We've all had somebody tell us "things will work out for the best." We appreciate the comment and move on to our next project. Usually these remarks fade into the recesses of our minds until we've bash our head against the wall long enough and come to some epiphany. I realized this during my stay in Colorado, ice climbing and rock climbing with my friends John and Deb who I met thousands of miles away over the summer on Denali's West Buttress.
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| John and I at 14k on Denali in his team's group shelter |
I had been to the summit of Denali before, but was drawn back for another go. I was hanging around 14k camp after a long trip up to 19k the day before, when I ran into the six Coloradans. The weather wasn't really epic, just enough to be....."obnoxious". With none of my original teammates and only a few days left of food, I headed home. John and his team stuck it out and topped out! Congratulations to them!
Returning home from Denali without much to show for it, is quite boring. My failure quickly turned to gas and fueled a fiery summer in the mountains. Even before flying off the glacier I knew I wanted to hang out with these people down in Colorado, a state I'd never been to.
Dozens of emails, and six months later, I was on my way! Our aim was to climb ice and ice climb, we did!
I'll go day by day, mostly with pictures and words when necessary.
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| The Offwidth above |
Day One. I arrived mid morning, the day was warm and we were stoked! John and I head up to Eldorado Canyon, onsighted an awesome two pitches. The second pitch threw all it had at us; offwidths, fist jams, finger cracks and some cool face climbing. We identified it later as Sooberb 5.8+ on the West ridge climbing area.
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| Lance |
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| Deb showing the boys how its done |
Day Three. We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park. After a long approach we found West gully in awesome shape and went to work. We got up one long cold pitch of brittle ice, enough to get our money's worth. It had been snowing all day, and would definitely add time to our already long deproach.
West gully above Black lake
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| Grace Falls |
Day Four. We made the long approach into Grace Falls. We saw it but didn't have the time or energy to finish the approach or do any climbing. We had some awesome views of Notchtop
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| Notchtop |
Day Five and Six we climbed in Vail! Pitkin falls and Pumphouse falls
John leading Pitkin Falls WI4
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| My turn to lead on Pumphouse falls WI3 |
Wow what a trip! Pretty much a dream come true for a young aspiring alpinist and a great first impression of Colorado. Out in the Cascades I've had my share of suffering and can suffer through anything, but this was finally a chance to practice all the technical ice climbing things I can usually only read about in Seattle.
All in all things "work out for the best" I didn't summit Denali this year. Instead I met some awesome people and had a great trip to Colorado.
Special thanks to Deb and John for taking me in like I was family! Can't wait until next time!
