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Beta from Rick
Hey everyone, Fall is here, or so it would seem up at Chaos Canyon. Temps when I was up a few Thursday’s ago were crisp and the friction was good. The monsoon weather pattern that’s been haunting Front Range Climbers seems to be changing. Come up to the Park for send season. The next month…
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How to Enjoy…and Survive, Your First Mixed-Ice Climbing Experience | Part 2
[ See part 1 of this article ] Before we get into the nitty-gritty of climbing, let’s go over what options you have for tools. There are leashed and leash-less tools. Leashed tools have straps that go around you wrist. The leashes help take some of your body weight off your hands and distributes it…
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How to Enjoy…and Survive, Your First Mixed-Ice Climbing Experience
[ This article is part of a 2-part series about Mixed-Ice Climbing, by Mike Caputo ] Fall and winter are coming up soon…here is some advice for winter alpine climbing. For the past few weeks, I’ve turned to the dark side of climbing and have experienced all of the side effects of higher altitude cragging.…
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Slow and Light (ish)
That's me trimming the fat, mid expedition. Even the zipper pulls had to go. I mean, really, this isn't Boy Scout camp, after all. Fastandlight! Let’s face it – it’s sexy. When you open up that Backpacker magazine at the Dentist’s waiting room and see some youthful, vibrant Caucasian couple leaping across a flower-crested, gurgling…
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‘Al Descanso!’ Spanish for ‘Offwidth’
Max, getting all froggy on the lower crux. I learned how to crack climb in the land of the off-width: Vedauwoo. I can still remember taping up for the first time, and sinking those first painful but thrilling jams into Edward’s Crack. I still have my tape gloves that my climbing partner gave to me…
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Learning to Be
Yellowstone traffic jam. In addition to the ever-present bison, we saw herds of elk and pronghorn, a coyote, and, according to a ranger, the season's first black bear. It’s a recent and welcome development that I’m able to derive a legitimate enjoyment from things like animals, waterfalls, sunsets, and wildflowers. This progression comes on the…
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Home sweet home
Home is a slippery subject in the midcountry. Just try asking any dirtbag next time you’re at Indian Creek or Joshua Tree, “Where are you from?” Ten bucks says they stumble: “Well, uh, originally….and then…and now…” Or maybe you’re a card-carrying resident here, and you stumble yourself. In some ways, we are homeless. In many…
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Sense of Adventure
When a person loves something the way I love climbing, exploring, and being a part of the mountains, it is an impossible something to let go of. In the moment the destroyers become satisfied that I have sufficiently found myself, I will have become truly lost. [Read More]
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Trail Addiction
I am ADDICTED to backpacking, hiking, and trail running. And therein lies the premise of this blog. We – you and me – are going to build a blogging relationship based on a love for the trails and spending as much time out in the wilderness as possible. [Read More]
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The Gothic Spoon
Last winter I looked at the Spoon daily … I saw it on my way to and from work, out my bedroom window in the morning, and sometimes beneath my eyelids at night. I’m a fairly conservative backcountry skier safety-wise, so skiing it mid-winter scared me. Finally, in March – with my long-time friend and…
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The Appalachian Trail Effect
Appalachian Trail Sign As a 21-year old I thought I knew it all and could do it all, that is, until I tried to hike from Georgia to Maine. Take it from me, if you ever want to reveal your ineptitude and ignorance then consider hiking the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail. I had very little…
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Shakedown Street
Fifteen minutes down the road, all was well. Robert Earl Keen and lemon-lime Gatorade had me in a fine frame of mind, and I was cruising down the road toward certain triumph. Yet again, however, the snow was to get the better of me. [Read More]
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‘Al Descanso!’ Spanish for ‘Offwidth’
Max, getting all froggy on the lower crux. I learned how to crack climb in the land of the off-width: Vedauwoo. I can still remember taping up for the first time, and sinking those first painful but thrilling jams into Edward’s Crack. I still have my tape gloves that my climbing partner gave to me…
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“M” Possible
Maybe this time… Nineteen minutes… It has become my four-minute mile, my El Dorado, my white whale. Every time I peek through my apartment’s solitary window, I see the trail up the “M” hill that presides over the town, unmoving and unmoved. Its serenity taunts me. Someday soon, the stars will align. A light snow…
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(Re)Birth Day
A good powder lap can be rebirthing experience. Or, at least, face planting in a tree well can (struggle struggle, gasp, cry, gasp, struggle, wiggle, success!). And so I found it fitting that on my 25th birthday I would do both. [Read More]
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2010 Goals
I usually don’t set new goals for the New Year. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about goals but usually I set them throughout the year instead of when I am drinking champagne with friends. This year, however, my husband was sicker than I had ever seen him and the wind chill outside was…
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Access Point
Took us twice the time we thought it would, but the view was nice… There’s been a lot of action in Montana this week. Last time I checked in, I was about to embark on a three-day trip with Jason, a local climber who answered my online personal ad. Jason has been climbing ice around…
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After-School Special
Hyalite Canyon from the "Unnamed Wall" I got off of work at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday and met Jason at Hyalite for some afternoon laps. The sun sets between 4:30 and 5:00 these days, and we had just enough time to hike in and hang the rope before the headlamps came out. We spent the…
