Too Busy Playing to Update This Old Blog—November 3rd to December 7th

Well, this is probably a new record for me—almost two months since I last updated this blog. I’ve still been getting out and doing something almost every day, but I haven’t been running as much due to persistent pain in my left knee. So, I’ve been climbing and scrambling considerably more than usual. Since the first week of November I’ve been climbing at BRC about five days per week and have been scrambling in the Flatirons almost as much. I’ll get the past two+ months of photos up here, eventually…

Week in Review: December 1-7

Monday, December 1^st

OFF

Tuesday, December 2^nd  

PM—5 Miles—2:32—2,700’—South Boulder Peak   

After driving back from Missouri all day I went straight to Stuart’s place in Eldorado Springs for an easy trip up-and-down South Boulder Peak. I always have to do something after driving all day to stretch the legs out.

Wednesday, December 3^rd  

AM—3 Miles—1:47—1,600’—1^st Spyronêtte

A slow, sunrise scamper up to the summit of the 1^st. Cold rock made for cold hands.

Thursday, December 4^th

Climbing in Eldorado Canyon with Stuart

Stuart and I decided to get together to go over some big wall climbing technique. After jumaring for a bit we decided to climb up the Bastille Crack. Great climb, but a little nippy outside. Brrrrr….We descended in darkness with the flashlights from our iPhones.

Friday, December 5^th

AM—3.5 Miles—2:19—1,900’—Lost Flatironette and Last Flatironette

An easy early morning outing with Tony Bubb and Stuart. Flatiron excursions with Tony are always great because the routes are obscure and he knows every square inch of the terrain.

PM—Climbing in Eldorado Canyon with Evan

During our morning outing Stuart got a call from Evan seeking a climbing partner for the day. He offered my belaying services. Evan and I climbed my second uber-classic Eldo route in as many days—Rewritten. This ended up being an awesome climb with great exposure and a few memorable sections, such as the hand traverse into a nice finger crack.

Saturday, December 6^th   

OFF

Sunday, December 7^th

AM—3.5 Miles—3:07—3,850’—1^st Spyronêtte, Sunset Flatironette, 2^nd Flatiron, 1^st Flatiron

I just got a newly resoled pair of scrambling shoes back from Rock and Resole here in Boulder. The rubber has slightly more aggressive lugs than a dot rubber, but still seemed like it should provide for sufficient surface contact on the rock. So, I had to test them out on these routes:

1^st Flatironette>The Spy>1^st Flatiron (North Arête)>Sunset Flatironette (Chase the Sun)>2^nd Flatiron (Free for All)>1^st Flatiron (East Face North Side)

The rubber handled quite well on all routes with the exception of the DEF of the 1^st. I slipped a couple of times within the first 10-15 feet, which made me decide to head over to the north side of the face. Overall, the rubber wasn’t too bad considering it’s made for fishing shoes…

PM—3 Miles—1:50—1,600’—1^st Spyronêtte

Easy lap in the late afternoon hours.

Weekly Totals

Miles—18

Time—11 hours 37 minutes

Elevation Gain—11,650 feet

Week in Review: November 24-30

Basically took the entire week off. I did one dinky little two-mile run on the roads of Orrick, but that’s it…Felt lazy all week…

Week in Review: November 17-23

Monday, November 17^th

OFF

Tuesday, November 18^th

AM—8 Miles—1:14—2,000’—Treadmill  

Left knee is hurting a bit.

Wednesday, November 19^th

AM—13 Miles—2:36—3,250’—Mesa Trail

Easy day on sometimes snowy and icy trails. Pretty much an even split out-and-back.

Thursday, November 20^th

AM—3 Miles—0:31—1,100’—Treadmill

Left knee still hurts…

PM—6.5 Miles—3:18—1,050’—Sourdough Trail Snowshoe

Got out for a nice late afternoon snowshoe outing with Val. We ended up finishing in the dark.

Friday, November 21^st

AM—5 Miles—0:48—2,050’—Treadmill

Left knee is still nagging me a bit…

PM—4 Miles—2:40—1,800’—SE Ridge of North Shanahan Crag

Went out with Tony Bubb and Stuart Paul to tackle the next-to-last route in Roach’s “Flatiron Classics” book for Tony. It was a snowy approach and descent, but the rock was fairly dry for the most part. There were a few nice spots with exposed moves, but overall it was a pretty mellow scramble.

Saturday, November 22^nd  

AM—3 Miles—0:26—1,000’—Treadmill

Damn knee is starting to hurt a little worse…

Sunday, November 23^rd

AM—11.5 Miles—2:40—3,000’—Green Mountain

Up via Bear Canyon and down the West Ridge/Flagstaff Road/Flagstaff Trail. Lots of icy trails today. I took a pretty good fall descending into Skunk Canyon. Ran into Wendy around Bear Canyon and Justin up on the summit. I decided to descend via the West Ridge and road to avoid the inevitable ice on Ranger. Eventually, I veered onto the Flagstaff Trail once the ice disappeared and continued down to Chautauqua.

Weekly Totals

Miles—54

Time—14 hours 16 minutes

Elevation Gain—15,250 feet

Week in Review: November 10-16

Monday, November 10^th

AM—2.5 Miles—0:56—1,600’—Flatiron Access Trail

I ran into Britt at Chautauqua and joined her for an easy day up the access trail to the top of the 1^st. Always great to see her smiling face and have good company. The temperature dropped like a rock during our brief run.

Tuesday, November 11^th

OFF

Wednesday, November 12^th

OFF

Thursday, November 13^th

PM—5.5 Miles—1:50—2,700’—Green Mountain

Up NE Ridge and down backside. This was a slow, snowy trudge to the summit.

Friday, November 14^th

OFF

Saturday, November 15^th

AM—10 Miles—3:18—1,500’—4^th of July Road and Trail

After a mile or two the snow started getting pretty deep—up to mid-calf in places. Once I reached the trailhead the snow was knee-deep most of the way. It was a pretty serene morning as the snow was hammering down.

Sunday, November 16^th

AM—7 Miles—3:44—1,300’—Lost Lake Snowshoe

First snowshoe outing of the season. Went out with Val and braved the cold, windy weather. By the time we finished both of us were pretty frozen. I was glad that I decided against heading up Audubon today.

Weekly Totals

Miles—25

Time—9 hours 49 minutes

Elevation Gain—7,100 feet

Week in Review: November 3-9

Monday, November 3^rd

AM—3 Miles—1:10?—1,600’—1^st Spyronêtte

Not really sure what my time was on this since I lost the GPS track.

Tuesday, November 4^th

PM—3 Miles—1:10?—1,600’—1^st Spyronêtte

Not really sure what my time was on this since I lost the GPS track.

Wednesday, November 5^th

OFF

Thursday, November 6^th

AM—5.5 Miles—6:30’ish—4,200’—Flatiron Quinfecta’ish

The Regency > Royal Arch > 5^th Flatiron > 4^th Flatiron > 3^rd Flatironette > 3^rd Flatiron > 2^nd Flatiron > 1^st Flatironette > The Spy > 1^st Flatiron via North Arête

Pretty mellow approach to the Quinfecta. Started off the day heading up The Regency/Royal Arch/5^th Flatiron linkup with Bill Wright and Peter Bakwin. Peter and I parted ways with Bill and continued up the broken 4^th Flatiron. We then made our way up to the 3^rd’s East Bench via the 3^rd Flatironette. After downclimbing the SW Chimney we parted ways and I continued on toward the 2^nd where I met Nicole. She was standing at the base, debating her first solo scramble in the Flatirons. I invited her to follow me up to the point where Free for All splits off from Freeway. She walked off the Freeway and came up to the West Face to join me on the summit. This was only my second time doing Free for All and I was pleased with how easy it seemed. Nicole and I then made our way down to the base of the 1^st where we eyed the Direct East Face. She didn’t seem too keen on this route today. So, I took her up via the Spyronêtte route. I parted ways with Nicole at the shortcut to the base of the 2^nd and made my way back to the Taco at the lower Skunk Canyon Trailhead. Pretty dehydrated at the end of it all…

Friday, November 7^th

OFF

Saturday, November 8^th

PM—3 Miles—0:53—1,600’—1^st Spyronêtte

Everything felt really on point tonight, especially the descent run. From the point I hit the ground after the downclimb to the trailhead took me 13:27, which surprised the hell out of me considering how busy the trails was.

Sunday, November 9^th

AM—9 Miles—5:32—6,300’—Ten Easy Climbs in a Day

I took a page out of Mark Oveson’s list in Haas’ guidebook and created my own list of ten easy climbs to do in a day using routes that I had already done before. Here’s the list that I followed:

1. 1^st Flatironette > South Ridge
2. The Spy > East Ridge
3. 1^st Flatiron > North Arête
4. Sunset Flatiron > Chase the Sun
5. 1^st Flatiron > Direct East Face
6. 2^nd Flatiron > Freeway
7. 2^nd Flatiron > Free for All
8. 3^rd Flatiron > Standard East Face
9. Royal Arch > East Face
10. Ridge One > Stairway to Heaven

When it was all said and done, this list ended up being around 7,000’ of scrambling with almost 1,000’ of downclimbing. I was quite surprised at how easy this day ended up feeling. I didn’t take any food or water with me and never really felt too thirsty or on the verge of a bonk.  I PR’ed the 1^st Flatiron downclimb (3:37) and the Freeway (8:30).

Weekly Totals

Miles—23

Time—15 hours 16 minutes

Elevation Gain—15,300 feet