Up Up Up Up Up!

Pop quiz hot shot - you know that we are lazy bloggers. What with all the expository information required, the time not playing Mario Kart or eating, and the patience with formatting via Blogger. Did you know, though, that we update the Flickr page more regularly? It's true! You can tell when new images show up in the little rectangular badge on the right hand side of the site. Check it.

Last weekend we hopped into the subie and followed Kate & Mark up to Lily Lake, a very pristine lake that sits just South of Estes Park, and right on the border of RMNP. Above said lake is a climbing area we have only read about, and were finally going to witness. The rocks are very visible from the lake, but require a decent slog up a decent grade to get to the routes.

Naturally, we stopped at the first promising moderates that we found, and vowed to return to complete some of the other, older routes that we saw ropes on above us. For the time being, though, we began the day on the Big Ass Slab, with Katie leading Coloradoddity 5.6, and I went up the neighboring Stout Blue Vein 5.8. The route was very interesting, mostly at the 6 foot traverse on the third bolt that caused me to really over pinch and breathe very fully upon completing it. We had Joanna with us this weekend for her first climbing adventure, and she did very well following katie's lead, with the rest of us taking laps on the first two routes as well.

Mark then moved over to Dark Days 5.8 and I reclimbed my 5.8 to set a top rope on the neighboring Critical Morass 5.10. More laps were had, and all agreed that the skinny, balanced moves on the 5.10 were the most entertaining of the day - but I was still glad to have it on TR and not lead.

The day wrapped up, like most saturday's do, with tasty food and drink at the nearest watering hole, as all were slightly redder and happier from finding this new alcove of sport routes. We will be back soon.

So, with last weekend come and gone, the most recent saturday saw the climbing of a mountain in more of the old fashioned way: up a trail. We drove out to Silverthorne on Friday night to stay at Brian & Sarah's new place, where we met Erik, Kate & Mark and Greg & Christina - who are sadly moving away from us next week over to the southern side of Cincinnati. (sidenote: BoooOOOoOoOOooOOOO!!) Rising with the sun, we found our way to the base of Mt Sherman around 8 am and began the trek up. We were rewarded for our efforts with blue skies, sunshine, and creepy old abandoned mine equipment from the Silver mine that operated there from 1897 to the 1960's. Since we were hiking with at least 3 DSLR cameras, and our DSLR facsimile, much attention was given to scrambling around the scree looking for the best angle on a dilapidated shed.

We all made it to the summit around 1230, and enjoyed the views for awhile until the group parted ways; a few headed back down, and some others of us trapsed over to the top of Mt Gemini, a 13,947' peak less than a mile away.

So, even though this is a post about climbing a 14er, allow me a sidetrip into madness for moment: 14ers are completely overated. As we sat on top of Gemini, we noticed that the peak afforded a greated view, a much more rewarding summit, and best of all, no other people besides ourselves. As I peered across the divide and counted at least a dozen profiles standing on top of Sherman without using any binoculars, I wondered out loud why people don't buy the 13er guidebook as well as th 14er one. It's almost laughable to spend so much time and effort to get to the top of the mountain to have to share it with 50 or 75 or your best friends....

To get down we made a beeline over the White Ridge and slid down the drainage of 4 Mile Creek - as much on our bums as possible. Kate & Mark had a head start on us down this path, and upon reconvening with them at the cars their smiles told us they had also enjoyed the mountain slip and slide. (Picture viciously stolen from Brian)

Once again, the day ended with burgers and beers at the Dillon Dam Brewery, and we found our way back to Fort Fun on Saturday night. We like it here.

That said, on Friday we are leaving! The bay area is our destination for a week of vacation, and we'll be taking in good food, old friends, and hopefully a lot of wine with a couple days in Napa. If you have any good recommendations for vineyards to go see, please let us know in the comments!

(Also, to give the picture gallery directions: Our Lily Lake climbing shots, Kate & Mark Lily Lake Shots, Our Sherman shots, Kate & Mark Sherman Shots, and Brian & Sarah Sherman shots. (Brian has been playing with HDR photography lately, and it does some cool things to the old buildings and hillsides. check it out.)