Spring Adventures
Mid April there was a jam packed weekend of adventures, mountain biking and climbing. The whirlwind weekend was a lot of fun, but draining on both my mental and physical energy.
Saturday, Ben and Amanda stopped down for the Boulder getaway weekend. We started the morning by climbing at the gym. I needed another tough training day so I tried a couple 5.11s and wrecked my forearms. Afterwards, we refueled at the Omelette Parlor, feasting on healthy portions of breakfast meats and waffles. Afterwards, we gathered up the gear and assaulted the pinnacle. For this climb it would be our first foray into double rope climbing. This was my first time climbing in the Cheyenne Canyon and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.
We went up the army route (5.5) of the tower while Amanda went hiking. Climbing was relatively simple, but not straightforward. Also, I was dressed for the storm that was rolling in. Ben lead the first pitch up a side crack to old eyelets. The granite was strange and fairly slick. When I f
ollowed up and reached the second pitch, I was extremely cold (only having a shear merino t-shirt on). I stole Ben’s arm warmers for the next pitch. During his pitch I got way off route. I veered left up a crumbly gully. Now realizing I had gone off route, I had no ability to place gear. I wondered up and down this chossy ledge, up-climbing and down, climbing on holds that just fell apart, while my walkie-talkie picked up chatter. Finally I made my way through a brushy ledge to a “thank god bolt”. Ben followed up through the bad ledge.
Now we were pretty exposed and shared the arm warmers. Both wearing one on our left-side because of the winds direction. Ben finished the route and I was happy because I was mentally taxed from my route variation. Ben powered through the slight overhang and bad rock to the top all while Amanda waited patiently at the car. The rock on the pinnacle varies greatly and god help you if you end up on a bad band of rock.
Sunday, B & A went running up Barr trail and I met Jimmy and Paul for a bike ride. We rode the rampart reservoir loop, which is about 13 miles of rolling hills. Rampart is always windy and helped to keep us cool. The ride was good and we found several cool things.
- Castaway shack on the north shore
- Boat dock for a picture op
- And big steel tube which the water flows through from across the divide
We rode down Williams (the overlook trail). Being the first time on my bike in a while, I took a beating. I went over the bars twice and one to the gut. My body was shot by the end of the day.
