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Out with a roar
Ann and I begin what we imagine will probably be our last day at Vedauwoo for the season in lower Blair, where Ann leads “Awakening to Fat Mosquitoes 5.7”, a short, stout-looking offwidth flake to double-hand crack. Ann plugs in all our biggest gear, belaying me at the top with our lone big bro. This…
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One last group session at Blair
We’re happy to see Sean, then Mark and Kate show up with Doug and Liz in the morning at our campsite in upper Blair. Fall is just arriving here, a few yellow aspen leaves flutter in cool breezes, and the morning light comes later every day. Despite all the time we’ve spent here recently, we’ll…
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Movie: Wordplay (2006)
A gloriously nerdy collection of oddballs, eccentrics, and a former US president pay tribute to Will Shortz’ puzzles and annual crossword puzzle tournament. I found myself itching to do some crosswords afterward, and when I finally got around to it I felt like I was better at it! Not good enough to inspire thoughts of…
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Vedauwoo Moose & Sport Climbs
Cousin Doug & Liz join us for our habitual Vedauwoo weekend, and are treated to our closest-yet encounter with a Vedauwoo Moose. We’re having a leisurely morning in camp when a crashing comes from the aspen above us. Liz and I both see the shape of a horse and rider in the trees, and don’t…
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Movie: The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
It was interesting to discover after watching this that it’s a remake of a 1968 film – just when the James Bond phenomenon was getting imitated. Having a Bond-like super-playboy face off against a female super-sleuth that is (almost) his match was probably very provocative. The modern version does a little satirizing of these stereotypes…
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Surprise, a sport crag
We head to Beehive Buttress, near Brown’s Landing, looking for an obscure bolted multipitch route and maybe some nice cracks. Once again there are too many trees to get the camper to the end of the road, but the hike is still nice, and mushrooms are popping up everywhere in the moist pine needle duff.…
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Book: I am a Strange Loop / Douglas Hofstadter
My dad, without knowing I had this book on my wish list, gave it to me as a birthday present this year. During the past year and a half I’ve undergone a mental revolution reading about the foundations of mathematics and how they relate to my own consciousness. Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem has been a recurring…
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Rain and Bliss
The day begins and ends at the pace of bliss, nothing rushed, everything flowing. We live too few days at this pace, I think. Few enough to forget that such days rarely play out according to a conscious plan. We take a meandering hike with heavy packs to Lower Blair to do some climbs, but…
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We Discover Our Own Blair Crag
We’re hiking cross-country to lower Blair when Ann looks over a particularly large boulder and says, “Ooh, that’s a nice looking face.” I look it over and reply, “Look behind the tree – a big fat crack!” We hike over and decide to rig a toprope on it. The tree provides shade, and the crack…
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I don’t know the size of my own backside
We know that the Friday night before the Labor Day weekend is not the ideal time to go looking for a campsite in Vedauwoo, but we figure we know the options well enough by now to pull it off. That turns out to be true, but what I don’t have is a feel for just…