HardCor Mountain Adventures: Labor Day Weekend @ Home

Usually we are out of town for a holiday weekend. In fact, I think this may be the first time at home
in about the past 10 years! Feeling like I have been so busy with things going on in this thing called life,
it was actually nice to not pack up / head out. I did get three days of climbing in though.
Here is a few pictures of what I was up to around there parts.

On Saturday we soloed a beautiful ridge in the Flatirons of Boulder called Angels Way 5.2ish
It is about 1200 feet long, exposed, and delightful. The guide book says that it is one of the best
ridges to scramble up in the whole Flatirons. It had been on our list for awhile, so Liz, Laurie, and me
headed out to see what we could find.

Awesome crack that splits the face.

The layback pitch.

On Sunday I finally made it up to RMNP to check out this sub-alpine crag called Rock of Ages.
It holds a bunch of high end trad routes that are to be superb. I got to explore this area with George Lowe.
We had a casual start since the weather was splitter, headed through the masses of people in Estes Park, and arrived at the cliff to have the whole thing to our selves! We first warmed up on a three pitch route called Days of Heaven 5.10d which we climbed in two arm blowing pitches. This route was awesome, with lots of sustained terrain, great rock quality, and a splitter crack up high. After finishing up that, we figured we better do one more 5.10a that looked equally good.
That evening we all headed over to Phil Broscovak's place to bring him some dinner. He is recovering from some major back surgery. Considering how many vert's he had fused, he was doing well, and in great spirit!

George starting up pitch 1 of Days of Heaven.

I linked pitches 2 & 3 as one super pitch.

Splitter!


George leading up Pitch 1 of the 5.10a

Last but not least, I headed up to Boulder Canyon on Monday with Lil Andy, Jackie, Laurie, and Wayne.
We went back to an area near / above Vampire rock. Last week I did the first ascent of a new route called "orange you lichen it" named after all the lichen i spent two days cleaning off the climb.
It is a pretty sustained 10+ / 11- route with good, but tricky gear placements. What a great find this was!
Wayne and Lil Andy got the 2nd/3rd ascents. Good job guys, this is a technical route, with hard to read moves. It would be a very proud onsite!

The crux start. I left a fixed stopper (at the top of this picture) to protect this area. It is a completely blind placement, and if you blew it, you may deck with out with out that little wire. . .