Send it bro!

I was lucky enough to have the chance to climb in the infamous Black. I had picked out a fairly short (5 pitch) moderate route called ‘Casual Route’ and thought it would be an good introduction to the area. Along with a fairly new climbing partner, Kim, we took took off and had high hopes. After finally finding the SOB gully and making the interesting descent down the gully, making sure of course to avoid the poison icy and ticks, we tried to find the route. The Black is a gigantic place, and it was almost overwhelming to try and find the route. My mistake of leaving the guide book in the truck left us with a hand drawn topo of the route description. We asked another group of climber ons the ‘Escape Artits’ route where the beginning was, and after being moderately sure of where we were, started up.

The rock and climbing was interesting. Definitely a little manky. I placed gear where I could and made sure to travel slow. I was about fifteen or so feet above my last piece on the 5.8-ish slab when I reached for a hold that broke off in my hand. I flew backwards and tumbled for 30 feet before Kim caught me. Along the way I landed on a cam, which ripped my shirt and dug into my back, fracturing a rib. I then scrapped along and broke my nose and cut up my face. Other than that though, I made a relatively clean fall down the slab. I was hurt, and in shock but alive. Kim hopped ontop of things and got me cleaned up and lowered me to the ground. Luckily there was a park ranger not too far away, and with his help, Kim set up a line for me to make it to the gully. The ranger, also an EMT checked me out, and said that it would be best to hike out of the canyon if I could. Bringing a rescue bucket here would be long and hard and almost more dangerous. I gathered myself and walked slowly, it seems like forever, out of the SOB gully.

So, I am now, once again, injured. I am thankful that the injuries we so minimal and that I had a great belayer on the other end. It was perhaps a necessary wake up call for my ego and to drive the point home that I need to get some health insurance. Even bums need that! I hope to recover quickly and still finish some of the projects I am excited about this summer; The Diamond, ‘Andrology’ (5.12a), and some routes in Clear Creek Canyon and Rifle. I’ll keep everyone updated with the recovery.

With such a momentous event happening in the backyard of Colorado, it was hard not to want to go and see some amazing feats. Still, I could not believe that I would be in Vail when all of the amazing ice would be gone! On top of that, I am not the most amped boulderer you will ever meet, in fact I am sure that most of my partners will eagerly tell you that I despise the activity. Truth be told, I do not hate bouldering. I just greatly dislike it because I suck so badly. I do make my rounds though, and after my recent trip to Hueco Tanks, realize that this form of masochistic acrobatics holds a special place in my heart.

Ok, enough of that tangent. I met up with the Bama Boys and overnighted with some friends in Vail. The next day was filled with activities typical to such events. Free schwag, demos, atheletes, lots of free stickers and food samples, and even am intro yoga course taught on the lawn behind the bouldering venue. It was good to run into people I had not seen in a while and meet some new faces. I ran into Larissa and it was nice to catch up a little with her since she has been so busy these past days.

After watching the semi-finals, I secured a solid spot for the finals and waited. The amount and intensity of climbing was amazing. So many countries and so many competitors. It was fun to cheer on in German for the strong Austrian team as well as give support to the American team. Both Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson made it to the finals and did very well. I am no reporter, nor want to spend the time to break down what happened on critical holds, but I can say that I was impressed and blown away the entire time by the group of boulderers from all nations.

I left Vail inspired and excited to keep climbing hard this season. It was fun to hang out with friends and meet athletes, but it is my turn now to go out and play!!

Well, to the dismay of my folks, I am embracing the climbing bum lifestyle and have been traveling all over getting stronger. This is part of the reason that I have not updated my blog in a while. Along with some sporadic northern Front Range climbing, (namely Clear Creek Canyon and North Table), I recently had a stint in the Estes Park area; sampling some trad, sport, and bouldering. I also made my first trip to the Long’s/Meeker Cirque area with Jeff at a failed ‘Dark Star’ attempt.

Luckily the Bama Boys are like my brothers and give me a place to stay when I am in Estes, so it is nice to not have to sleep in the back of the truck, (like when I am bumming around the Golden/Boulder area.) I got to spend some time on my ‘project’, the very beautiful line ‘Andrology’ (5.12a) at Jurrasic Park. I now have the upper crux sequence dialed, and hope that after a few more TRs I will have the mental strength to lead the slightly runout terrain.

Another adventurous day was spent surveying Lumpy Ridge and finally climbing a little on some interesting 5.8 off-width terrain. Along with hanging out and talking about life, it was nice to see the Bama Boys get more adept to climbing in the unique Colorado terrain that they are not used to.

Another fun day was spent just relaxing working in the gym to get strong while pulling on plastic. It was kind of nice to mess around in a gym and take climbing not too seriously for a change of pace.

I am climbing strong and know that I can tick off some of my favorite projects this rock season ,(although I am already getting excited for the ice to come back, is that weird?)! Enjoy the smattering of photos from the past few weeks.

So, for some reason I have lately been obsessing about Garden of the Gods. I think it might have something to do with the face that I am now officially graduated and, since my climbing partners are also graduating, won’t have as many opportunities to climb at this amazing place. I have always loved the Garden and it was here that I fell for climbing and was shown the ropes by Larissa.

At any rate, I had the opportunity to go back with some friends who were visiting from Alabama (Drew, Daniel, Braden, Austen, and Matt) who are in the process of learning to rope climb as well. It was nice to be able to pass on  the knowledge that was given to me by Larissa and see such enthusiasm from the gang.

We explored my favorite areas of the Garden, bouldering at the ‘Snake Pit’ and climbing on amazing bolted lines on ‘Grey Rock’ (such as the Alligator Soup). We later ran into Scott and RebeccaBorger and headed to my all time favorite single pitch in the Garden, Anaconda.

We set up our kit, and after I set up a top rope, everyone had a chance to try their hand at this amazing crack with unique movements and sequences. I was throughouly impressed by everyone and their determination to get to the top, and it was humbling to be climbing with a group that just wanted to have fun and be outside no matter what the climb or how hard the line, ( something that is lately easily lost for me as I play the grades game trying to get sponsored and noticed.) Later I attempted the 11c extension to the route, although unsuccessful. I made it half way up and was unable to place a bail link in the tiny opening of the fixed pin, so I chose to clean the gear and pull out my last piece, leaving a 25-30 whipper for me to the first set of chains. It was quite a scary and fun ride as I flew threw the air in order to save my gear. Drew had never caught a fall that large before and even with the help of Daniel was jerked around the base of the climb, while Daniel tried not to fall down the crevass behind the belay stance.

Long story short, the day was amazing and the climbing was fun. I cannot wait to come back to the Garden some time in the future and enjoy what the beautiful sandstone here has to offer. Photos courtesty of the amazing talent of Scott Borger.

Well, I had been itching to get out on some ice since I had not had my fill this season due to an ankle injury. I had gotten a report that the ice in Vail was still fatty mc-fat fat, so after convincing a fledging ice climber from the Springs (Dan Rothberg) and the amazing photographer Scott Borger, we headed out to see what would await.

Lucky for us everything was perfect! I had wanted to lead the Designator, but it was in poor ice conditions. The Fang, however, was as fat and blue as any ice climber could dream of. Being only my second ice season, I was pretty sure I couldn’t get to the top, and if so, pull the crux curtain that had formed, but I hoped on anyways and led it twice as high as I could go and feel comfortable with.

Once getting used to the ice, I did better and wasted less energy. Dan top roped my mini-sections of the Fang and had a quick go at trying to lead, although the placement of ice screws led him to come down fairly quickly. Nevertheless, I was impressed as this was his second time only on Colorado ice!

We goofed around on Amphibian (M8-), which has recently had some new long chain draws fixed to the bolt, and then walked around to rappel of the Fang and retrieve the gear I had left at my highpoints. I did not perform as well as I wanted, but had an amazing day and got a decent fill of ice for the season. I cannot wait to come back next year! Thanks to Scott for the amazing shots!!!

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see an amazing area that is not even too far from my home with some of my favorite people. All the members at brutestupidity.com decided to have a mini-weekend gathering at Vedauwoo to check out the rock and rope up. I went with Scott Borger and his wife Rebecca. After enduring a chilly night, we met Fabio, Charles, Andy, Brian, Jeff, Mike and Mark to climb.

To put a long story short, Vedauwoo is hard!! The rock crystals eat your hands, even with tape gloves, and the off-width climbing there is like no other. I searched for hand-sized cracks and after a while got really psyced on a line called ‘Flying Buttress’ (5.10b/c). Andy gave me a catch, and after thrutching a while I made it to the top. While not a clean redpoint, it was my hardest trad lead to date and I was extremely proud of it.

We move over the the northeast face of Nautlius later in the day and while Andy, Fabio, Brian, and Scott led ‘Cornelius Crack’ (5.5), Charles and I tackled another hard climb called ‘Hairlip’ (5.9).

Being beat through and through, we decided to hike over the Walt’s Wall on Turtle Rock and after seeing the amazing ‘Edwards Crack’ (5.7) decided I had to have a quick run. I rean up the two pitches, linking them with a 70 meter rope and placed only five pieces of pro. Brian followed and we celebrate on the top while enjoying the amazing view.

We rappelled and headed off to camp to meet the others and enjoyed each other’s company before hitting the sac. I drifted off, apparently talking in my sleep to others, wanting only more Woo crack action.

The next day was windy and cold, so Scott, Rebecca, and I decided to bail for a short session at North Table. Scott took some more amazing shots and we had a relatively successful day.

Vedauwoo is amazing and I hope to go back soon!!

Well, it has been a while since I have updated my blog, but I am actually not dead! I have been juggling doing odd tile jobs to make money for climbing trips and trying to figure out a stable financial situation for myself. At any rate, I was lucky enough to have ten days to travel to Hueco Tanks. And while I am not a boulderer at all, this place blew my mind away!

Truly amazing rocks and inspiring terrain. I went with Larissa and Caty, and after loading Caty’s Jeep with gear headed to the desert. We tried many a problem, all on North Mountain. The highlights of the trip for me was working ‘Ghetto Simulator’ (V2) and ‘See Spot Run’ (V6). Other great lines that I did not finish, but hope to in the near future include: ‘Baby Martini’ (V6), ‘El Rancho’ (V2), and ‘Sign of the Cross’ (V3). Larissa and Caty both climbed hard, although an ankle injury prevented Caty from the last portion of the trip.

Most inspiring to me was Larissa’s send of ‘Lobster Claw’ (V5) that she had been working on for years. A very inventive and pumpy climb. The smile on her face and elation in her expressions made the entire trip to the desert worthwhile. Camping in the middle of the desert provided much entertainment and we spent the evening talking about the climbing we had done during the day and singing songs around our makes-shift campfire pit.

After a quick stop to Juarez Mexico for some beer and tequila, and a stop for some fresh tamales and tortillas from the local market, we came back home to a snowy Colorado.

Well, my ankle has been feeling much better and I have since been out a few time to Shelf Road to train. I am almost back to the point I was before the injury and am working 11a-c’s within a few tries. As the ice season winds down, I am getting the rock-bug. Cannot wait til it is really nice and I can get out 4-5 days a week on the sharp end.

I am excited to get stronger and try more challenging routes as well! There are lots of cool prospects this season, namely the Diamond, a trip to Kalymnos, and raging in Rifle. I recently went to North Table Mountain as well. While I don’t go here terribly often, I enjoy the short interesting routes on the only columnar basalt that I am aware of in Colorado. I went with Scott Borger and we later ran into Mike Wysumph.

Lots of routes were done and I got 10 laps in on the sharp end along with a short free-solo. My favorite routes of the day, although not clean redpoints, were Bullet the Brown Cloud and Major Bolt Achievement . Due to Scotts amazing tallent, there were some awesome pictures of both. Thanks Scott!

I’m headed to Hueco Tanks on the 12th for a week and a half with Larissa and Caty, and am looking forward to getting strong and having fun in the Texas desert. I’ll post some cool shots of this trip once I return.

My ankle had been feeling better and I was itching to get outside. I did not get my job at Bent Gate, so I had to do something productive with my weekend. While I decided that ice climbing would be to harsh on my ankle still, I thought that a little rock climbing couldn’t hurt. Luckily I live in Colorado, where rock climbing is a year round sport. So, armed with a new harness and rope, I took off with Larissa to my favorite southern limestone mecca, Shelf Road. We both had not climbed for a month, so it was a rough start, but the climbing was fun all the same. We ended up working ourselves on some 5.11s after warming up on B/C (5.9+) at The Bank.

While I did not successfully redpoint any of the routes, it was good to see and feel that I was close to doing so on several 5.11’s that I had never been on before. It was also good to just pick a line that looked fun, and just go for it. The two routes we climbed were Once Upon A Time (11a) and Hostlie Crankover (11b/c). I am anxious to see what this rock season will bring. A little more rest and training in the gym should have me top fit for my adventures as the snow melts. At the least, it was good to get outside, climb a little, break in my new harness and rope, and of course, goof around with Larissa!

Well, since I have had a little time on my hands, I have been day dreaming and am getting really excited to climb some rock again. I think I need a few more months off of the ankle, but by that time it should be nice enough to get outside! Here is a table of routes that I am really interested in and want to do this year, althugh I am sure I will do others as well. I will highlight the names in red as I redpoint them. Wish me luck!!

Well, I am still jobless and am having a  hard time making ends meet. Luckily I have a few tile jobs and a basement demolition lined up for the next three weeks, so this should help me break even and come out of debt. I would be content with not having a job if I could at least climb, but due to my ankle injury I am unable to do so. I am watching the ice season melt away…

That’s alright though, I guess everything happens for a reason, and I am remaining postive and strong. I am lucky enough to be able to train on the campus board, hang board, and HIT system at my gym; and with my regimine, have already seeen some gains in strength. I’m excited to come back climbing with stronger fingers, hopefully allowing me to finish last years projects easily and develop even harder projects this year!

On another positive note, I had a great interview with Bent Gate Mountaineering a few days ago.  Really nice people and I would be thrilled to work there. This would be an ideal job for me and allow me to move to Boulder with my friend Steve. I am crossing my fingers for this job! I know I would be a great part of the team and would truly enjoy sharing my knowledge of climbing and gear with others. What could be better than making money doing something you love?

Here is a short video showing how I train in the gym for mixed routes. I use old plastic holds along with real rock holds and am able to set up routes just like any other climb. Really fun and a good way to get comfortable with movements before trying them outdoors where you are wearing more gear and it is much, much colder!  

Well, I had an awesome trip to Ouray this year for the first time and took part in the annual Ice Fest. I went along with Jeff and met a lot of cool new people and representatives from climbing companies. It was truly amazing to hang out with and talk with some of my climbing idols, specifically Steve House and Ines Papert. Along with watching and amazing competition, I got up-to-date information on new products. I was really inspired and want to train hard to enter the competition next year. Who knows if I will even make it past the preliminaries, but it is a good goal to have.

 I also ended up severely screwing up my ankle, and have micro-tore some tendons. The drive home was terrible, and I am now on crutches. I will hopefully move to wearing a boot soon, but it looks like the rest of my ice season is over! Very frustrating and ahrd to get through, but I should be able to climb come the end of March when it gets nice.

I have been lucky enough to hit up some Vail ice on the 26th, 29th, and 30th of December. What a way to end the year! On the 26th I met up with Jason, whom I never have climbed with before, and we hit it off immediately. After warming up on Spiral Staircase (WI4), we took of the main ampitheatre and tackled some classic mixed lines including Cupcake Corner (M5) and Amphibian (M8-). . I was excited to have worked the lower section of the M8- so well that I know it will go as a clean redpoint this season.

On the 29th I met up with the usual crew (Andy, Brian, Fabio, and Jeff) to show them some of the ice that inspires me so much. None had ever been there before, so I headed back to the Spiral Staircase Area and led the flow, which is the hardest ice I have led to date, to set up a toprope. Once again we headed over to the mixed climbs and I hopped back on Amphibian and Cupcake Corner. I was still unable to redpoint Cupcake, but know it will go soon. It is merely a mental block. I feel that I probably need to take a few falls on mixed to become comfortable with this because I am still terrified of falling with spikes on my feet and with axes in my hands! I ended the day by top roping the Frigid Inseminator, which I would also like to lead later this season.

On the 30th I met back up with Jason and his long time climbing partner Jerry. We arrived just in time to tackle the famous Rigid Designator (WI5). I followed after Jason led. This has been the longest and steepest pure ice climb I have done to date and know now what I need to do in order to lead such an ice column, which I think I can do at the end of the season. We messed around on some mixed again and Cupcake still alluded me. Oh well, it will go soon.

My ankle is now screwed up, I think from a fall I took on Amphibian where my mono-point was torqued in a crack. I will try and take the next two weeks off before heading to Ouray for the ice fest.

I have already been out on ice this season several times and am really amped to get out even more! As my second ice season rolls around, I am setting my goals high. With some new equipment and a better understanding of mixed technique, I have already begun to tackle some classic lines that anyone would be proud to have on their tick-list. As ususal, my goals are lofty, but I think this is a good thing. I have complied a list of the climbs I would most like to redpoint this season, wish me luck and let’s see how many I can do! I’ll highlight the ones in red as I go to show that I successfully redpointed.

So, I have decided to leave my site as a blog until I am able to figure out how to create separate pages for photos, videos, trip reports, etc. Until then I will keep updating the site like a journal with some of my favorite photos and videos from my climbing trips. Two new videos are now up, (courtesy of Andy Leach whom I’d like to thank a lot), and I hope to have some more soon. Until then, the rest of my photos and any trip reports that I write can be found on my summitpost.org profile.

Welcome to my site/blog. I am just in the beginning phases here, but hope to soon have lots of pictures, stories, and videos of my climbing adventures. With a little help from my mentor ‘The Andy’, this site should be up and running soon. Enjoy and thanks for the visit!

Dan