Vertical Edition: Mar 7, 2011

That just sounds badass doesn't it? Well I think so. The origins of this story date back to January of 2010, right about the time I was interviewing for the CC Masters program. That was also when I was starting this very website. I came out here to look for apartments, and interview with both CC and DU. Those were the things that were a necessity during that trip. With this considered almost all the time I had free, I was climbing. So the day of my CC interview I came to the Garden for the first time. As I drove around the park I had an overwhelming desire to climb these crazy fins jutting from the earth. I felt like everything about it was perfect. The formations were beautiful by themselves, but combining that with Pikes Peak looming behind them sold me on the area. I can remember parking on the Northwest side of the park to take pictures. From this direction you look at the fins and can see that some of them aren't real thick. It almost looks like they could fall over; which I sincerely hope they don't. The one that stood out to me wasn't the tallest. It was seperate from the biggest stones. For some reason it demanded my attention. That phrasing is ironic because I described something else recently as "demanding of my attention." Anyway I needed to climb it. I didn't know what it was called or how hard it was or anything. I just knew I needed to climb it. After living here for a while I found out it is called Montezuma's Tower, and is a grade that is within my realm of possible. So yesterday KB and I headed out. Wait, I guess I am getting ahead of myself.

So this week was CSAP. I cannot say much about it because of the strict rules surrounding it. My honest thoughts also must be kept to myself. So they will be. I know that isn't common for me. The week went pretty smoothly. Friday night I played poker with some guys; with no success. Every card I was dealt was garbage. I was proud of myself because I didn't buy back in when I had a chance. The cards weren't falling the way I needed and they weren't gonna start. That kind of night.

Anyway its a good thing climbing on Sunday was so good because Saturday bit big old piles of garbage. I had a math training from 8am to 5pm. And it went 20 minutes over. I was less than thrilled. So that night Kevin B. and I had some beers and enchiladas at my place and of course talked about and watched a lot of climbing. We planned out Sunday before getting too silly and called it a night.

I was of course up at an ungodly hour with the donkey. I did the normal weekend routine before heading to KB's to pick him up. We got to Montezuma's at about 11 or so. We wanted to start as early as the temperature would allow, because the afternoon was not supposed to be as nice as late morning. The tower is breathtaking. It is 150 ish feet tall, and the route we climbed was called the North Ridge. The North Ridge ascends a very skinny arete all the way to the top. The climbing isn't wicked hard, however it gets a little heady because you are utilizing the only stone available to you. It is air in every other direction. The terrain on the route isn't much wider than shoulder width. Some parts of the route you have to veer off to one side or the other onto the face of the tower a little bit, which was also a little mentally occupying. We did it in two pitches and rapped off the West face.

The next thing we climbed was on a formation called White Spire. This route was interesting. As KB and I stood below it looking up, I kept going, "where is the first bolt?" He has probably climbed the route a hundred times so I was leading it. The only piece of pro (protection) I could see was directly under the bulge right before the summit of the rock, at 40 ish feet. Kevin assured me there was at least one bolt between the ground and there. Well he was right, however it came at about 25 feet. So you start this climb, and have to climb for 25 feet before you can clip in. Then the only other bolt is the one near the top. Therefore, any fall on this route requires your belayer to be on their game. Hypothetically if I would have fallen trying to clip the second bolt, I would have taken a 30 (at least) foot whipper leaving me right near the ground. This is what happens when the route you're climbing was bolted by people years and years ago. When this style of climbing was first being developed, the only objective for the bolts, was to keep you from breaking your legs, or dying. So in that sense the bolting is still relevant; just a little scary. You have to keep your head in the right place while you're climbing. The route was fun and passed with no problems. We toproped another route on the West face of White Spire, which I would NOT have wanted to lead. Any fall on the route, would be a ground fall. There are two bolts but they're spaced so far apart that they're almost worthless. More worthless than on the prior route. The climbing on this route was also way more thought provoking and difficult to figure out. I probably spent 10 minutes climbing the route just because when I would get to a decent stance I would stall and try to figure out where to go. The route zigzags back and forth across the face in a really obscure way. The route was wicked cool, just not one I want to climb on the sharp end.

Our last route was called Potholes. It is on the East face of Red Twin. Another moderate route with some thought provoking climbing. I did lead it, since it was better protected. One thing that stands out climbing in the Garden is the number of people around. It is such a tourist attraction that every climb comes complete with you own personal paparazzi. To many of the people in the park rock climbing is completely foreign and something they know little or nothing about. Listening to people's conversations while you're climbing is kind of entertaining. Many of these conversations involve words like "crazy," "stupid," and "don't understand." One thing I have learned though is to disregard uneducated opinions about climbing because the odds are they will be negative, and with little legitimate information to stand on. That isn't to say everyone thinks its crazy or dumb. We probably had four or five people come ask us questions just because they were interested and intrigued, and I am always happy to share, as is KB. One thing I do know is that I am probably in a hundred random pictures belonging to tourists of the park.

We headed for the car with one thought on our minds. Tequila. Or that in combination with Manitou Springs, and delicious mexican food. We swung by his place to pick up Jessie, his fiance, and headed to the Loop. We had margaritas, food and good laughs, or Kevin and I did. Jessie maybe laughed more at us. or just shook her head at us. Shes an awesome girl and I'm stoked for them. Wedding is in May. I was pretty tired and called it a night early last night. Another day of CSAP testing today, and another day closer to family, friends, the Red and Lauren. Stoked for all those things.

PS it is supposed to snow between 4 and 8 inches tonight. Fingers crossed for the storm of the century. I could use another day off.

The sign on Kevin's house that I laugh at every time I go there

Cathedral Rock and Pikes, with a slight glimpse of Keyhole Rock.

Pikes and Cathedral. Also the Snake Pit, where The Slapper is, is directly in front of Cathedral for those of you who are familiar with the stupid saga of The Slapper.

Montezuma's is the spire just to the right of Pikes in the pic.

The Tower of Babel...next time.

Montezuma's is the highest of the fins almost directly in the middle of the picture.

Comforting

Looking up at the climb.

North Gateway Rock from the belay ledge between pitches 1 and 2. Also you can see White Spire and Red Twin. They are right next to each other right in front of where the path forks. One is red, one is white. Weird. Also they look tiny.