Pre-emptive Blogging

Thats right, i'm writing about something that just happened today.  I can actually remember most everything worth posting about from this weekend quite well.  So we'll get right to it, shall we?

Seeing as how getting out and enjoying the end of the (tolerable) camping weather did us so well the week prior, we couldn't help ourselves come Friday night.  We were originally planning on meeting with the Bishops and the Courtneys somewhere along the South St. Vrain River to share a campsite, but the weekend did not come as soon for the other two couples and liz and i were on a solo mission as we got down to Lyons and had dinner.  We ended up camping out at the bottom of the Ironclads climbing area, and convinced Brian and Sarah (though the early morning weeded out Sarah's presence) to find us in the morning to do some granite sport climbing.

Considering that there was a good amount of repairs done to Forest Road 115 that takes you up to the first parts of the climbable walls, it is still a daunting task to get your vehicle over the incredibly rocky road up to the bottom of the first part of the area.  We caught Brian in his Bonneville doing some rock crawling around 10 am, and we both parked and hiked over to the first wall for the day, Punk Rock.  It's a fairly squat, 30' - 40' wall with a dozen different moderate routes.  Brian has only been climbing once - and it was over 15 years ago, and in a gym.  This morning is nearly dedicated to attempting to getting him hooked on the sport.  

Seething Bitch, 5.8

The first pitch for the day is a litte stiffer than we were thinking it was going to be.  The lead goes fairly well, and everyone follows and gets the cobwebs out of the joints.  Liz takes the last lap, and walks over to the much ledgier TopRope route down the rock..

Short Sited, 5.7

Fun, full of different diaganol ledges and cracks.  

Rip Off Ranger, 5.9

The route directly to the right of Short Sited is a fun jug-fest, giving me some more confidence in the day with a solid lead.  Everyone completes the route in a slightly different way, and all enjoy.

Five Finger Discount, 5.9

The lesser starred 5.9 on the wall proves to be my favorite for the morning, with some really thoughtful, balanced crimpers to a great lieback for clipping the second bolt.  

Blah, Blah, Blah, 5.11a

This guy shared the anchors above with the last route, so I gave it a thrash on TopRope.  It's full of very painful, tiny moves requiring more leg power and leverage than i was expecting, but manage to get to the top after a few hangs.  Would really like to try again.

From here we move 50 yards North to the other large formation nearby, Mount Boner.  Liz wants to lead something before we leave, and we're all feeling relatively accomplished, so we set our sights on the highest rated climb on the wall...

Shaking the Pope's hand, 5.7

Over twice the length of any route we had done previously in the day, Liz was cheered on by everyone on the ground as she made a textbook lead of this frictiony, slabby route.  Cruising through the entire thing like butter, she lowered down with a huge smile, as we all did to end the day.

As we hiked back to the cars, the wind started to pick up slightly and the rain just began to tinkle, and we were glad to be moving on for the day.  On the way home, Brian had to return the shoes he had rented at REI, and enjoyed the day enough to buy his own gear setup before he left.  Ahhhh..   another addict.....  

the day's activities can be found pictorialy over here.

So now we are home for our Saturday night, and I just finished watching the Spartans (barely) take out the Hawkeyes for the Homecoming game.  (that was waaaaay too close.  For how good the Offensive line has looked the last four weeks, they couldn't seem to find a single way to move the Iowa D-Line at all.)  SO, it's time for cake, icecream, and a well earned bedtime.