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 1st
OFF
Tuesday, December 2nd
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 3rd
AM—3 Miles—1:47—1,600’—1st
Spyronêtte
A slow, sunrise scamper up to the summit of the 1st.
Cold rock made for cold hands.
Thursday, December 4th
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 5th
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 6th
OFF
Sunday, December 7th
AM—3.5 Miles—3:07—3,850’—1st
Spyronêtte, Sunset Flatironette, 2nd Flatiron, 1st
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:
1st Flatironette>The Spy>1st
Flatiron (North Arête)>Sunset Flatironette (Chase the Sun)>2nd
Flatiron (Free for All)>1st Flatiron (East Face North Side)
The rubber handled quite well on all routes with the
exception of the DEF of the 1st. 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’—1st
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 17th
OFF
Tuesday, November 18th
AM—8
Miles—1:14—2,000’—Treadmill
Left knee is hurting a bit.
Wednesday, November 19th
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 20th
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 21st
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 22nd
AM—3
Miles—0:26—1,000’—Treadmill
Damn knee is starting to hurt a little worse…
Sunday, November 23rd
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 10th
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 1st. Always great to see
her smiling face and have good company. The temperature dropped like a rock
during our brief run.
Tuesday, November 11th
OFF
Wednesday, November 12th
OFF
Thursday, November 13th
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 14th
OFF
Saturday, November 15th
AM—10
Miles—3:18—1,500’—4th 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 16th
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 3rd
AM—3 Miles—1:10?—1,600’—1st
Spyronêtte
Not really sure what my time was on this since I lost the
GPS track.
Tuesday, November 4th
PM—3
Miles—1:10?—1,600’—1st Spyronêtte
Not really sure what my time was on this since I lost the
GPS track.
Wednesday, November 5th
OFF
Thursday, November 6th
AM—5.5
Miles—6:30’ish—4,200’—Flatiron Quinfecta’ish
The Regency > Royal Arch > 5th Flatiron
> 4th Flatiron > 3rd Flatironette > 3rd
Flatiron > 2nd Flatiron > 1st Flatironette > The
Spy > 1st Flatiron via North Arête
Pretty mellow approach to the Quinfecta. Started off the day
heading up The Regency/Royal Arch/5th Flatiron linkup with Bill
Wright and Peter Bakwin. Peter and I parted ways with Bill and continued up the
broken 4th Flatiron. We then made our way up to the 3rd’s
East Bench via the 3rd Flatironette. After downclimbing the SW
Chimney we parted ways and I continued on toward the 2nd 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 1st 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 2nd and
made my way back to the Taco at the lower Skunk Canyon Trailhead. Pretty
dehydrated at the end of it all…
Friday, November 7th
OFF
Saturday, November 8th
PM—3
Miles—0:53—1,600’—1st 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 9th
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:
- 1st Flatironette > South Ridge
- The Spy > East Ridge
- 1st Flatiron > North Arête
- Sunset Flatiron > Chase the Sun
- 1st Flatiron > Direct East Face
- 2nd Flatiron > Freeway
- 2nd Flatiron > Free for All
- 3rd Flatiron > Standard East Face
- Royal Arch > East Face
- Ridge One > Stairway to Heaven
Weekly Totals
Miles—23
Time—15 hours 16
minutes
Elevation Gain—15,300
feet
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