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.

Pics April 9-18 April 18, 2007

Wolf Creek got 29 inches of snow last week, and although they were closed for the season, they decided to open back up on Saturday. Lift tickets were $25. Nick convinced me it was worth the 5-hour drive down there. There was a ton of snow, and it was heavy, and the temperature got up into the 40s. It all made for good tree skiing, and for iffy footing whenever you went from the sun to the shade.

We spent the night in Alamosa and took off east on Sunday. Here’s a shot of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains through Nick’s driver’s side window.

We stopped off to do some bouldering near Sheep’s Nose Rock in the South Platte, about 20 miles northwest of Colorado Springs. We had the place to ourselves, but found hardly any of the boulders that the guidebook said were there.

This one’s called Dinosaur Boulder.