top then back onto the driver's side. It probably slid 100 feet after it started rolling.

My first thought after the truck stopped moving was, "I have to get out of here." Then, I calmed down a little, and turned off the ignition, un-buckled my seatbelt, untangled myself from the stuff and started to climb out. I opened the passenger side door and some kind soul held it open for me while I climbed out. Those doors are heavy.

After a while, Jay and Kate came by on their way into town. Seeing me, they stopped. Kate was a complete sweetheart, comforting me and making sure I drank plenty of water. After getting all my stuff thrown into my car at the tow yard (if you can call it that....), we headed into Rapid City. I decided, since the truck is certainly totaled, the most expedient course would be to buy a new car. Since my car was also my home, going without one would be tricky, and I didn't want to impose on Jay and Kate any more than necessary. If I couldn't buy a car right away, I would need to rent one.

Me with the until-recently-trustworthy steed

Inspecting the damage

My life spilled out into the back of a pickup

Jay and Kate, two of the most awesome people in the universe.

I quickly located a 1999 Subaru Outback that was in my price range, and completed the purchase by 4:00 or so. No pics of the new ride, yet. I should have taken some, but I didn't. Anyway, from there I bought a new Yakima box, which mounted nicely on the Outback's factory rack, and, soon was back in business. I headed back to the morgue to pick clean the body of my fallen soldier. It was a long and arduous task, but I got the new car loaded up and ready to go and was back at camp by 10pm. I still need to install my stereo in the new car and finish putting up curtains, and a few other finishing touches, but home is well on it's way to being re-established.

More soon with pics from climbing at Devil's Tower and the Black Hills!

Wy oming? Why Not?

About a week ago, I left Denver and headed to Vedauwoo, near Laramie, Wyoming. First, however, I re-united with Preston for a day of climbing in Eldorado Canyon, outside of Boulder. We met up two Mondays ago and headed to Eldo for Preston's first multi-pitch climbing experience. We headed to the Wind Tower, a nice easy approach with some fun, moderate climbing. First, we did a three pitch climb called Wind Ridge, 5.6. Apparently, most people walk off after the second pitch, avoiding a weird move at the start of the third pitch. They are missing out! It's funky, but 3/5 of "funky" is "fun"! After Wind Ridge, we climbed the first pitch of Calypso (5.6) to finish on Reggae (5.8). Both were very fun and worthwhile pitches.

Preston follows the first pitch of Wind Ridge (well, OK, we actually did kind of an alternate first pitch. We got to the right place, though.)

Me and Preston on top of Wind Tower

Calypso follows the second dihedral from the left, traverses under a small roof and ends at the ledge about midway up (A climber is visible in the dihedral). Reggae steps about 10 feet right from the top of Calypso and follows another prominent dihedral through a couple of small roofs and a distinct crux section at the top, ending at the broken ledge system below the summit cap.

Upon my arrival at Vedauwoo, I hooked up with Jason. Jason lives in Laramie, where he has been going to grad school, and currently, having elected not to take a summer job, has a lot of time on his hands, which is great for me. :-) We climbed together Wednesday and Thursday. We both took Friday off after taking a beating from the sun for two days (and with Jason still recovering from the flu).

Jason checking out Wild Thing, 5.10b (the crack with the distinct roof in the center of the photo)

On the right-most formation, you can see a curving line on the right side. This is the flake that forms the climb Flake, 5.8+. Inside the flake is a wide crack which you climb to the top, with the crux coming when you have to transition from the outer flake to another crack formed by an inner flake. You can't tell in the picture, but the whole flake leans outward, so the top of the climb is frighteningly exposed. I can't remember the last time I was so scared on lead.

View from the top of one of the day's climbs.

Sunset from near my camp on Friday night

Friday night, after spending some time at the library, and otherwise bumming around Laramie, I had the misfortune of choosing to camp in what ended up being the local party hang-out. About 2am, with a car playing loud music 10 feet from me, I couldn't take it any more, packed up and drove off to find a quieter place to sleep the rest of the night. Despite the rough night, I got up in the morning and went in search of climbing partners. Jason was climbing with another partner who works during the week. I probably could have joined them, but poor cell phone service kept us from hooking up. No problem, though. I went to the Nautilus parking lot and quickly hooked up with a group of three guys from Fort Collins, Matt, Mike, and Nick. We did some climbs on the Nautilus, and generally had a fun, albeit hot, day.

Matt belays Nick on Lower Progressive (5.7+), a stout, sustained, off-width climb. Lower Progressive (5.9 +) in the background.

Slit (5.7) starts up a fun, easy, chimney, then climbs flakes past the off-width at the top.

Sunday, I was kind of sore and tired, and maybe a little grumpy. I drove to the parking lot, but didn't feel like looking for someone to climb with. I ended up driving into Laramie in the afternoon, at which point I blew out a tire. After a bit of an ordeal changing the tire with the help of a friendly stranger with an axe (the wheel was rusted on and we used the blunt side of the axe to beat it off), I got to town and went to Wal-Mart (the only tire place open on a Sunday afternoon). Unfortunately, they did not have the size tire I needed, so I would have to skip climbing Monday morning (as Jason and I had planned) to go into town and get a tire. Oh well, no big deal.

View from near my camp Sunday night

Monday. Monday, monday. Monday the thirteenth, in fact, and more frightful than any Friday I've had. It was one of those days that you know is going to be one of those days from the time you get up, yet, for some reason, you don't have the good sense to say "the hell with it" and go back to bed. It started with little things...dropping things, knocking things over, spilling my coffee beans..... Then, I backed into a tree. Why did I try to drive, again, anyway? I really should have known better. I didn't check out the damage right away, but when I did, it was a lot worse than I had first expected. The bumper was bent up of course, but the tailgate was dented in as well...dented enough that the rear window wouldn't go down, which meant I couldn't open the tailgate...not a huge problem but highly annoying. I made it to town without further mis-hap. The first tire shop I went to, also did not have the size tire I needed in stock. So, I went to the other tire shop in town.... They told me that the size tire I had was a real odd-ball. It was only shipped on a couple of models of car. They didn't have any either. You see, when I was in West Virginia, I needed a new set of tires. The guy at the tire shop there talked me into getting a different size than the original one on my car, to save me a little money. I see now that he scammed me to get rid of 4 tires he was stuck with and couldn't move. Blah. So, I had to order a tire. It should come in today (Tuesday). This, of course, meant that Jason and I would not be able to leave for Devil's Tower Monday afternoon as planned. After venting some frustration and ordering a tire, I headed to a nearby body shop where they said they could pull out the tailgate enough to get the window functioning for $50. That was the best news I'd heard all day. I left my car there, and Jason picked me up and we headed out to Vedauwoo to get a couple climbs in.

Captain Nemo (5.8). Definitely a stout 8, but that goes without saying at Vedauwoo

Grand Traverse (5.10a) We didn't do the "traverse" part. That's pitch 2. The moves getting past the roof at the top are super tricky. You chimney up until you can get a finger lock on the left, then reach over to a flaring hand jam in the right side crack, then have to awkwardly swing your right foot over to a good hold. Crazy!

Today, Jason and I will leave for Devil's Tower, one way or another. If worse comes to worst, I will leave my car here and ride up with Jason, then come back here, and drive back up by myself later. Jason will only be going up there until Friday. Hopefully, they will get my tire in by 3 or so, get it put on, and I'll be able to head out, in my own vehicle, at a decent time. We shall see!

Route List for 7/6-14:

• Wind Ridge (3 pitches, 5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
• Calypso Pitch One (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
• Reggae (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
• Cold Finger (5.7) (Onsight)
• Hole (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
• Flake (5.8+ Trad) (Led with a couple hangs)
• Wild Thing (5.10b Trad) (TR, had to aid the crux)
• Soft Touch ("5.5" Trad 5.7 is more fair) (Onsight)
• Zipper Pitch 2 (5.7+ Trad) (TR clean)
• Hammer Pitch 1 (5.7+ Trad) (Onsight)
• Nail (5.7+ Trad) (TR clean)
• Handjacker (5.7+ Trad) (Hangdog) - I finished the lead of this stout offwidth after Mike bailed. I had to hang a couple times though.
  
• Lower Progressive (5.9+ Trad) (TR)
• Slit (5.7 Trad) (TR clean)
• Mother 1 (5.7+ Trad) (Onsight)
• Captain Nemo (5.8 Trad) (Led with one take)
• Grand Traverse Pitch One (5.10a Trad) (TR clean) - Damn proud of this one!
  

Colorado Climbing

Colorado: Gateway to the West. Or is that St. Louis? Well, for me, it is Colorado, my first stop on the western leg of my great journey. My base of operations for a little over a week now has been the home of my most gracious friend, Aarrun, in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.

My first foray out from base-camp, was to a familiar destination, Lumpy Ridge, north of Estes Park. I made an alpine start, getting up before the sun to drive to Lumpy to meet my partner for the day, Cameron. Cameron and I climbed a route called The Sorceror (3 pitches, 5.8+ Trad), then climbed the first pitch of Orange Julius, and called it a day. After a beer at Ed's Cantina, I headed back to base-camp.

The Sorceror follows a corner system to the right of the buttress in the center of the photo, then traverses out the roof about 2/3 of the way up and follows the line of the sun up the right-most peak. Orange Julius climbs a corner then traverses out the huge roof visible in the lower center.

View from the 2nd pitch belay on The Sorceror

Looking down the 2nd pitch of The Sorceror

Monday, I met Brian, in town from Dallas, and Ken, from Boulder, in Golden for a day of sport-cragging at Clear Creek Canyon.

Ken leading Muddy Waters (5.9)

Me top-roping Via Comatose Amigo (5.10b)

A view of the High Wire Crag from the road

Monday, after returning from Golden, I headed south to Colorado Springs, met up with my good friends Steven and Stacey, on vacation from St. Louis, and established Advance Base Camp at Steven and Stacey's hotel room. From the Travelodge (or ABC as I like to call it), Stacey and I struck out on Tuesday, to climb several objectives in the Garden of the Gods. The Garden is a Colorado Springs city park and is visited by approximately 4 billion people per second. It has the interesting property of making climbers feel like animals in a zoo. Despite this, it has some fun and exciting climbing on really awful, soft, crumbly rock. It's also awful purdy.

Stacey follows Cowboy Boot Crack (5.6)

Unknown climber standing on top of Red Twin Pillar

Stacey poking her head out around the South Ridge of White Twin Spire

Me and Stacey at the base of the West Face of White Twin Spire

Big-Horn Sheep across from the parking lot at Garden of the Gods

Wednesday, I drove out into the Pike National Forest to climb at a formation called Turkey Rock. My partner for the day was a guy named Steve, from Boulder. We climbed one pitch of a 5.7 called Nighttime Madness to warm up, then rappelled off to try to climb Gobbler's Grunt (5.9), and a grunt it was! Steve led the first pitch, which was challenging, with a distinct crux pulling around a roof (5.9). He then handed me the lead for the sustained second pitch, which had sustained 5.9 climbing up parallel finger to off-finger cracks. This pitch completely kicked my ass. I got up it, but did so in flat-out embarrassing fashion. I essentially aided it, placing gear every 3 feet or so and resting on almost every piece. I also had a lesson in how not to place a nut, when I rested on one and it popped, sending me for an 8-10' ride to where I was caught by my next piece down (a solid cam). When Steve got done laughing at me (OK, actually, he didn't laugh...he got his ass kicked pretty well by this pitch too), he led the final 5.8 pitch, which had tricky moves out of the belay, followed by easier climbing to the summit. Overall, this was an awesome route, with stellar climbing on great rock throughout. One day I will do it again in better style.

The pitch that kicked my ass

On top of Turkey Rock

Thursday, after camping in the Pike National Forest (Steven and Stacey had headed on to Denver to meet up with Aarrun and proceed to Rocky Mountain National Park for some backpacking), I drove back into Colorado Springs and met up with a friend of my sister, Preston. I took Preston out to the Red Rock Canyon Open Space, another Colorado Springs city park (much less crowded than the Garden) for his first day of climbing outside. After some coaching on lead-belay technique, Preston and I climbed several pleasant, mostly slabby, sport routes. Preston did a great job, leading most of the climbs on my draws, and hanging the draws on the last one. For his first time outside, on slab, he did an incredible job. Sprinkling rain and threatening storms cut us short after five climbs. As it turned out, we could have gotten more in, but we didn't feel like risking getting caught in a downpour.

Preston on top of Virgin Bolters (5.9-)

After a rest/travel day Friday, I met up with Steven, Stacey, and Aarrun again at their campsite in RMNP. We made dinner and spent a pleasant evening hanging out by the fire. In the morning, Stacey and I headed for Lumpy Ridge to attempt to climb Batman and Robin (5.6) on the Batman Pinnacle. The weather was nice in the morning, but the forecast got increasingly menacing as the day advanced. We tried to move quickly on the approach, and located what I thought was the route. I led the first pitch, which was supposed to be 5.5. It felt a little stout to me, but not entirely unreasonable. I passed a fixed rappel station and eventually built an anchor in a horizontal crack below a left angling dihedral. Consulting my topo, I decided I had to be off-route. The climbing on the upper part of the pitch and the pitch above me just didn't match what it was supposed to be. I went ahead and started bringing Stacey up. She struggled. A lot. She fell about 10 feet up, and with a little slack out and rope stretch, landed on the ground. She got back on and showed no sign of quitting, fighting her way up the pitch. With me off-route, her struggling, and weather moving in (it was starting to sprinkle), I decided we would bail from the fixed anchor 40' below me. I would have Stacey stop there and set a belay; I would down-climb; and we would rappel off. Some time after I came to this decision, another group which had shown up looking to do the same climb informed us that we were not on the climb we thought we were on. In fact, we were not even on the right formation. We were actually on a 5.9 called Crystal Catch on Checkerboard Rock. Oops.

Stacey on pitch 1 of Crystal Catch

We got off of the route safely and, with rain threatening, called it a day. We drove back to Aarrun's and showered, in preparation for a fun evening of beer, barbqcue, and watching fireworks from Aarrun's friends' condo balcony.

Today, I took another rest day. I joined Steven and Stacey for the Coors brewery tour in Golden, then spent some time at Bent Gate Mountaineering researching climbs for tomorrow and trying not to buy too much. Tomorrow, Preston is joining me to climb at Eldorado Canyon. Hopefully, I will do a better job of finding the routes than I did at Lumpy on Saturday.

Route List for 6/28-7/4:

• The Sorceror on (The Bookend, Lumpy Ridge) (3 pitches, 5.8+ Trad) (onsight 2nd pitch, followed 1st and third clean)
• Orange Julius Pitch 1 (The Bookend, Lumpy Ridge) (5.9 Trad) (TR)
• The Put-In (River Wall, Clear Creek Canyon) (5.7) (TR clean)
• Muddy Waters (River Wall, Clear Creek Canyon) (5.9) (TR clean)
• 5th of July (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.9) (Pinkpoint)
• Deuces Wild Pitch 1 (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10a) (TR clean)
• Via Comatose Amigo (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10b) (TR clean)
• Bypass (High Wire Crag, Cleer Creek Canyon) (5.10c) (TR clean)
• Cowboy Boot Crack (Garden of the Gods) (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
• Finger Ramp (Garden of the Gods) (5.7) (Onsight)
• Unknown below Finger Ramp (Garden of the Gods) (5.10 hard - 11ish) (TR)
• South Ridge of White Twin Spire (Garden of the Gods) (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
• West Face of White Twin Spire (Garden of the Gods) (5.8?? felt 10ish to me) (TR clean)
• Potholes (Garden of the Gods, Red Twin Spire) (5.7) (Onsight)
• Nighttime Madness Pitch 1 (Turkey Rock) (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
• Gobbler's Grunt (Turkey Rock) (3 pitches, 5.9 Trad) (Followed pitch 1 and 3 clean, hangdogged pitch 2)
• Whale Rider (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.6) (Onsight)
• Tempest Toast (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.6) (Onsight)
• Finnacle (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.7) (Onsight)
• Virgin Bolters (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.9-) (Onsight)
• Just Happens (Red Rocks Canyon, The Whale) (5.9-) (Pinkpoint)
• Crystal Catch Pitch 1 (Lumpy Ridge, Checkerboard Rock) (5.9? Felt easier to me, Trad) (Onsight)