Thursday, December 04, 2008

CO dreamin' ...

My last FA in the Mount Evans Wilderness Area for awhile.
September 6, 2008: Me on the FA of Bridge Builders, Mount Evans Wilderness Area. After rebuilding the bridge crossing to Area A in August, situner, SNeel, TJ, Cam, the Old Man and myself dragged ass up to Area C. This fun, tension-rich and moderate arete is located about 100 feet from The Headache. Fun for warming up, warming down or clearing your foggy oxygen-deprived head. Lots of rain my first two months in DC has put the kabosh on most of my climbing forays. I'll try again this weekend. Of course, it looks like I could be back in CO in a couple years, so enough with the drama queen weather-related bitchin'.

6 comments:

Cardboard_dog said...

Hmmm.. know just how you feel. Still missing the place. How you been? Where you been? When you coming to climb some diabase?? I have some freshy fresh for you to get your FA on .. on. or something.

chuffer said...

I have not looked at the weather, but i do have a 3-day weekend this weekend. How's your schedule?

Don't reply, I'll call!

sock hands said...

omg keep bitching about the weather if it sparks you into action so that we can see some eastcoast blokz.

!!

Jeff Struck said...

Hi Chip,

I'm writing to thank you for your incredible online guide to Flagstaff. (I would have just emailed you, but I couldn't figure out how to access your email address via your blogs). The deal is this: having grown up on the Front Range, I have been bouldering since 1990, when I was 14. So, I have been climbing around here long enough to notice the pretty radical changes that have happened. I'm always psyched and amazed at all the new activity I learn about every time I get back here. But way back when, I had the old "Front Range Bouldering" guide by Bob Horan (I believe it was his first go at a guidebook). On one hand, that guidebook introduced me to bouldering itself. On the other hand, many of the problems documented in that old book have remained mysterious to me in terms of specific beta (the oblique beta for the all the problems on The Red Wall is a supreme example). Maybe I'm a bit of a numbskull, or simply not social enough to gather beta from folks at the crags; regardless, I rely on guides to help get me to problems, whether in Colorado or elsewhere. And, like many folks, I enjoy climbing the historical lines that Gill et. al. did way back when...

I live in Portland, Oregon now, and come back to Colorado at least a couple times a year to climb and visit family. This has made it that much more challenging to remember problems and/or retain knowledgable, local climbing partners (at this point I've narrowed it down to two: my long-time homey Matt Battaglia and my old friend Ted Lanzano...damn, I need more friends!). Usually it's my wife and I looking for new stuff to climb. Like every other climber on the front range, I have a long list of projects . . . on Flag alone, there's "Just Right," Lower Monkey Traverse, "Beer Belly" . . . ah, . . . too many to list. Suffice it to say that your guide has helped me significantly in learning specific beta for problems of which I previously had only a vague awareness.

I'm in Colorado for the holidays, and have only now read up on the controversy regarding the new Horan book (a few months late..!). While I don't really care to vilify B. Horan, I do feel strongly that you deserve enormous thanks from folks like myself who've been confused about problems for many, many years!! Your online guide is a model for others, and a true labor of love I'm sure. It's absolutely NOT in vain!

Regards,
Jeff Struck

chuffer said...

Jeff - not sure you'll check back, but I wanted to thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot. I'll be back in Colorado in a couple years. Look me up in the future and we'll go out and and have a big day sometime when you're in CO.

sander said...

come on back chuffer! season is bout to begin!