August 18th, 19th, 2019

August 18th,

Woke up and drove Sam to the airport so she could catch her flight back to Cranbrook / reality. I had made plans with Jeremy, the guy I rock climbed with in Banff a few weeks ago, to meet up the next day in Denver and go rock climbing so I decided to catch up on some computer work at the nearby McDonalds.

I spent quite a few hours curating the photos from the trip and tending to my neglected blog as well as some baking etc and came up with a rough plan for my week including getting back to Canada. Jeremy said I could park my truck at the hostel he worked at and sleep there overnight so I did that.

August 19th,

I met up with Jeremy at 8 and we headed towers Boulder Canyon to do some sport climbing. It was a long drive with a lot of traffic and we didn't get there until 10. We met up with two of his friends Merle? And Joey who were coming as well.

The approach to the wall wasn't long but it was over some steep and difficult terrain which I wasn't expecting. The rock was beautiful solid quartzite similar to Lakit Lake in Cranbrook which I enjoy. Jeremy and I started by hopping on a 5.10b, Jeremy first, which we both lead no problem.

Merle and Joey started on what Jeremy insisted was a 5.9 but the rest of us thought looked harder. Joey lead the route and made it about halfway before bailing. I left our route up on top rope and they asked us to finish their route first. Upon closer inspection we determined it was actually a 5.10b/c. Jeremy and I rock paper scissored to see who lead first and I lost so up I went. I had a bit of difficulty with getting to the third bolt which was the crux but after that the rest went smooth. Jeremy lead after easily enough and Joey and Merle asked us to leave the route up so they could do it again on top rope, meanwhile they hopped on a 5.10a.

We waited for Joey to finish the 5.10a and then swapped partners to speed it up a bit. I belated Joey on top rope on the 5.10b/c and Jeremy delayed Merle on top rope on the 5.10a. When Joey finished and came down he said he was done for the day and once Merle came down she said she was as well. They packed up their belongings, said their goodbyes and headed out.

Jeremy and I were debating on trying a 5.11b or a 5.10c/d. We both agreed we might have to bail off the 5.11 and Jeremy had been to the crag before and wanted to work on the 5.10c/d so we decided to do that. He went first and flew up the beginning before coming to an impasse about halfway where a small roof below a short slab section proved difficult to overcome. I tried to help him get over but there's only so much you can say or do from the ground, especially when you haven't climbed the route yourself so I wasn't much help. To his credit Jeremy tried hard but after taking a lead fall and hurting his ankle he asked to be lowered. I tied in next and as a show of confidence Jeremy clipped his bail biner to my harness. Thanks. I started up and actually fell going from the first to second bolt because I read the route wrong and went up oddly. That would be the last time I fell though as I caught up to where Jeremy bailed. Once I was there I figured it out quickly (had to get left foot a bit higher and pivot in to a standup right knee) and I could tell Jeremy was pissed as I got it in my first try.

The rest of the climb was straightforward and I cleaned the route and came down. Once at the bottom Jeremy said he was ready to go too. I could've kept climbing but didn't want to push it so we packed up and left. On our way back to my truck we stopped and washed off a bit in the nearby creek.

Driving back was long and painful with construction and traffic slowing us down incredibly. We decided to stop at REI because I wanted to buy some new shoes and a chalk bag and the store was right next to the Broncos stadium where they were playing a game. Finally at 6 we walked out with me settling on some La Sportiva Miura Vs. I chose those because Jeremy had a 20% discount on La Sportiva he said he would give me but it only worked online. The plan was to order the same ones online to my friend in Portlands house, pick them up on my way through and return the REI ones in Washington. That way I would save the 20% and the sales tax but still have new shoes immediately. Great plan. I dropped Jeremy off at his mechanic to pick up his SUV and we agreed to meet at the hostel in a bit for some beers.

I went to McDs to send Sam some documents and headed back to the hostel and had a dinner of rice and beans. Jeremy and I met on the porch of the hostel and chilled out. The shoe discount didn't work and with the Canadian dollar value I realized it was better anyways to just buy them in Canada so I decided to return them to REI the next day. We made plans to do a multi pitch in Cold Creek Canyon the next day and went to bed.

Climbing crag

View from the crag

Jeremy hang dogging it