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Vedauwoo – Fall Wall
To fill out our vacation we head back for one last day at Vedauwoo, this time with my long-lost cousin Doug Blocksma. We find Fall Wall vacant, which seems surprising for a Sunday. Ann, hungry now for some more leads, sets up ropes on Easy Friction, 5.4, and Cold Fingers, 5.7. Cold Fingers is fairly…
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Arapaho Pass
After a leisurely breakfast in a national forest campsite we found in the dark last night, we drive through Eldora to the Fourth of July trailhead. From here it’s only three miles up to the divide at Arapaho Pass, a point just a little ways north of the Devil’s Thumb where the Continental Divide Trail…
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Ann leads a 5.8 in Boulder Canyon
A little sport climbing sounds appealing, so we head up to the Riviera wall in Boulder Canyon. Despite dark clouds, we enjoy climbing Chouette, 5.6, and Splash, 5.7, on beautifully smooth, featured granite before the rain starts. We have to wait out half an hour of rain, then Ann surprises me by announcing she’s in…
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Fall River Pass
We take our first drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, electing to crawl up the one-way dirt Old Fall River Road. We pass many bikes on this road, and decide that we need to come back and try this ride, especially during the fall color season. The pass is covered with Elk grazing at 11,800…
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Multipitch Climbing on the Pear
We were a little nervous about tackling the imposing multipitch climbs on Lumpy Ridge, but found one 5.7 route up “The Pear” that looked mellow enough. Our tactic of using vacation time to hit this popular area during the week worked perfectly – the Twin Owls trailhead was nearly empty. The building cloud cover posed…
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Gem Lake
Wow. There are more things to see in this 2 mile hike outside Estes Park than in many full day hikes in the Rockies. The trail climbs Lumpy ridge, passing a few of its many granite rock formations. At one bend is a boulder with a hole in it the size of a human head.…
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A Day of Battle at the Voo
After a pleasant night of camping, we mosey over to the Nautilus formation near the entrance of Vedauwoo determined to ease back into some route climbing. But sometimes climbing and ease just aren’t meant for the same sentence.
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Bouldering at Elkhorn Creek
I like this spot near Red Feather Lakes. It has solid, sharp, Vedauwoo-style granite boulders and formations in a more expansive feeling foothills setting. We did some fun problems, most too hard for us, but still quite enjoyable along with a night outdoors. We saw only one other climber, who told us there are trad…
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Shambhala Mountain Center
We were curious about this Tibetan Buddhist center, and made the hike to the Great Stupa shrine. It’s a strange place, with a few really attractive buildings, this grandiose shrine, some construction trailers, and hordes of white and green canvas tents. We were going to leave with the impression that it’s something between a retreat…
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Bouldering at the 420s
A leisurely day with some leisurely bouldering in the Poudre Canyon. Ann and I both make our fingers pink and raw, arms exhausted. There are wild berries everywhere here, and I wonder if we’ll see more bear sign, but none appears. During the night, however, there is a loud huffing outside our tent that sends…