All Mixed Up

All Mixed Up is the obvious line angling up and left out of the cirque. Conditions were not nearly so fat on Sunday.

Saturday night it seemed that all motivation was lacking for an alpine adventure the following morning, but somehow Josh and I rallied in the morning and headed up to Glacier Gorge in the park to get on All Mixed Up (600', III, WI4 M4 R). This is one of the most classic moderate ice routes in RMNP and it follows an obvious line out of the cirque on the NE face of Thatchtop. After a fair slog we discovered, not to our suprise, a party ahead of us. To avoid the icy debris cascading down from the other party we chose a route slightly to the right for the inital pitches. All Mixed Up is currently quite lean and our chosen line made the ice even more sparse, but no matter, we were excited to try a little mixed climbing. In the end our climb proved to be a bit more difficult than expectations, but the challenge was good for both of us.

November Madness

I haven't posted about the last few weeks yet because they were kind of overwhelming! Honestly I am still recovering!

Three weeks ago today, Jake arrived in Boulder for some Pre-Thanksgiving shenanigans. For a week we laughed, played cards, climbed, told jokes, danced, chased elk, smiled, drank, swapped stories and so on. Then we went to Vegas. There Garrett and Graham joined the party. We promptly headed for the desert and aided by a couple small pieces of fiberboard were able to drive the loop backwards, camp for free and be the first ones on our routes in the morning. On Saturday Graham and Garrett did Black Orpheus (1500’, III, 5.9+) while Jake and I climbed the parallel line of Johnny Vegas (500’, II, 5.7) to Solar Slab (1500’, III, 5.7) and we all met at the top before noon and navigated the walk off as four. Later that evening, we went into town to meet up with Lou, Jaz and Pete. Jake and I loose in Las Vegas may not be the best of ideas, but we didn't get into too much trouble. Actually, we each won a hundred bucks on the Beavers and quite a bit more at the tables. Jake was feeling lucky enough; he even bought some elf shoes. I have to admit that Vegas really gets on my nerves with the totally overt sexploitation of women and the fake glam aimed straight at your wallet.

Sunday wasn't the most motivated of mornings, but we did manage to clip a few bolts. Later in the day we had an some amusing moments when first the rental car got high centered (I think I will pay for the insurance from now on) and later the six of us realized that we only had two ropes and we were all planning to do long climbs the next day. Luckily Mikey lives in Vegas and loaned us a rope. Graham was nice enough to do the driving.

In the morning, Graham and I set out for Epinephrine (1600’, IV, 5.9). What an awesome climb! We were behind a slow party to begin with, but they were nice enough to let us pass in the chimneys and once free we blasted to the top. The exposure was awesome and we were looking way down the sweep of the Black Velvet wall to parties six pitches up and still way below us. We saw the sun for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes of sunset when we topped out, other than that we were on the shady north face. We made it back to the car just before headlamp time.

The final highlight of Vegas was seeing Cirque du Soleil. We saw the Ka show at the MGM grand which was awesome! This one has a bit more of a plot than the others and the coolest stage ever. Highly recommended.

But wait, I’m not done yet. The next morning Jake, Lou, Jaz and I loaded up into the Jetta and returned to Boulder. Here we found Al, Josh, Ashley, Bro, and Mel and proceeded to have an impromptu ‘80s dance party while celebrating Wild Turkey Wednesday (lots of gobbling and said bourbon). The next day we all pitched in and made a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. The dinner was somewhat complicated by the fact that we weighed ourselves before and after dinner. This turned out to be a really bad idea. I gained 5.5 pounds in three hours and didn’t even come close to winning. The rest of the weekend was spent on the usual combination of Boulder activities. We laughed, played cards, climbed, told jokes, danced, chased elk, smiled, drank, and swapped stories until the California crew had to hit the road.

This definitely ranks as one of the most fun and exhausting Thanksgivings ever.

Corey belays me through the crux on the third pitch of the classic Green Slab Direct. It is really quite nice to have such awesome climbing 15 min from home.

Great Read!

Really cool article on measuring glacial recession from space. Make sure you get past the findings to how the study was conducted, pretty amazing!

New friends searching for motivation after a rambunctious Saturday night.


Bro on rap at Shelf Road.

It is so nice to have a great desert crag nearby in the fall. This was my first trip to Shelf Road and I was quite impressed by the quality and quantity of routes. Corey and I met up with a dozen other folks we didn't know and proceeded to have a blast getting to know everyone and pulling down hard. Saturday night we told some good ones around the campfire and polished off a couple bottles of Makers. Sunday, everyone was surprisingly able to climb, although motivation may have waned a bit from the previous day.

Fall Weekend in Oregon

The Fall colors were beautiful and I truly miss the ocean living in Colorado.

We all know who taught me the J-stroke.

Bean also knows what to do when you put a paddle in her hands.

They sure look like they love each other.

Ian and Colleen know that making apple cider is one of the better ways to spend a Fall Sunday.

Now this is a good ad!

Now this is a good political ad. A true sign of the times and exactly what I want all of Appalachia hearing on the way to work in the morning. Obama is running a rock solid campaign with a message that is spot on.

City of Rocks

I took the week of Labor day off to do some climbing in Wyoming's Wind River Range with Dane. Saturday was spent loading up a ton of food, climbing gear and base camp luxury for our extended wilderness climbing. On Sunday, we shouldered our very heavy packs for a hike up over the continental divide to the Cirque of the Towers. We settled into a nice alpine meadow and scanned the guidebook and peaks in anticipation of a eight days worth of awesome granite cracks in a beautiful alpine environment. Monday morning we awoke to a blizzard and 4" of snow. Reluctantly we shouldered our heavy packs and retreated to the truck in total sneaker post-hole misery.


Warbonnet in a cloak of not-so-beautiful-to-the-climber snow.

Next stop: City of Rocks. It was sunny. We ate well, climbed hard and drank beer. I had never been before and my expectations were far exceeded. I will definitely be living here for a good bit when I quit my job and live out of my truck.


The oh, so pleasantness of City of Rocks

While paying for camping at the city I was idly reading the message board when I came across a hastily scrawled note that read, "Looking for a partner. I climb 11s sport/trad. In campsite 44. Look for the silver Porsche. - darrell." I asked Dane how many Darrells there are that climb 11s and drive Porsches down 40 miles of gravel road to City of Rocks. "One." We didn't manage to find him for a couple of days because he had vacated site 44 for some free BLM camping, but find him we did.


Darrell captured this way-more-extreme-looking-than-it-really-was photo of me on Z-crack.

Top Ten Palin Nicknames

Sarah Palin has accumulated quite a few monikers over recent weeks. I have scoured the web and gotten a little creative myself to come up with my ten favorites. I offer these with the caveat that I know calling people names is not nice, some are offensive, but when nicknames enter the public consciousness they can reveal a politician for who they are (think "Tricky Dick").

10. Sarah Quaylin
9. Wicked Witch of Wasilla
8. Dickless Cheney
7. Falin' Palin
6. Snowjob Squareglasses
5. Gov. Mooselini
4. The Paliban
3. The Drilla' from Wasilla
2. Caribou Barbie
1. The Alaska Disasta'

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet check out the Sarah Palin baby namer.

Best Ad Ever!

Those of you not in Colorado may not see quite as many of these as I do. We are getting positively slammed with campaigning from both parties right now. I have never lived in a swing state on an election year before. All those dollars you gave the Obama campaign are hard at work here. Many polls show Colorado as the current tipping point, which is really scary in this historically red state.

Vote, give money, phone bank, canvass, whatever you can do to help!

Matt Damon on Sarah Palin

Happy 72nd Birthday John McSame

He sure does like those beauty queens. But seriously, Sarah Palin? Who goes from mayor of a pop. 7,000 town in Alaska to VP of the US in less than two years? She makes Obama look experienced like Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy. Her Credentials are a BA from Idaho State, Miss Congeniality in a Wasilla, AK beauty pageant, mother of five, a few years as mayor of a town 2% the size of Obama's Illinois Congressional district and less than two years as Governor of Alaska. In those two years she has managed to start a scandal by using her office to fire an Alaska State Trooper that happened to be her sister's ex. When that didn't work, she fired his boss. Perfect fit for the Republicans.

She definitely fits the bill as a Washington outsider, but does McSame really think that Hillary supporters will vote for her just because she is a woman? Last time I checked, Hillary and her supporters were pro-choice. Certainly not many will be wooed by a pro-life ultra conservative christian just because she wears a pantsuit. Even the PUMA crowd has to see right through this one. This blatant pandering is an insult to the intelligence of all women.

The Republican presidential nominee is now 72 years old with a history of deadly skin cancer. He then hires Miss Congeniality with zero foreign policy experience to be just a heartbeat away from Commander in Chief. This shows us the type of judgment we can expect from John McCain. It won't work.

The Biden - Palin debate should be interesting...

I was about ready to post this when I got this crazy flash forward from a parallel universe where McCain/Palin win this election. History is made when John McCain dies of a heart attack while adulterously boning his vice-president making her Commander in Chief.

WOW!

Last night at Mile High was AMAZING! The energy of the place was fantastic and it truly felt like we were part of history being made. We arrived around 3pm to find a mile long line at the South entrance, so we embarked on a circuitous hike around to the East side where there were no lines and we just walked right in. Some people waited on the South side for four hours. Udall (CO Rep. running for Senate), Richardson and Gore were some of my favorite speakers early on. They all had some great zings for McSame. Seeing/hearing Stevie Wonder sing Signed, Sealed and Delivered was super cool as well. I'm sure you all watched Obama give his speech last night so I don't have to tell you how incredible it was. One thing that most folks aren't aware of is that he wrote the speech himself. I think that is so impressive in today's world of speech writing teams and campaign coordinators. All told, my hands and throat are sore from so much clapping and cheering, but I am "Fired Up, Ready To Go!"

After we made it out of there last night we picked up Dane at the airport. He and I are off to the Wind River mountains of Wyoming for the next week for some alpine climbing in the Cirque of the Towers. Awesome granite here I come!

Obama/Biden - 2008!

I Got Tickets!

Looks like Mel and I will be going to Obama's acceptance speech on the 28th. Unless of course we are tempted by the hundreds of dollars folks are offering on Craig's List.

Summer in the High Country

Me on the third class section of Ellingwood Ledges.

Josh and I were both able to get Friday off so Thursday night we headed down South to the Sangre de Cristo range for some backcountry alpine climbing. We bounced our way up a bumpy 4WD road for a few miles to reach the trailhead followed by a headlamp approach to Upper Colony Lake. In the morning we were up at first light and roped up for the Ellingwood Ledges route on Crestone Needle (III 5.7, 2000'). This is one of the 50 crowded climbs in North America which we observed firsthand with four other parties on route, on a Friday no less. The climbing was fun on a bomber welded conglomerate and we moved quickly staying ahead of the other groups. Josh put in a great lead up the crux pitch in a right facing dihedral just below the summit.


Ellingwood Ledges route with Upper Colony Lake in the foreground.

From the top of Crestone Needle we headed to nearby Crestone Peak. This is one of the classic fourth class 14er traverses in Colorado. We opted to down climb the Needle instead of rappelling. this was a bit exposed with challenging route finding, but it went off without a hitch. The down climbing completed it was another fun scramble up more conglomerate to the summit of the Peak. We descended the Peak via the NE Couloir to Bear's Playground just as the skies opened up. By the time we made our tent we were soaked to the bone.


Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep that liked the salt in Josh's pee.

Saturday we intended to climb the Prow on Kit Carson but were feeling a lack of motivation so instead opted for a leisurely hike up Humboldt Peak. The highlight of this fun grassy ridge was all the baby animals. We saw lots of baby marmots, pikas and some baby ptarmigan. On the way down I took a slight detour to do a wonderful mile long ridge traverse to recover some gear we had cached the day before in anticipation of our Kit Carson climb. Josh had a nice warm lunch ready for me when I made it back to camp and we spent the afternoon swimming in the lake, bouldering, napping, eating, playing with sheep, and generally having a great time. Somehow the rain showers avoided us for the majority of the afternoon.

First Raft Descent of the Big South Fork of the Cache de la Poudre

Adrian Matthew Glasenapp put together this series photo of Sean and I on Double Trouble. Thanks Adrian!

Sunday morning I picked up Sean Davis nice and early for a mission to the headwaters of the Poudre. To the best of our collective knowledge, this Colorado kayaking classic had never been rafted. The Big South is an absolutely beautiful creek with steep 200 fpm gradients and tons of III and IV between the numerous class V drops. We put on early to allow ample time for our exploratory descent, but were soon caught up by the 50 or so kayakers that ventured down Big South that day. We had unwitting chosen the busiest day of the year on Big South. The extra encouragement, beta and safety from the numerous kayakers was most appreciated.

All told we had a pretty great day. We missed a line in one of the first drops, Starter Fluid, and I swam a short waterfall. Then we had to carry or line the boat a few times in the first gorge because the slots were just too narrow for our wide selves. At this point we were feeling like rafting Big South may not have been the best idea. Things turned in our favor really quick with Prime Time gorge and Double Trouble. This section was awesome and our lines were spot on. We arrived at Double Trouble just as Leif Embertson and crew finished pulling a log out of the line. It took a little convincing to get Sean on board, but we hit it perfect and had a great line. We had quite the gallery of carnagavoirs expecting to see some swimmers, but I believe they were equally entertained by our clean line.

Slideways is the final big rapid on the run. Here the creek plunges through a quarter mile of boulder choked class V+. The raft crux here is a boof between two boulders on the right, but before we even got there we got bounced left and completely missed our line. The left is extremely nasty and flipped us instantly. Fortunately neither of us had a bad swim. The remainder of the day was uneventful albeit a bit slow due to some wood, around which we were quite careful.

Another highlight of the day came when I was running shuttle. I saw two moose. I previously had no clue that there are moose in Colorado, so needless to say I was quite shocked when I rounded the corner and there were two of the gangly big nosed creatures standing in an alpine meadow.


Leif Embertson got this pic of Sean Davis and I cleaning Double Trouble. I know my position looks funny, but it is an anticipatory highside.

Maroon Bells

The classic picture of the Maroon Bells from Maroon Lake.


Josh making photogenic turns in the Y couloir. Crater lake, where we set basecamp, is the close one.


Josh fixed this one up to show our route. He also has a really cool video of me skiing on his blog that I couldn't steal. Hit the link in the right panel for more pics. From the top of the Y couloir I actually skied the sick cliffed out line skiers right of the route shown.

Last weekend, Josh and I escaped on Thursday to head out to the Maroon Peaks near Aspen. After sleeping in until 4 Friday morning and much dirking around (mostly my fault) we finally managed to climb Maroon Peak via the Bell Cord couloir. We then had a sweet ski down the Y couloir after carrying our skis over the top. It was a long day, but one of the most fun I have had in the mountains in quite some time. It was neat climbing in a simply beautiful setting. Friday night we ate and drank as much as possible before passing out under the stars in a lush meadow right on the shore of the lake. When we woke up Saturday morning we didn't even attempt to climb Pyramid Peak per the original plan. We were too whooped, so we just soaked up the view until the tourist-day-hikers came in.

Hoosier State Swing?

A new SurveyUSA poll came out today with results from Indiana (11 EC votes). They showed Obama leading McCain 48 - 47 percent among 627 likely Hoosier voters. While this is a statistical tie it is still an amazing result from a state that went Bush by more than 20 points in '04.

In conjunction with the Quinnipiac poll released last week this is good news for Obama. Quinnipiac University polls are historically the most accurate of the major pollsters. The most recent release shows Obama leading McCain in all three of the big swing states. In Florida Obama edges McCain 47 - 43 percent, in Ohio Obama tops McCain 48 - 42 percent, and in Pennsylvania Obama leads McCain 52 - 40 percent.

Water on Mars!

It has been confirmed, there is ice on Mars. When the Phoenix first landed, any old Joe could look at the photos and say "That sure does look a lot like ice." But then no water showed up in the soil when it was baked in the oven. It seems that it took so long to get the soil in there that any ice had sublimated. Now, bright chunks of material that were excavated by the robotic arm four days ago have disappeared! The only explanation that I or anyone else can think of is that they were chunks of ice that sublimated.

Also on the topic of water, we launched the Jason II satellite this morning aboard a Delta II. Jason monitors ocean surface levels around the globe to the nearest inch. This is an amazing instrument for updating ocean current models and tidal data in addition to answering the obvious question.

Business Trip

This series is me running the meat of Boulder Drop on the Skykomish at 8,000

Buried in the hole next to House Rock


Keith vs. Ledge Hole


About this time I thought I was going swimming...


To be included in highsideing 101 instruction manual

I have been in Seattle for the past week testing rocket engines. We use a small maneuvering thruster to steer the upper stage and the mission I am working on requires additional lab analysis. The work has been interesting and I am learning a ton about a side of the business I have not yet seen. It is really cool stuff. The highlight of the trip has been seeing friends and family.

I got a chance to go down and see Bill and my Mom in Portland. Pa was 24 hours post-op after having his prostate removed and now appears to be a cancer survivor. This has been really stressful for me and I am so relieved to hear the good news. Wednesday night he was recovering well and hadn't lost his humor or the twinkle in his eyes, so I think he will be just fine.

Thursday night, I had a wonderful dinner downtown with my aunt Nancy, uncle Mike and two cousins Evelyn and Rachel. I haven't seen them in such a long time and the girls have really grown up. They are both so articulate and are growing up to be fabulous young ladies.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Hower, Kelly and Jason's three week old son. He is a real cutie and I even held him for a few minutes without being too awkward. I don't have the cable to get those pictures off my camera just yet, but they will be coming. The conversation is always so good and it seems that we just pick up like no time has passed.

Saturday morning I took Mel's rolly luggage and went rafting. I met Franz and Aaron on the Middle Fork and they offered to take me boating while I was out here. I took them up on their offer and made three runs in three different cats over the course of two days. Sunday, Franz and I decided to step up and run Boulder Drop down the gut. That was some big water but neither of us swam, but I did get worked by Ledge Hole.

One final note, the rental car company decided to bestow upon me a 2008 cherry red Ford Mustang. Amazingly enough, I have managed to drive this thing for a full week without a speeding ticket. It's not my style at all, but still kind of fun.

I think this NASA image of Phoenix coming in for a landing on Mars is really cool. That is the lander hanging from it's parachutes in the inset. The photo was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is an amazing mission and it got so much cooler with the excavation of what appears to be ice when Phoenix landed.

Middle Fork Salmon

Beautiful Frank Church Wilderness from a hill above Sheep Creek camp.


Camping out on the way to the put-in


Me and my extra-cute girlfriend


The whole crew happy to be out of harm's way

The Middle Fork at 6' was a bit more intense than any of us anticipated. Overall, we were a bit outside of our comfort zone with only a two boat trip. Luckily there were numerous other parties also feeling a bit taxed and they were more than happy at the suggestion to team up and go for some safety in numbers. The only problem was the other groups were having a more difficult time on a whole than we were. Granted, we flipped both of our boats during the course of the trip, but other groups were getting stuck on logs, wrapping boats, flipping numerous times, getting stuck under their boats, sustaining injury and flying out of the canyon. There was a fair bit of carnage, but it really seemed to up the camradery between the various parties on the river.

Oh, the Middle Fork is awesome! 120 miles of wilderness boating through an incredible canyon with lots of hot springs. I can't wait to do this trip again. The sooner the better. Maybe next time I will go a bit later in the season with slightly lower water and a bit more sunshine.

Audubon

A couple of weeks ago Josh, Andy and I went into the Inidan Peaks wilderness to ski a couloir on Audubon. It was quite a fun day and Andy took some pics that are worth sharing.

Finally France

Stall at the beautiful famer's market in Annecy.


Sausage is way better in France!


Flower shop in Annecy.




Volnay from WWI and WWII era! Anyone want to guess a price?


Ready to be bottled in the coolest wine cellar ever.


Can't leave France without a picture of a bicycle leaning agains a wall.

I have been back from France for a couple of weeks and still no blog post. My apologies. I do finally have my photos up at http://picasaweb.google.com/pearen/France

France was great! Having a car was key to a successful trip. Maybe not quite as good as two months and a bike with panniers, but driving all the back roads through tiny towns was definitely a highlight of the trip. Becca and I started by heading down to Montpellier where she has been studying for the past year. On the way we stopped by the Roquefort cheese caves for a pretty cheesy tour. After a day checking out Montpellier and visiting the market we were off again to the Alps. This ended up being quite a long day in the car, mostly because it was so beautiful and we kept wanting to check out new stuff.

In the Alps we had a small chalet reserved for 6 nights. It served as a perfect base for relaxing, hiking, eating cheese and exploring the surrounding villages. We were in the small town of Combloux down the valley from Chamonix. One of our most impressive side trips was to Annecy. This small city had a fabulous market and was right on the outlet of a beautiful glacial lake with crystal clear streams running right through town. I don't say this often while travelling, but I actually think I could live in this area.

After leaving the Alps with sore bellies from all the cheese, we moved onto wine country. We started with wonderful Pinot and Chardonnay on the Cote d' Or in Burgogna. We had quite a fun day checking out wine cellars and tasting tons of wines. Every vintner has a couple of acres of grapes and there are literally hundreds of small family operations in about a 50km strip of hillside. Most make amazing wine. After a night in a wonderful small town bead and breakfast, we decided to get closer to Paris and check out Champagna. Again, we found tons of little family wineries making incredible bubbly wine. I ended up bringing a few bottles back.