eldoradocanyon
______________________________________________________________
there are so many places to climb in colorado it's out of your mind. even all the 'close' places haven't seen my eyes. or better yet, my eyes have not yet feasted on and my mouth hasn't drooled upon. ALL saturday [unintentionally, but sweetly] was spent climbing at eldorado canyon. i honestly had no idea how close i was living to such great climbing. driving there was nothing too exciting, just through the dry brown colored hills of the denver outskirts. then, as approaching the foothills the base of the mountains just seems to open right up and just enough for you and your vehicle to slip on inside. and then... wa-la.bam.boom.bam. you're there and it would be crazy to look back because there is so much ahead.
that day we were placing our own gear into fissures in the rock and hoping that the decision made every 8' or so was a good choice. more simply, we were traditional climbing. however, i was just following so the pressure laid very lightly on my chest. still, such a great first experience trad climbing and in the magical slippery sandstone world of eldo, i couldn't ask for much more.
______________________________________________________________
there are so many places to climb in colorado it's out of your mind. even all the 'close' places haven't seen my eyes. or better yet, my eyes have not yet feasted on and my mouth hasn't drooled upon. ALL saturday [unintentionally, but sweetly] was spent climbing at eldorado canyon. i honestly had no idea how close i was living to such great climbing. driving there was nothing too exciting, just through the dry brown colored hills of the denver outskirts. then, as approaching the foothills the base of the mountains just seems to open right up and just enough for you and your vehicle to slip on inside. and then... wa-la.bam.boom.bam. you're there and it would be crazy to look back because there is so much ahead.
that day we were placing our own gear into fissures in the rock and hoping that the decision made every 8' or so was a good choice. more simply, we were traditional climbing. however, i was just following so the pressure laid very lightly on my chest. still, such a great first experience trad climbing and in the magical slippery sandstone world of eldo, i couldn't ask for much more.
set alarms. get there early. kinda. hike to crag. climb. mind wanders into bliss. reach summit. check out view. descend. gather gear. ride home. eat lots. happy.
i like this scenario. but i forgot to throw in there that you are always meeting new people and making friends, even if you will never see them again. two sets of guys were following us on the 6 pitch climb we were getting after and one pair was climbing slightly like morons. what can you do? so we climb on, reach the top and do check out the view with a sublime sunset. the two, non moron climbing guys arrive and we all hang out. then the others follow shortly and beg us not to leave since they won't make it out with enough light to guide the way and are unfortunately headlamp less. once his partner makes it up and over he informs us that he left a piece of gear that he couldn't take out. i think this guy was a second time climber, err maybe third. so we wait some more and get to check out all the lights coming on across the city which is always cool from some 300 feet up. oh dear. we have to get down some how and suddenly its not so cool. stories of people having to often camp out up there is coming out and it makes sense if you don't know the way only marked by carins. but we set off ever so cautiously and arrive, who knows when later, injury-free. lucky us. very lucky us. no more traveling without my headlamp from here on out.
No comments:
Post a Comment