a land of extremes

this place called colorado is magical. thursday and friday, i was hiking through patches of feet-thick snow to get to the boulders that were shrouded in cold, white beauty only weeks before. when i say patches, i don't mean a couple square feet; i mean upon finding soft spots, i quickly sunk to my hip. the temps were great, the breezes were cooling, and around sunset, i needed a fleece when i wasn't cranking on granite.

today, i hit the other extreme. i'm sure that i was still reasonably high above sea level; my guess is that most of the land near boulder is above a mile. today's climbing was more desert-like on sandstone and conglomerate. the bright red rocks scattered across the arid landscape were a lot cooler than i expected, and had far better friction than any other sandstone bouldering i've done in the southeast. it was easily in the 90s in the shade, and when we left, the thermometer in bryan's pathfinder said 102. not as unpleasant as vegas 110, but that same kind of dry heat. tolerable, though standing around in climbing shoes or on black crash pads quickly had us dancing as though standing on a skillet. the climbing was awesome. i can't wait to share the pictures from the epic battles with the climbs.

rocky mountain high

quick update from the rockies. my god, it's amazing out here. i just got back from two days climbing in rocky mountain national park. still snow on the ground. the parking lot's elevation was 9,475 feet. the crag was over 10,000. i climbed well on the first day, on granite no less. warmups were fun. first problem of the day was called autobot. apparently, it's a little less heady when you have snow below you filling up what is a tiger pit in the melted season. looks pretty sketch from pictures, but the long climb had a stunningly beautiful reward after the top out. it's now the wallpaper on my cellphone. we got rained on and hightailed it out of the park before i got any more good sends.

i'm feeling confident that if we return again next week before i leave, i'll knock off a pretty stout problem or two. yesterday's highlight was watching climbing. insanely strong climbers abound in this part of the country. i witnessed a climber fall one move short of a V14. what does that mean? world-class talent, folks. earlier in the day, another resident strong guy put down a V12. insane. i'm not quite there yet, but the attitude out here isn't one of grade chasing, more one of aesthetically pleasing, fun climbing. i'm all about that. catch you again when i get a chance. check for the pictures when i get back.

peace.