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.
