Backpacking Indian Peaks

This last weekend I had the pleasure of backpacking in the Indian Peaks with my friend Austin.  We headed out from Boulder on Friday afternoon to hit the trail.  We were planning on hiking the Devil's Thumb Loop.  The loop starts from the Hessie Trail head and climbs past the Devil's Thumb to gain the Continental Divide.  The loop continues South along the Divide and then drops down to King Lake where it descends the King Lake Valley, back to the Hessie Trail head.

We stopped in the Nederland Ace Hardware to pick up our backpacking permit.   The clerk selling us our permit, proceeded to give us a lecture about how we clearly were in over our heads and should be careful out there, especially with all the snow.  This is an occurrence that happens all the time: I constantly get lectured on my inadequacies as a mountaineer by people who don't even know me or my experience level.  Maybe I look more clueless than I am, but I generally find my judgement to be better than most people who feel it necessary to "spray" about ability and safety. 

We hit the trail light and fast at about 4:30pm and we covered the 7 miles up to Devil's Thumb Lake in roughly 3 hours, including a "shiny time" stop at Jasper Lake.  Our campsite was very scenic with the Devil's Thumb pinnacle towering over the lake.  We ate dinner and I slept like a rock that night.

Then next morning we awoke to a crisp mountain frost, and enjoyed a leisurely morning with coffee and a good breakfast.  It was great to sit around and enjoy the beautiful mountain morning.  After breaking camp we set out to gain the Continental Divide, the steepest part of our journey.  The steep section was short but sweet and it seemed we were on the Divide in no time, looking down at Winter Park on one side and the Great Plains on the other.  The High Lonesome Trail which runs along the Continental Divide provides easy access to Skyscraper Peak.  So, we stashed our packs and scrambled to the summit.  I was shocked to find a summit log on the top what seemed to be a seldom climbed peak.  According to the log, we were the first to summit since the Fall.

After picking up our packs, we headed down passed Bob Lake to Betty Lake where we made camp by noon. Big, white, puffy clouds were building already, so we were thankful to have our camp made in case of an afternoon thunderstorm.  The sky threatened storms for the early afternoon, but we braved the weather and went on an afternoon hike over to King Lake.  Upon our return the skies cleared.  To enjoy the remaining afternoon we waded out to a large boulder in Betty Lake.  We drank bourbon and talked about life in the afternoon sun.  It was great.  After watching the sunset with some pine needle tea, it was bedtime.

The morning hike out was beautiful and it went by quickly.  We only stopped once for more "shiny time" at a great waterfall.

Thanks, Austin, for a great trip.

The wildflowers were really popping already

Devil's Thumb on the left side of the ridge

The High Lonesome Trail

Summit of Skyscraper Peak

Austin Relaxing at King Lake

Shiny Time at the waterfall

Monsoon Season

I've been getting rained on recently.  After a great spring with good afternoon weather, I must have been spoiled.  I found myself wondering, "what's with this weather?" when I finally realized it is now June, and officially that time of year when the thunderstorms roll through about every afternoon.  Since I work mornings it now means I have to do what I can with the afternoon weather.

Cragging is still a viable option, however, I have been exploring some other, less weather-dependent, activities.  I  went fly fishing for the first time in years which was great.  Since I bought an annual license I'll probably be going a lot more.   I also found a new love in trail running.  I ran up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness yesterday to Dorothy Lake.  While trail running above tree-line is certainly weather dependent, its easier to bail due to weather than when multi-pitch climbing above tree-line. And running in the rain is easier than climbing in the rain.  I'm trying to keep my cycling mileage up too, as I'm getting ready for the Triple-Bypass ride in July.

I'll be saving those weather-dependent outings like multi-pitch climbing for early mornings on the weekends.

Here are some pictures from my trail run yesterday.  There was a whole lot less snow that I was anticipating.

Lumpy Ridge and the Petite Grepon

I had a great weekend of climbing earlier in May.  My brother, and phenomenal climbing partner, Matthew, was out in the Boulder area, along with our mutual friend Jimmy Costakis.  We headed up to the Estes Park area, with the goal of a casual outing on Lumpy Ridge on Friday afternoon and the Petite Grepon on Saturday.


The 3 of us elected to climb Osiris (5.7) on Lumpy Ridge, but upon arriving at the base of the climb we couldn't resist the adjacent and strikingly aesthetic line, George's Tree (5.9).  It is a gorgeous splitter that beckons the trad climber's name.  The plan was to do the first 2 pitches of George's Tree and then finish with the last 3 pitches of Osiris.  The first pitch was as good as it looked from the ground.  Somehow we made the mistake of continuing straight up for the second pitch instead of traversing left from the belay.  The crack widened substantially after the 1st pitch but it looked like it went at a manageable grade.  Matt led out from the hanging belay, and I knew we were in trouble when the wide crack spit him out; although he managed to catch himself on a good foot.  Eventually he wriggled up the crack and put Jimmy and me on belay.  We were climbing as a party of 3 with just one rope, so I was short-roped to Jimmy about 20ft below him.  Jimmy struggled for quite some time in the obvious crux and eventually had to pull on gear.  Then it was my turn to flail in the crux section.  I fell onto Jimmy's harness a couple of times before pulling through the heinous off-width crux.  At the next belay we consulted the guide book to find we had just climbed the 5.10c off-width variation of George's Tree!  We all had a good laugh about it, especially because Jimmy had never been on a 10c before.  The rest of the climbing was cruiser and enjoyable and we made it back to the car by dark.  That night we met Anthony Riske in town for dinner before heading  into RMNP to camp.

Matt leading the first pitch of George's Tree 5.9

Jimmy Just above the climb's namesake tree

The heinous 5.10c off-width section is just over Matt's right shoulder

The next morning, our group of now 4 awoke predawn to get started on the 5 mile approach to the Petite Grepon.  The 2nd half of the approach still had a lot of snow on it so there was a lot of post-holing involved, making the going quite arduous.  The climbing on the South Face (5.8) was amazing.  It was on good clean rock with interesting movement and incredible views.  It also had massive belay ledges, which always makes the experience more comfortable.  We would have cruised right along, but we got stuck behind a slow party.  I don't consider myself an elite climber or a particularly fast climber, but somehow I always seem to get stuck behind slow parties.  It baffles me how some people are just so dangerously slow in the mountains at times.  Thankfully we were blessed with bluebird weather all day.  We would have been in trouble if some afternoon storms had blow through.  The rap route was a little difficult to follow, but Matthew and Anthony did a great job of finding the stations.  Hiking out was long, but I felt pretty good as I ate well all day and managed to stay hydrated.  Once back at the car, we celebrated with some Deviant Dale's on our tailgates with the "super moon" rising in the east.

Jimmy and Anthony on route (a little hard to see 'em)

Matthew and Anthony with the Summit of the Petite in the Background

Life is Good

Roping up with Ty "Life is Good" Lorenzi

 

I think about this guy all the time.  It seems so strange that he has been gone for an entire year.  Sometimes it feels like ages ago that I got that phone call.  Other times I still expect to see him, like at Thanksgiving, or more recently on a ski trip with a bunch of friends.  I kept imagining I would see him in the giant house we rented in South Lake Tahoe, enjoying an apres ski beer or soaking in the hot tub.  In the back of my mind I keep expecting to drop the East Vail Chutes again with him or go sailing again with him in some remote archipelago.  Most of the time I spent with Ty was on some adventure, and now with most new adventures he seems to be on my mind.

I guess I have come to realize that time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds, and I'm not sure I want it to.  I've also learned that I need to make everyday count and I'm inspired to live the "Life is Good" life, realizing that 1 life can impact so many people for the better.

Front Range Living

It's been pretty quiet around Boulder the past few weeks, which has been kind of nice.  Laura and I took a month off from hosting visitors (AKA the Combs B&B has had a seasonal closure).  Fittingly for our closure, it seems to be "shoulder season" between the grand adventures of the winter and the grand adventures of summer.  There probably is some spring ski-mountaineering to be had right now, but I am too unmotivated after this past ski season.
Cragging up in the canyons has been great, and I have been spending a lot of time up in Boulder Canyon.  I'm trying to get in shape for some bigger ascents this summer.  One of the highlights was climbing in Clear Creek Canyon with Jon Cardwell (a friend of a friend).  It was inspiring to watch him try his 5.14 project, so much so that I almost flashed a 5.12, which is pretty good for me.
I've also been doing a lot of cycling lately, as I am training for the Triple By-Pass in July.  I even got out on my mountain bike!
All in all, life has been pretty good on the Front Range

RMNP CONDITIONS

The hike up to Emerald Lake was beautiful.  The ranger station was reporting 38" of snow. but the trail was well packed and skis and snowshoes would have only been cumbersome.  Trekking poles, gators and sturdy boots were nice but not necessary.  Post-holing was minimal but still a concern in some areas, especially higher up the trail.  I spoke to some skiers who said the snow was, "eehhh," as it softened up nicely but there were a lot of runnels already.  The March snow-pack looks more like it did in June last year.  Below is a picture of terrain above emerald lake.  There were some ski tracks in the couloirs and it looked like OK spring skiing.

Looks like there is some snow coming through this week:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=40.3066290288676&lon=-105.66564559936523&site=bou&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=text

Ski tracks and runnels above a frozen Emerald Lake

Great Weekend in Boulder

Lowering off at Nip-Tuck

The Hiking Crew

Emerald Lake

I really love living in Boulder.  This last weekend was a perfect example of why.  I had some great fiends from Chicago come visit (friends are always coming out to visit).  Thursday we went climbing up in Boulder Canyon at Nip-Tuck.  Friday we biked to Avery Brewing Co, and then went out on Pearl St.  Saturday was a Phenomenal day.  We Hiked up to Emerald Lake in RMNP, and then went climbing at Lilly Lake on the way home.  Sunday we went to church at the Well and then got mimosas at the Boulder Cafe.  In the evening we went for a bike ride, and grilled out for dinner.