mullerb's musings

First climb in ages! With Evan on a Sunday morning. Had the place to ourselves on a beautiful, warm, sunny fall day. From 2012_09 Misc From 2012_09 Misc From 2012_09 Misc From 2012_09 Misc From 2012_09 Misc

Our annual flatiron climb. Rach and I squeezed this one in before the year is out. An incredible day for mid October with temps in the upper 70's, no wind, sunny skies. A 4 pitch stroll up this fun slab with an amazing pinnacle at the top. An exciting 75' rappel tops off the technical end of things off a CMC bolt; easy to clip and get situated before it goes free hanging.

A short hour and a half with Each on a quiet Wednesday. All easy 8s and 9s but added up to 50 points. Good enough for now.  I'll be looking to go every week or two this winter in the hopes of doing some good outdoor climbing next spring.

A long but fun excursion from home with Lightly. Kiddos busy with PSAT's and a babysitting class. Hiked from the house up the meadows to the Mesa trail, up Shanahan Canyon to The Keel. Around 1000 feet of soloing up easy class 4 along the ridge of this rock to the base of the North Devils Wing. Thought we might be able to climb that as well but looked too dicey for soloing. Cut to the northwest across slabs and talus to reach the top of Bear Mnt. Awesome views of the snow-capped Indian Peaks and the yellow tufted hillsides of the foothills. Those aspens will be bare by Tues when the next fornt moves in....

Left work at 2:30 to get a forearm pump with Rach and the Rock Club. I can still climb easy 10's but those forearms pump out quick!! Too much focus on riding and legs for this climbing business.

Rach and I abandoned the kiddos for 4 hours on this windy Sat AM to climb the steepest east face in the Flatirons. It's a really neat hike up to the formation from the Mallory Cave trail. The woods and rocks are cool. And the winds and lack of sun made for a cool morning of belaying the 2 and quarter pitches. Yet another exciting 100+ft, mostly free hanging rappel off of two solid bolts on the west side of the summit.

A family outing up Seal Rock. A 4-some up to the shoulder where Leah and I bailed out so that Rach and Kelly could more quickly boogie up to the top and to avoid the terror of the rappel for Leah :-) Cool temps in the 50's but mostly blue skies and yellow leaves with great views and a relaxing attitude by all.

Rach and I got out at 8 this morning, leaving the girls to sleep in. We hit the base of the Regency slab by 9:30 or so and 4th classed up it to go give the Royal Arch a visit. Then a thrash down a fern-lined gully along the base of the 5th Flatiron to give a lightly roped go to the East Face North route. All in all lots of easy climbing up lightly protected slab for 4 pitches. Then 2 pitches of very scenic 4th class along a knife edge ridge to just shy of the top of the formation. Sat out a shower before heading up the final 100 feet to the very airy tippy top of the slap. The rappel, off one of those solidly set CMC eye bolts, is 75 feet, mostly free, down the west face. A very long round about way home via the Royal Arch trail to the Blue Bell Shelter and the Mesa Trail.

Shook Rachel out of bed at 6AM in order to get an early climb in while Leah slept off a busy week of tennis and swim camp. We left the house at 7 and returned by 10:30. Hoofed it up to the base of the east face of Seal Rock in 35 min then simul climbed the first 2 pitches. Rachel took the lead and places all of 2 pieces on 2 pitches through the savory finger crack on the upper face. Got a call from Leah along the way, reassuring her that all was well as she glimpsed us from binoculars from our bedroom window. Big water holes on the summit rock and awesome views with no one around. A dramatic, mostly free-hanging rappel gets you down (50m, double ropes). Good for the adrenal gland after the easy climbing.

Packed up the van Friday afternoon and pulled out of town by 4PM for a long drive west. Climbing, hiking, and relaxation gear stowed away, we left a very spring-like Boulder to head over the mountains and see some long forgotten scenery. Time to share some of our old haunts with the girls - and with the Blum's, who caravaned along with us. Rach and I spent weeks and weeks climbing in JT and red Rocks back in our day. Both really fun spots to hang out and live off of PB&J and rice and beans. Which we did. Cause we were living hand to mouth back then. In a nutshell, as Varda so succinctly put it, the trip was: 2000+ miles driven 4 national monuments/parks/reserves visited 20+ miles hiked 24+ climbs led or toproped 1 dinner cooked, eaten, and cleaned in the daylight (meaining we were quite busy most days) 1 late night spent walking the Vegas strip (just to let the kids know what most folks like to do on their time off) Note for future I-70 road trips: the camp by West Water put-in

This is the second session at the gym with Rachel. Need to get in shape to make our March road trip to Vegas and JTree a worthy experience. No more wimpering on 5.9 :-)

NYC with Uncle Joe and Aunt Yoli for the kids, pinion and juniper heaven in Colorado for Rach and I. We dropped the girls off at DIA (we did walk them to the gate, despite our pent up energy to get on the road) and were heading south on E-470 by 5PM on Friday eve. 3 hours later we pulled into the Sand Gulch Campground on BLM land, 12miles north of Canon City on Shelf Road. A snuggly night in the van topped off by a blue sky morning got us psyched for the day's activity: a ride up Shelf Road to Cripple Creek. From 2008 Nov Shelf Road Trip It's a dirt road, 14 miles one way, well guarded by a sign that clearly warns all comers: "High clearance or 4-wheel drive recommended". Most definitely an excellent deterrent because we only saw 5 cars the entire ride up the canyon. And we could have taken any old car up there - no 4x4 or high clearance needed. No complaints on our end though as it was way nice to have no traffic. The landscape is rugged, first with a canyon rim line