Anthony Riske and Co. hosted their annual rock climbing Birthday Bash in Moab, UT over Easter weekend. It was a great weekend of camping and climbing in the desert with some old friends and a lot of new ones. Anthony knows a lot of great people and I was blessed to meet a lot of them over the weekend. Since my brother, Matthew's birthday was on March 29th. He flew out for the birthday festivities as well.
About half of us met at the Gold Bar Campground on Potash Road just out side of Moab late Thursday night. The rest of the crew (20 something in total?) trickled in throughout the day on Good Friday.
The climbing highlight of the trip was Fine Jade (5.11) on the Rectory. 5 of us, Anthony, Zach, Jean, Matthew, and myself, drove to the Castleton Valley Friday morning. We charged up the approach trail with extreme levels of stoke about our climbing objective. It was also Matthew's birthday and I don't think there was anything else he would have rather been doing for his B-Day.
The climbing was exquisite. It was lazer-cut desert splitters of varying size for 5 pitches (we did it in 3), and it was very well sustained in the 5.10-5.11 range. It was great to be in a party of 5 too. It makes for a nice social outing, and everyone was a strong climber, allowing us to be relatively fast and efficient.
Hiking past Castleton Tower, STOKED!
Fine Jade climbs the sunny face on the Rectory
Anthony in the physical crux of the climb.
Jean chilling on a belay ledge enjoying the view of the La Sal Mts.
Matt belaying us on the direct 5.11 face finish
Summit Panorama
That evening we had a great time around camp hanging out with friends and celebrating Matt's birthday.
The next day we headed to Wall Street to party crag. It was a lot of fun, but I was pretty tired from fine Jade the day before and I was getting over a bit of a head cold and it was also very hot. Thankfully we had enough strong leaders that I could be a top-rope tough-guy in the afternoon heat.
Unfortunately I had to be back in Boulder for Easter Sunday to help out with the service. Matthew and I also needed to be back for work Sunday night, so we left Saturday Afternoon after a quick dip in the Colorado River. We were sad to leave so soon, but Easter was really special and it was good to be back for the grain market open.
Lucas and I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park this Saturday to earn some turns in the fresh snow. They had gotten about 6 overnight on top of a few smaller snow events during the week and it continued snowing all day. We parked at Bear Lake and started with a warmup lap in the terrain park. It turned out to be a burly skin and then a pretty hairy line. We cliffed-out multiple times and I triggered an inconsequentially small slab on a 50 degree rollover. Overall the snow was good and the line was steep and fun.
We continued our day by skinning over to the East Face of Flat Top. The face was a popular afternoon destination for backcountry skiers. Coverage was more sparse than I was expecting, but there was enough to make turns on most of the slope without concern. We decided the East Face was worthy of another lap, and afterwards traversed out to the car.
Last weekend was the annual "Fam" Ski Trip. My brother Matt has a very tight-knit group of friends from his undergrad days at Northwestern University. It is an incredibly special group primarily because they all really love each other, more than most other friend groups. AND, it is incredibly contagious. Ebenezer Scrooge couldn't hang out around this group and not feel loved and have a good time. Because of this, the have aptly been named "The Fam."
On top of their love for one another, they are all a bunch of bright type A go-getters, who get after it whether they are skiing, climbing, cycling, hiking, running, partying, or hot tubbing. They all seem to share a common love for adventure and for these reasons I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of the "extended Fam." In fact, most of my best backcountry skiing and climbing buddies are in this group, most of whom don't even live in mountain states! Part of the fun on Ski Trip is the "Fam" invites the extended members including siblings and parents. Roughly 18 of us (the total fluctuated over the course of the weekend) crashed in a 4 bedroom house in West Vail.
The best surprise of the whole trip was Andrew Wien. Andrew has been living in Chile for the last few months, and I visited him while climbing in Patagonia. No one thought he was going to fly up all the way from the Southern Hemisphere for "Fam" Ski Trip, but his dad surprised him 30hrs beforehand and flew him up as a surprise for the Fam! It was spectacular.
The highlight of the weekend was certainly the time together as friends and family, but it was also the best weekend of the year for skiing. We awoke Friday morning to a foot or more of "cold smoke." I don't think I have ever skied snow so light an fluffy. We skied hard all morning in-bounds, hitting all our favorite lines. Then we finished the day with 2 laps in East Vail, which were probably the best runs of my life.
Jimmy
Andrew
Matthew
On Saturday, the sun came out and we enjoyed soft snow under the blue-bird skies in the resort and managed to snag a few more laps in East Vail, although the "cold smoke" had settled considerably.
Then on Sunday some of us took the day off to go ice climbing and wait for the next storm that hit Sunday night. The ice climbing was great, although we were a bit under prepared. Matt did a great job leading for us!
Sunday night it dumped another 5 inches in-bounds and 8+ in East Vail. We rounded out the trip with a few more laps in EV and then headed home, narrowly missing the 50 car pile-up on I-70.
Dropped East Vail today with Laura after my best day in-bounds so far this season. It was a great day. Vail pulled its typical under reporting stunt. They reported 6 but it seemed more like 8-9. Looks like everything will be a bit crusty tomorrow at the resorts after today's warm temps and strong sun. Even the bottom of East Vail had gotten a bit sun-baked by the end of the day. But, I'm looking forward to another lap tomorrow and they're calling for more snow tomorrow night.
Cochamo was a spectacular place. As I mentioned in my 1/1/13 post, we didn't get a chance to climb what we wanted, but still got a fair amount in given the uncooperative weather.
The Refugio was really special. It is a 4 hour hike from the nearest civilization down a muddy path through the temperate rainforest. It is stocked via horseback, and guests can order dinner, wine, and beer. It also has hot showers and flush toilets. The bunk room upstairs was comfortable, and the staff was very nice. It is run by an American climber named Daniel who put up a lot of the routes in the valley. Staying here instead of camping in the rain was a real treat!
Matthew and Andrew looking over topos in the Refugio
The Refugio has a lot of hand drawn topos of the climbs in the valley. Those, combined with Daniel's beta were very helpful.
Since we didn't have the weather window we needed to climb Bienvenidos a Mi Insomnio, a 22 pitch 5.11 on Cerro Trinidad, we decided to try No Hay Hoyes a 6 pitch 5.11 a little further up the Trinidad valley. The following video documents our 2 day, 1 night bid for No Hay Hoyes. It was a long approach with heavy packs over rough terrain. We dumped our stuff at the "Bivy Boulder" and tried to climb that same afternoon.
After getting rained off No Hay Hoyes, we retreated to the comfort of the Refugio. On most climbing trips bad weather means sitting in a little tent until it clears, but not in the Valle de Cochamo! Staying out of the rain in the Refugio was amazing, especially because it rained for the next two days. Space to dry wet gear, a dry bunk, and room to stretch the legs felt like staying at the Ritz compared to a wet tent (and they give an AAC discount!). Additionally there was an overhanging rock wall that stayed dry in the rain, the Pared Seca, so we got to do some climbing even when it was pouring.
Two additional highlights of our time around the Refugio were the people and a natural watersilde. We got to meet a lot of interesting individuals. There were two incredibly fun couples from Australia, and unsurprisingly, another Boulderite, Nate Mankovich. Reid and Logan were a couple from Reno and Alaska, respectively, on a South American road trip similar to that of Mountain of Storms or 180 Degrees South. They have a cool blog detailing their trip at americanrecess.com. There were also parties from other locations across North America, South America, and Europe traveling through.
The waterslide was pure fun. Thankfully the sun came out for a bit on our last day so we could enjoy it with warmer temps and sunlight. This video shows the fun of the natural waterslide, but also the great vibe of the people we met. I apologize in advance for the Aussie's speedos and language.
On New Years Eve, we hiked out of Cochamo. We were a bit disappointed to miss the Refugio NYE party, but we had to hit the road for Torres del Paine. In the small town of Cochamo, we stayed with a woman named Gladys. She was widowed at a very young age and now runs an hospedaje and a supermercado out of her relatively large house. She has a wonderful disposition and is well liked by everyone in the village. Gladys is also an amazing cook. For NYE she made us a delectable diner of local salmon and excellent side dishes. She sat with us all evening eating, drinking, and telling stories about her life in rural Chile, and at mid-night she popped open a bottle of champagne for us! It was a very memorable NYE and a highlight of the entire trip! (If traveling to Cochamo, you can look her up here http://www.cochamo.com/town/.)
Cerro Trinidad breaking through the clouds
It amazes me how pictures never do giant walls justice. Cerro Trinidad is nearly as big as El Cap!
The Trinidad Valley
The water in every stream is safe to drink!
Setting up camp at the Bivy Boulder with Reid, Hamish,and Katherine
Laura and I did some early morning laps in Loveland Pass. I always love getting out with my wife. The snow was pretty good in the trees, but everything was pretty wind-stripped up high. We hitched from the lower lot at "Riders Bend" and dropped in from the top of the pass for our warm-up lap. Once we were in the gully we put on our skins and headed up the west side of the bowl where the better snow was. After a 20 min skin we dropped through a steep glade for some fun skiing in good snow. From there it was over the pass to Keystone to ski the rest of the day with friends.
Got out to East Vail yesterday with Matt Patrick to enjoy the 30" of new snow that fell in the last week. There were more people than I have ever seen out there. I was a bit nervous about the avy conditions with the new load on the snow pack, high winds Friday night, and some surface hoar I had seen the week before, so we skied Water Tower to be safe. However, people were dropping just about everything with no slides, so the new snow must have bonded pretty well. I even saw some guys hucking the cliffs on the West Wall, making big bomb holes on well known slide paths with no consequences.
It was definitely the best it has been out there this season. We were hootin' and hollerin' the whole way down. I'm looking forward to getting back out there.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
