Mini Pizzas!

Hand made dough.  

Bacon from the stove top

Pepperoni from Hormel

Bell pepper from the garden

BBQ sauce from Famous Dave's

Cheese blend 

and this;

http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Herbs-and-Spices/Blends/Perfect-Pinch/Perfect-Pinch-Roasted-Garlic-Bell-Pepper-Seasoning.aspx

Delicious! 

re post.

http://www.rockandice.com/news/2192-tnb-are-climbing-blogs-getting-old

OMGNEWVIDEOFTW...

OMG! My goals have been realized in life by making it into a Bouldering vid and I am the fat kid!

Devil's Lake Bouldering - Summerness from Steve Schultz on Vimeo.

But seriously, it was actually fun and I want to go again!  Great Video Steve!

4 Sale

Want to buy new winter gear.  Must sell old!!! Make me an offer if my price is too high.

Marmot Tempo Jacket.  Used, but in great condition.  Size Medium $50

 Marmot Kingpin Jacket.  Medium. Used but in excellent condition! $150

 Marmot Stretch Man Jacket.  Used. Medium.  150.

Alpinist Magazine.  #0 through #12.  In very good condition.  $200 plus shipping.

Black Diamond Skylight Tent.  First Generation
Used for 6 years or so.  one patch repaired by BD warranty.  $200

What it stuffs down to in size.  Foot for reference is a M's size 9.

Marmot Widi 2P tent. Used once. $275

Scarpa Triolet.  Size 41.  Heavily used and loved.  $100

Mad Rock belay device.  $5

Charlet Moser/Petzl leashes.  $10

Petzl Reverso.  $5 Used

Black Diamond Blizzard Harness. Size M.  USED! $40

Patagonia Softshell. Medium.  Circa 2005.  Used $100

Marmot Vars Hoody.  Medium  $60

The North Face Elephants foot 1/2 bad.  30deg.  Used a few times. $75

Black Diamond Crossbow ski with BD O3 tele bindings.  173cm.  $150.

 Fischer RC7 NNN classic XC ski boots.  Size 41.  NEW $90

Failing upwards

Failing is just a part of climbing.  Sometimes you fail and head straight down, sometimes you fail and keep going up. Contrary to "The summit is the yardstick of success", I believe in the route, the style, the experience, not just a geographical pin on the map as success.

The other day Kevin and I headed out to attempt the Direct North Ridge on Teewinot.  This 12,000+ foot mountain in the Teton range makes up the eastern most of the Cathedral group (Grand, Owens, Teewinot) and is the closest to the car, although it is still over 6K in elevation gain.  The route follows the longest of the  right sky line for 6-7 pitches of what was described as "quality rock" in the guidebook. 

We left the car in the early am and headed for the base of the route.  After hours of hiking up a ridiculously  steep approach trail we made the base of the route at the Crooked thumb col after turning the corner of the east face via the scree coverd ledges seen in the photo below.

I lead out from the col for 60 meters on good rock up to the top of the "Grandstand".  Pitch two started in a "right facing corner" that climbed up and left, up and left.  Pitch two sucked.  Some shitty rock was found right off the deck and I hoped it would get better the higher we climbed.  We found an old bail sling and set up a belay.  Kevin was less than impressed for his first real alpine climbing experience, and I hated to give him the impression that Teton rock sucks, as there are some really quality routes in this range.

                                                   Really? this is alpine climbing???

We only had one rope with us, and the third pitch started by us talking about bailing,as loose rock is not fun to climb.  We decided to climb up to see and pitch three was actually quite fun! We found some fun corners,  with a bit of face and small slab climbing thrown in for good measure.  This one pitches was the only good 50 meters on the whole climb! 

                                          Kevin following Pitch 3.

Pitch 4 ended up being a "10 awkward" chimney according to the topo.  I though we were still lower on the face according to the topo, but it was obviously it.  I lead up the chimney and it sucked. No gear till the top and it was hard.  I hate chimneys and avoid them at all cost...should have read the route description better...

                            The lower part of pitch 4, before I had to take off my pack and head up into the chimney. 

We got the top of the chimney after hauling up both packs and grunting our way up.  The wall above was vertical and looked hard.  Not knowing 100% where to go we decided to try right as the line on the topo trends slightly right and over a small roof, which was above.  I gave the first two attempts and could't find a way through..wtf?!?!  This is only to be a 5.8 route!  On my third go a foot chip broke off and I slammed my foot into the wall, which really hurt, shoved in another cam and lowerd back to the belay. Kevin then gave it one attempt, couldn't see the moves either, decided to pull the gear and down climb back to the ledge.  

                                                    Kevin on the face for attempt #4.

We decided to bail back down to the large ledge level with the base of the chimney pitch and traverse it west onto the north face proper. We slung a large horn and rapped to the ledge.  We ended up traversing this ledge onto the north face for about 100 meters and ended up climbing into some really shitty rock.  Probably the most junk rock I have seen in the Tetons. 

After the traverse ledge I lead up, then back left on super broken rock with lots of rope drag.  After I couldn't pull the rope any more, I set up our last belay on the route and brought Kevin up onto our deteriorating belay ledge made of two cams into some cracks in a boulder stuck to the side of the mountain.  One last 30 meters and we were back into the sun on the top of the mountain vowing never to venture out onto that face again! 

                                         On the top.  

Failing upwards.  Yup, we didn't finish the route we started out to climb.  We decided it would be "easier" to climb to the top via a different unknown path than rappel with one 60 meter rope.  Making at least 8 rappels, each being 30 meters would have eaten up the rack and our time. Now knowing what I know about the dangerious climbing above, I am not sure yet if I would have just gone down or still made the traverse out right.  

Sometimes there is something to learn by still climbing up. 

Sometimes there is something to learn not to bail. 

Hardest Road Ride Ever

Mt. Evans.  The Highest paved road in the 48, and quite a shit road at that for riding fast downhill I might add. Matt and I left Denver early to get a start before the traffic of the day and to beat any potential storms in the afternoon.  I dropped off Matt a few miles up the road from the town of Idaho Springs.  I then drove to the gate to start my 14.5 mile journey, his 25 mile journey.  The gate is at 10,750 feet, the summit is at 14,130 (on the road, actual 14,240).  Matt started below 8,000 feet.

The ride took me 2.5 hours to complete, gaining 3,500 feet along the way.  My phone died on the summit before I could get a pic, but here is Matt and I on the way back down.   This was taken back at "Summit Lake" where it was a bit warmer than the top.  We were both shivering on top and the way back down.  We were told it was in the low 40's and a windchill of 23...burr!

A cool chart taken from; http://www.mountevans.com/MountEvansCom/Mount-Evans-Things-Bicycling.HTML

Miles (Grade)	Elevation	Gain		Miles (Grade)	Elevation	Gain
0 (Idaho Springs)	7,586			0 (Entrance Station)	10,750
1  (1.4%)	7,661	75		1 (5.0%)	11,016	266
2 (2,3%)	7,784	123		2 (5.6%)	11,311	295
3 (2.9%)	7,940	156		3 (6.1%)	11,631	320
4 (4.4%)	8,173	233		4 (5.6%)	11,926	295
5 (6.1%)	8,496	323		5 (5.8%)	12,231	305
6 (6.1%)	8,819	323		6 (4.8%)	12,486	255
7 (2.1%)	8,934	115		7 (3.1%)	12,650	164
8 (6.3%)	9,264	330		8 (3.9%)	12,858	206
9 (5.4%)	9,548	284		9 (1.2%)	12,920	62
10 (5.2%)	9,821	273		10 (2.4%)	13,045	125
11 (5.5%)	10,138	317		11 (3.7%)	13,242	197
12 (5.4%)	10,424	286		12 (3.9%)	13,447	205
13 (4.8%)	10,680	256		13 (5.2%)	13,722	275
				14 (5.1%)	13,991	269
Entrance (13,35)	10,750	70		Summit (14,65)	14,127	136

My Map My Ride to when my phone died on top.  I think the Calories burned are just a bit off though...Thinking close to 2,500.

Matt is an animal!  He passed me at my mile #9 and had almost the same overall time that I did for our respective trips.  DAMN!  

Never rode my bike to 14,000 feet before is it was quite fun feeling my lungs exploding at mile #10 and the cold wind in my face at the summit switchbacks mile 12-14.  I will have to do this ride again! just not the downhill, that really sucked.

Overall this has been a good training week in Colorado.  Three road rides, an 11 trail run around Lumpy Ridge, an alpine climb attempt on the Saber in RMNP, some dog walking and some SUP on Lake Estes.  And tomorrow...if the weather holds...The Diamond!  F'yeah!

Life to the Max video

Last March the Life to the Max crew came north and shot some video of Matt G and myself for their program.  It was interesting, as I have never been filmed for anything before and turned out good for their audience.  

Fun ride down the hill

Today I cheated.  I got a ride from town up and over the pass to bike back down the hill.  Fabrizio and Nina dropped me off at 12,000 feet in the light rain.  Nina snapped a fer pics of me biking back down the hill to the house 25 miles later.  Wednesday Matt will come up from Denver and we will bike up this time.

Trail running

1/2 way through our 14 mile trail run in 90 degree heat last weekend.  Getting ready for the Birthday Challenge!

New BD cams

I cannot wait for these awesome little new toys!  6 new Double axle cams from BD called the X4 (just not stoked on the name..."Predator" would have been cool, like I wanted the Fusion tool to be called the Diamondback to keep in the snake theme...)

The three larger cams, the .75, .5 & .4 have Kevlar trigger wires and 2 obvious axles.  The three smaller sizes, have an internal new double axle design to achieve the larger range that BD is known for and have medal trigger wires.  They are color coded in the same scheme that the C4's and C3 have and are all extremely flexible.  I put them up against C4s and they are much narrower and way more flexible.  The stem also has a new swaging process to keep the cam straight when you pull the trigger, which was super nice for a flexible single stem cam like this. 

Not 100% positive on all the details yet as I have a poor memory, but until we all get to place our first one, enjoy the porn.