Las Vegas, Nov. 21-25 November 28, 2007

Really no cliches here. I brought back a weird ear condition I wish would have stayed in Vegas, but that’s about it. Nick, Jayson and I had a blast spending Thanksgiving in Sin City. We climbed all day and ate like kings every night.

Here’s me leading Doobie Dance, a 5.6 climb in First Creek Canyon at Red Rock Canyon Natural Conservation Area west of Vegas on Thanksgiving Day. This was probably my favorite climb of the whole trip. (Photo by Jayson Sime)

Nick freezes while belaying me. In the shade, it was probably around 50-some degrees, not really conducive to lots of sitting around. (Photo by Jayson Sime)

The sunset/moonrise on our hike out of First Creek Canyon.

On Friday, Nick and I climbed alone at Moderate Mecca in Calico Basin. It was about 75 and sunny all along the wall. Here’s Nick fiddling around with the belay at the top of the first pitch.

Look at Nick. What a badass.

Bold move, Nick, bold move. Your ass must be, what, a foot off the ground? He’s not even sweating it.

Saturday: We convinced Jayson to come out with us again to do some toproping at Cut Your Teeth Crag. And we found this sweet pothole to sit in for a self-timed group photo.

Jayson’s first-ever rappel. Although he panicked a little bit beforehand, he took it like a pro.

Jayson on one of the 5.7 routes at CYT. We spent most of the day dodging rockfall, as pieces of this sandstone kept cracking off every time someone climbed.

If you blow this one up to full size, you can just make out some of the casinos on The Strip in the lower right corner.

Nick poses hard. (Photo by Jayson Sime)

I concentrate on the belay and Jayson concentrates on staying in frame. (Photo by Jayson Sime)

I shot a little video of Jayson talking about the feast at the Bellagio buffet on Saturday night. He’s pretty excited, as you can tell. You can hear him start to laugh at himself when he realizes he’s just said, “some of the purest human beings ever known to man” while describing his food. I later watched him disassemble a duck neck and eat it with his bare hands.

I told him going to the Bellagio buffet with him was like going to the Baseball Hall of Fame with Hank Aaron. I have to amend that to say it was like going to the Baseball Hall of Fame with Hank Aaron and watching him hit home runs off Roger Clemens. Nick quietly ate 13 different animals and I sucked down three cups of the best coffee I’ve ever had, no shit.

I hit the dessert line twice, for five different desserts. No complaints.

Here’s us in front of the fountains at the Bellagio. Photo by some nice lady standing next to us.

A shot of The Strip from the pedestrian overpass between New York, New York and the MGM Grand. A few minutes after this, we saw two guys (and one of the guys’ girlfriends) beating the shit out of each other, and then four cops showed up to beat the shit out of all of them. Of course, I didn’t get any photos of that.

Third Flatiron, Nov. 15 November 16, 2007

Aaron agreed to take a personal day off from teaching the finer points of mathematics to sixth-graders in Fort Collins on Thursday so we could climb the Third Flatiron in Boulder. It was his first trad climbing lead, and he did great. I know this because neither of us died. Of course, he was a bit surprised when this guy passed him on the first pitch, free soloing.
Aaron: “What the fuck?”
Me: “That’s just Boulder, man.”
In the guy’s defense, the climbing is about 5.0 almost all the way up the route. Still, the penalty for falling is quite stiff.

I’m goofing around on the third or fourth pitch, executing a heel hook where probably no one has ever thought to do one before. Or needed to.

Me leading the second-to-last pitch.
(Photo by Aaron Fredrick)

Aaron out on Kiddy Kar Ledge, starting up the last pitch.

Aaron snaps a few photos at the top.

Soon to be a MySpace profile pic, I said.

Aaron and the Flatirons.

Trying to look tough.

Scariest part of the day? Aaron on the third rappel off the back.

South Platte, Nov. 10 November 11, 2007

I thought it would be a good idea if we went to Turkey Perch in the South Platte, near Westcreek, on Saturday so I could learn to climb cracks, because I suck at climbing cracks. Well, we didn’t exactly have the easiest time finding it and probably hiked about 3 miles by the time we finally got there. Lee promptly decided that instead of toproping everything, he needed to lead a pretty scary (for us) 5.8 crack. Of course, we didn’t get the camera out until he was done. Here’s Aaron following the route on toprope while Lee belays him.

Here’s me, resting (I think), finally understanding the principles of crack climbing on the safety of a toprope. (Photo by Aaron Fredrick)

Does this crack make my ass look big?
(Photo by Aaron Fredrick)

I snapped a pic of this UFO-looking rock on our way out.

Flatirons climbing, Nov. 3-4 November 5, 2007

Here’s Lee leading the second pitch of Left ‘N’ Up, an easy route on The Slab, probably the largest (definitely the widest) rock formation in the Flatirons. It’s maybe 500 feet tall, and probably 1,000 feet wide, and most of the climbing on it is really easy. We’re talking about doing the first sideways ascent of the rock sometime.

Here’s Lee on top of the Slab, at the end of the climb. If you squint and look really closely, you can see a pair of climbers on the rock just to the right of Lee, called Pellaea.

Bottom right corner.

Nick and I thought we’d take Robb on a nice easy jaunt on Sunday, but we ended up getting a little lost in the Flatirons, giving up and just saying, “this looks pretty easy.” When I got home, I found out we were on a rock called the Red Devil and had taken Robb up a not-often climbed 5.6 route. Well, he did fine.

Third Flatiron, Aug. 3 August 3, 2007

On a rare Friday off work, Nick and I left Denver at 5 a.m. to climb the Third Flatiron in Boulder. It’s an easy, but long climb, and it would be my first multi-pitch lead climb. Fortunately, we were the first ones on the route at 6:45. Here’s me at the top of the first pitch.

And Nick, shot facing south.

This is Nick climbing the third or fourth pitch of what ended up being seven.

Nick at the last belay, at the top of the sixth pitch. The University of Colorado is the large group of red-roofed buildings on the left.

Me on the summit. The sandstone-colored building on the far left is the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Both of us, with Longs Peak directly between our heads. Not a lot of room up there.

I got two good shots of Nick rappelling off the back of the Third.

This is the other one.

Here’s the approximate route we took up the rock, from the approach trail.

The Third, Second and First Flatirons, from left to right. They look more like Flatirons from other angles.