Nathan high on the south gateway rock
Nathan, Tyler and Bobby (Nathan’s friend) were doing their cross-country road trip and were able to spend several days in Colorado. They spent the beginning of the week up in Boulder with all the nice weather while hanging out with Tattoo Artists in Sushi restaurants. They ended up getting to Colorado Springs on Friday just as the first bad weather of the year began in full force.
When I got out of work a bit early, we ran some errands (getting contacts, mail, and a Chinese lunch). After eating, we went to Garden of the Gods for some picturesque and fun climbs. I put up the first standard route on the Red Twin. This got everyone good and warmed up. Tyler and Na answer all types of questions from the gawking tourist. (IE: How does the rope get up there, do you get scared, etc). Tyler went first and wormed his way almost to the top. Bobby was next and this was his very first time climbing, he was able to yoga move his way to the top. It was a pretty awesome summit for a first time climber. Nathan hauled up the climb quickly and tore down the anchors. He did some stylish rappelling moves too.
The Garden started to get heavily clouded so we escaped over to a protected area and climbed a fun 5.9. Everyone had some fun pulling moves in this cracked corner. We all got some sweet stylish photoshots too, from jug hauls to mono pocket slide pulls.
After this, the rain had moved through so we finished up the climbing at the 3 Graces. To set up the top rope of a 5.10 climb, me and Nathan had to do an airy and scary unprotected 5.2 ridge traverse to the top. The top rope was pretty terrible but it had a couple neat moves. Tyler did some type of crazy foot hand, frog match in this pod and Nathan with his gorilla strength blew up a couple holds.
Afterwards, everyone was pretty tired except Tyler who stayed up and watched “Tango and Cash” all night.
