Steve's 50th party

This was a great party! Here's a shot of me holding the guys up. (L2R - Bob Wood, me, Bob Horan, Chris Kulish). Now that I think of it, the chronology is interesting. Bob Horan and I climbed everywhere when I first came out to Colorado, Castleton Tower, Supercrack & the Titan in 2 days was a highlight for our first trip to Utah. Chris Kulish and I met because we had (past tense) the same girlfriend. Standing Rock was one of our big climbs. Bob Wood & I have done quite a bit of canyoneering as of late w/ a few first descents mixed in.

Thanks to Mia for setting it up. A few friends showed up that I haven't seen for years, namely Bob Horan & Chris. I didn't get too many pictures 'cause it was just too much fun.

A few more 50th related pics here.

Steve is 50 !!

This was my present to myself on my 50th birthday! It was a real joy to hike to Chasm Lake junction (topo) by myself. I sprung the question on Mia in the morning - "Do you mind if I take a little hike, honey? without Julia and you? Please?" How could she say no .. on my 50th?

I was well rewarded with bitter cold but blue skies. A nice winter day on Long's Peak. I hadn't been close to the Diamond since my accident over 10 years ago. Nice to hike to 11.5k and not a bad time either - for 50. Hah!

Sorry for the ugly mug shot. I'm usually much more handsome but you try holding the camera at arm's length in a 60mph wind AND trying to capture oneself AND the Diamond AND look good when your face is frozen. Well the looking good didn't happen ..

I was back in plenty time for a shower and shave before we went to Radda Trattoria for dinner - Great Italian Food!

Halloween in Jessica's neighborhood

Our neighborhood in the foothills doesn't lend itself to efficient trick or treating - so we headed out east to visit our friends the Coopers in Firestone. Jessica & Julia had a riot - see above. Tom & Karen, thanks for the invite!

A first ascent - Jacks Knob

Jacks Knob (topo, pic) was deep in northern Robber's Roost territory. A few years back, Bill had discovered it on one of his forays.

We wandered around the tower a few times, trying to pick out the best line with the least amount of "adventure" rock. That decided - Bill headed up.
At one point, he "disengaged" from the rock when a stopper blew.
He called down - Is there any way to gracefully get out of here?
I said - Let me think ... Hmmm, no, I don't think so ...
After a bit of thought, Bill excavated a stopper placement and continued.

The climb naturally broke into 3 pitches. (The picture, at left, shows Bill at the 1st belay.) The 2nd overhanging pitch was mine. Having to go free at the lip of the overhang was my excitement. Lots of "adventure" rock on the last pitch brought us to the summit, where we lingered ... enjoying the moments ... and discovering the bones flown in by raptors.

Watching the tower's shadow march across the Roost reminded us we still had to engineer our way down.

Good trip! More pics here!

Julia, try it! I'm making it with love ..

Mia was off on a girls canyoneering trip, so I was cooking dinner. Julia is pretty picky with food so I thought I'd try a different approach.

Papa: Hey Julia, You'll have to try my steak sauce. I'm making it with love!
Julia: Is it white sauce? I only love white sauce.
Papa: .. but it's made with love ..
So much for that approach .. (Actually, I think she sort of liked it a little bit.)

It's pretty amazing what she's learning at kindergarten. Julia asks how to write a word. I'll say the letters and she can write most of them. I don't know why the kids are pushed to do this in kindergarten. I didn't learn so early. In Germany, Julia's nephews Max and Florian, didn't learn writing until 1st grade.

Fall in Colorado

Here's a couple of pics from last weekend. The first is a collage of Aspens, Cottonwoods, Junipers and Pinon in the San Luis Valley.



This second picture is from the next day, driving 285 through South Park. Yah, winter's a coming.

A visit to Dad

My sister, Laura, gave me a call. She told me about Dad's kidney problems and said I need to come out. I called Dad. He didn't want me to come out in a few weeks because he might be spending time doing medical tests. In other words, he didn't want me out when he might be having trouble and needed support. He wanted me out when he was feeling good and could do stuff. That's my dad ..

I left Friday afternoon and stopped at a rest area West of Des Moines around midnight. I tossed my sleeping bag out close to the adjacent corn field. (When will I grow up? Most 49 year olds would just sleep in a hotel.) Sleep didn't come easily though. I kept dreaming someone would walk up and steal my prosthesis. That would really blow - stuck in the middle of Iowa without my leg.

Dad & Mom looked the same as last year. After a tour of the garden, Dad had rhododendrons to plant. My job was to do a bit of digging, bust up the dirt clods and mix in the mulch. I was going to help more but as I watched Dad, I realized I was watching a master gardener. He had picked a location with just the right amount of winter sun and summer sun. Planting was his joy. I didn't want to intrude too much.

We went for a walk the next day on a trail next to the Illinois & Michigan canal. This canal was a link in a water route from the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico. The trail was a hiking and bike path. The canal is canoeable also. We had a nice walk. Seeing a group of Egrets was a bonus.


The Dr. has not nailed down the kidney problem yet. I think Dad is still finding his boundaries with the problem. My appearance prompted more activity and different food than Dad was used to. By Wednesday he wasn't feeling good and the Dr. said go to the ER. Of course, Dad had to have breakfast first ... An hour later, he was getting dressed - still. Mom said he's a slow dresser .. It's good that Laura is a nurse at Silver Cross hospital. She could walk down to be with us. After testing and an increase in lasix, to reduce fluid retention, Dad was discharged.

Dad & Mom have a number of decisions ahead but Dad is stable for now. I drove back to Colorado in one 16 hour haul, including stops. I could never have done it without the U.S. history cds. It was even fun.

Here's a few more pictures of the family AND the Illinois & Michigan canal.

Cripple Creek Mining & the Molly Kathleen Mine Tour

1000 feet underground ... My body shook, my vision blurred, 5 deep, strong, hearty blasts were felt ... more than heard. What was happening? I really wanted it to be done. OK, please stop now .. When it was over - 30 seconds later, Chuck said that was NOT part of the tour. I understand why. I'm sure many would soil their trousers. In any case, mining goes on and it was closer than expected this day.

A rainy day at the Shelf Road climbing area chased us upstairs to the town of Cripple Creek (satellite view, Wikipedia)- the famous gold mining town. I've always wanted to do the Molly Kathleen mine tour and now was the time.

Chuck was a great tour guide. He still has his fingers in mining and told some great stories, like the time his light went out. He was in a crosscut between the Molly Kathleen and an adjacent mine. He crawled for 2-1/2 hours before he found light again.

The Molly Kathleen is still being mined. I had no idea. Lot's of gold still but the processing is more expensive than it used to be. Unless grandfathered in, a mine can no longer use cyanide to process their ore. Mines have to ship the ore to Canada to process. This really kills the profit of course. The mines ship the ore to Canada during the winter, when the train shipping costs are down.

Chuck was a great guide. Our group of 9 entered 2 "cars" over the shaft. Chuck said - You see the town down there? We are going 400 ft below that. This was a really good visual of our destination depth. He demonstrated operation of much of the equipment when he could and explained the rest. Julia had a great time. We'll be back again. More for me than for Julia. I've always hankered to do more than just gold pan mining.

More pics here

A September Day Around Breckenridge

This is the perfect hike for a youngster - provided you have a high clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead. This hike has lots to see in a short distance, scenery and historic value. What more could you ask? Better weather would help but the cold and rain reminded us summer was about done and skiing was coming soon!

After half a mile, one arrives at Mayflower Lake. This is surrounded by old miner's cabins. Nice spot but it gets better. About 3/4 mile, we stumbled upon the Continental Cabin which is somewhat restored and a good place to hang out in the rain. Yes, it was raining off and on. As we hiked up, we told Julia stories about the miners. Then we found a mining adit, a horizontal shaft. Interesting that there was a warning sign here to stay the heck out and stay alive. Probably a smart idea ... This really fit into the stories, of course. Even better, we found wild rasberries. Yum!

A mile from the trailhead was Lower Mohawk Lake (topo, picture) and a great lunch spot. We had hoped to get to Upper Mohawk Lake but it started raining again and it was cold. It was time to get to the Octoberfest in Breck anyway.

The German weather cleared out much of the Octoberfest crowds. This made it easier for us to get Bratwursts and a Weissbier. More room for dancing to the Austrian band too.

More pics here!

Getting together with an old friend - Al Torrisi

We haven't seen Al since we climbed at Rumney, NH last year. Good to see him and meet his wife, Deb.

Mia whipped up a great dinner. Deb and Julia hit it off when Deb decided Julia needed her nails painted. (Oh, man ..) Four bottles of wine and we woke up the next morning ready for a hike up Mt. Audubon (topo). Well, sort of. That wine plagued us a bit during the day. Good stuff. We hope to see Al & Deb again soon.

Climbing in the Black Hills with the Woods and Coopers

The featured photo shows Bob Wood climbing in the Chopping Block area of the Rushmore Needles. Typical of the beautiful scenery up there ...

The kids really enjoyed the opportunity to get together - unlike last trip when Julia was stuck w/ us for most of the time.

Night time entertainment was provided by Bob and Garett and their instruments.

More photos here! (Added to the end of the Aug Black Hills Climbing Trip)

Julia's 1st day of Kindergarten

Exciting day for Julia and us ... Here's Julia waiting for the school bus w/ Mia - maybe a bit of apprehension in her face.

Then there's the picture of Julia's face lit up and excited when she see the bus (featured to the right).

The final is Julia stepping into the bus.

Our life won't be the same ...

Wyoming's Bighorn Range - Climbing & Exploring

If I felt my job was secure until retirement, I'd want to move here. Even if I didn't .. Mia vetoed any such ideas quickly though. She needed face to face contact for her work. I work remote and need only a decent internet connection. Such is life. Maybe later...

The Bighorn Mountains are the most easterly mountain range in Wyoming. The Winds are to the West and the Tetons West of that. The Bighorns are more sedate than either but the exploration potential is huge - especially from the pure rock climbing perspective. Dolomite/ Limestone is everywhere and not just the little cliffs like Wild Iris or Sinks. It would be expensive to live here for a climber. Think of the cost of bolts for new routes ... I saw the alpine rock only from a distance - more jaw dropping terrain. And the Winds a few hours West. Damn! As I said .. maybe later.

Climbing was good in Tensleep Canyon. We checked Raven Wall and vicinity and French Cattle Ranch. Above Raven Wall is an "Indian" ice cave. Even in hot weather, you need a pullover to climb nearby. It blows cold! The 5.10s on Raven Wall + a number of new nearby routes made for a great day. French Cattle Ranch was a hike but well worth it. Good quality and long routes.

On a rest day, we drove up to Lower Medicine Lodge Lake via Hyattville. Beautiful country but it took about 2 hours on 4x4 roads. Glad it was Mia's idea. The hike around the lake was calming .. after hitting my head on the roof for 2 hours. This convinced me I need an on board compressor so I can air down the tires and air them back up after the goods. I wish I had a fishing pole and some time here but we were out of food and everyone was getting grumpy.

We drove North to Shell Canyon semi Baja style (i.e. fast) and it still took an hour to get to a paved road. (Shell Canyon could see a lot of route development on granite. Just frigging heartbreakin'. No one around to climb the stuff.) We found a nice restaurant in Shell and ate. We were lucky. It seemed to be one of two places in town and it was reservation only. They took pity on us since we were early. Wagon Wheel restaurant - good place - reserve a place on the deck if you have a chance.

On the way home, we found the "perfect" camping place. This will be the subject of a later post.

Pics are here. Enjoy!

Black Hills - Climbing, and the Harley Culture

We picked a loud time to climb in the Black Hills. It was the week before the Sturgis Harley motorcycle ralley. We saw thousands of bikes every day. The campground was filled with them and their fanatic culture - awake at dawn, cleaning their bikes before even taking their morning pee. Crazy like Islam might be to a Christian fundamentalist .. They were all nice folks though!

The good part was that all the climbers were elsewhere, the climbers familar with the ralley anyway. We had the climbing areas to ourselves. We would have been climbing all day except for the daily afternoon rain and the draw of good ice cream in Custer.

Bill Daniels and his daughter, Sara, joined us for a day so we could get a couple of decent climbing shots. Above is Bill on Hrum Hroom, a great 5.7 in Custer State Park (official site, map). Many climbs in the park are quite run-out so no sniffing at 5.7s here. We also climbed in the Rushmore Needles. See a nice climbing shot of Julia here.

At some point, we said enough and left for Tensleep Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Stay tuned.

Black Hills pics, including motorcycles, here!

Leaving Crestone .. for now

Kept looking in the mirror as I headed West on County Road T. Hard to leave. Couple of wet spots appeared on my shirt. Must be a quick cloud burst through the open window ...

We had a fantastic 6 weeks of experience here. Now it was time to hand it back to the our great renter.

Coming home to Boulder was not really like coming home. It was like coming to a different familiar place. A place where the weeds need whacking and where it seemed harder to schedule free time to exercise. In Crestone, free time meant exploring. In Boulder, it's excercise. Maybe that says it all and I just need a change. I dunno what it is .. maybe Boulder has become boring ...

Kalashnikov & Glock Security Services

I think this guy means it. We were trying to find the Promised Land climbing area (rockclimbing.com) in Nicomedes Gulch - NW of Monte Vista.

Bouldering in the Valley .. that's the San Luis Valley

We found the SLV is host to GREAT bouldering.

We found square miles of boulders at Elephant Rocks, 1st photo on left. A little searching is required to find the better rocks because Elephant Rocks is an absolute maze! I can see creating some convoluted bouldering/ orienteering/ running circuits here. Just need some time ... Location is here!

The boulders under South Eagle Rock are built of cobbles & pockets of joy. See middle photo. Christy said it's like a combination of Maple Canyon and El Rito. The bouldering is a friggin' riot. At the top of every problem, we'd be saying - Wow, that was fun! There is good bouldering for kids too, see right photo above. We found this out the scary way. Julia yelled - Mama, Papa, I'm on top. Mia & I looked at each other and said - On top of what? as we scrambled to find which boulder she was on top of. Oh man! - what have we created?!

Oh, I forgot to mention that some of the boulders under South Eagle Rock (photo, topo) are big, bigger than some sport climbs. What is really fascinating though is what I'm calling South Eagle Rock itself. [Bob D'Antonio's guide to SLV describes the boulders as being under Eagle Rock. This is incorrect, at least in the old 1994 guide that I have. Later, we found the real Eagle Rock (photo, topo)]. If South Eagle Rock is of good quality as the boulders below, it needs attention!

Click on the photo mosaic above for more pictures!

A hike up Mount Ouray

Looming about Mia & Julia is Mount Ouray (topo) - a 14'eer wannabe at 13,971'. Mount Ouray is in the Southern Sawatch range. We haven't done a peak in years. Now that Julia is getting bigger and stronger, we have a chance. Julia hiked to about 13,200'. With the clouds moving in, Christy & Dave volunteered to walk Julia down. Thanks Guys!!

More pics here!

Exploring the SE San Juan Range

We made our first foray into the Southeastern San Juan range last weekend. This area is much less traveled than the "normal" San Juans, i.e. Silverton, Lake City, Durango, Ouray, Telluride etc. It does not have the jaw dropping rugged mountain views but it does have jaw dropping pastoral mountain views and remoteness.

Starting at Antonito, we drove west thru the beautiful Conejos River Valley. Lot's of crags on the North side of the road. After Horca, we headed generally NE toward Platoro Reservoir. Along the Lake Fork of the Conejos, I had trouble staying on the road while driving. I wasn't even drinking. There was SO MUCH ROCK of different types. Even if only a fraction of it were of climbable quality, it could be a destination area. I didn't see many cracks which means it would have to be developed (bolted). Unfortunately climbers in this region are rare. More on this another time since I didn't have time to stop and hike up.

We made a nice camp at Lily Pond Lake (11,900') near Stunner Pass. While getting firewood, I let Julia find her way back to camp. While great practice, I'm very glad it was practice. :-)

We drove up to Kerr Lake the next day. We hiked around the lake while teasing the fish. No go there. We did attract two DOW officers though. There was another group close by. The officers split up and one came towards each group. I couldn't see a uniform until the last 50 feet when he opened his vest. I did NOT like this approach and was worried about our family's safety until this point. I was getting into defense postion until at last I saw his uniform. He was a nice guy, of course, after we talked. Bad way to approach though. I could see being a DOW officer ... getting out in the forest on a daily basis.

We headed towards the Stunner mining camp, past the Crater Lake trailhead and then to the infamous Summitville - where the environment mining disaster happened. The entire area is worth much more exploring. We'll be back. This was only the first foray.

I mapped the general route here.
All the pics are here.

A Crestone Independence Day Celebration

Tuesday night we had BBQ & beer at the Silver Crest Palace while listening to live music. The bar has 18 beer taps! That's right, 18 - and they're all in use. Talked to some nice folks while Julia found new friends to play with.

The morning of Independence Day, we ran the Crestone 5k race. Julia did great. It certainly helped that more new friends ran next to her. Yeah, we did a bit of walking but 3 miles is a long way for a 5 year old! (Me too ...)

More festivities later on .. live music, spiritual exhibits, etc ... could have been some food too but I forgot the wallet at home. Again Julia found her new, old friends to play with. Seems to be a common theme. It's certainly easier to find children here.

4th of July pics here!

BTW, That's Julia in the picture under 4 of the 14'eers - Challenger, Kit Carson and the two Crestones.