Meandering in the Mountains

It is a beautiful esque day in Colorado. Right now I am sitting in the living room of the house at which we are staying in Beaver Creek CO. It is my mom, Jaime, Matt, Jenny and Myself. It is about 6pm Colorado time on May tenth. I will go back and recap the vacation thus far!

We got up at about 5am on the eighth and headed to my folks place to pack into cars. We then drove up to the Dayton airport to board the private plane, which we were taking to the Vail airport. Long story, we felt really, really cool. Unfortunately we will never feel that cool again. The plane was a 9 seater all first class. The flight was obviously great. As we flew over Denver the mountains came into view. I, as usual, was just in awe. Like a little kid I ogled the whole time. We landed and headed to the house at which we are staying in Beaver Creek. The house is amazing too! Looks like it should be on some cool TV show, and it’s right in the mountains. After we tossed our stuff in the house we headed toward Denver to sign for our apartment and for Jenny to see it! She loved it and I still loved it. We played in the city for a little while; went to REI, Cherry Creek and 16th Street Mall. Finally went to Cherry Creek Grill for dinner and headed back to Beaver Creek. OH, dinner was really good. When we got back we all called it a night. It had been a long day, and we lost 2 hours since we flew west.

The Next day we all got up pretty early. Jenny and I had breakfast and coffee then went for a nice walk through the town of Beaver Creek. It was really nice. It reminded us of Switzerland. The town was just beautiful. Afterward, we all headed to a place called the Kluttergarden, a bouldering area. Long story short we thought we found it but it was posted “No Trespassing.” We ended up hiking in the White River National Forest for a few miles, which was really nice! Beautiful scenery! When we got done we headed back to the house to make dinner for mother’s day…this is when it gets interesting.

Soooo, we decided to cook bbq salmon, burgers, and some shrimp and pepper kabobs… then some fruit salsa for dessert. Sounds good right? Well it was good, but it came at a price. Matt and I were cooking burgers and salmon, Jenny was doing kabobs and Jaime was doing the dessert. Matt and I decided to cook on their outside grill however couldn’t get it started. The next best option was to use their Viking Range Professional burners, which were also very nice. Around the 20 minute mark things were going well. Kabobs were done and went over well, burgers were about done and Salmon was going, but slowly because they were very thick. 22 minutes in things were going less well. I looked at Matt and said, “I think we should turn up the fan a little.” No less than 15 seconds after we turned “up the fan a little,” the smoke alarm went off; and did it ever go off. You would have thought that we set off a nuclear bomb. After several minutes of people fanning the smoke alarm, opening doors and windows, and playing with the security panel, (I’m still tending to the salmon) mom looks at me and says, “guess what I just saw…” Before I could respond she said, “a fire truck.” "Fuck," I think was my immediate reaction. At this point our main concern is that father Cady is going to have a brain hemorrhage due to anger. The firemen pull up and come to find out what is going on. At this point Jenny is almost peeing she is laughing so hard. Just hysterically laughing holding her stomach (I’m still tending to the salmon). Matt and I have the same idea, which is to take pictures of the fire trucks because although we are concerned our father is going to rip his arms off so he has something to throw at us we still think the situation is quite funny. After all the fun, we did actually eat, and it was good for those of you doubting. It had been a long day so Matt, Jaime. Jenny and Myself had a beer in the hot tub and went to bed.

Hiking in the White River National Forest

Said "Firetruck"

Today, this morning, we got up at 7am so that we could leave for Arapahoe Basin at 730. It is the only Ski Resort that is still open this time of year. We got there right at 8:30 and got lift tickets. We suited up and headed for the lift. The mountain was beautiful. The lodge was at about 10,000 feet and the peak for the lifts was at about 12,700. We spent 3 hours or so boarding on various runs. Both of us felt pretty good and didn’t take any big falls. We spent a few runs in the terrain park, which was not as successful as it could have been. At noon we went into the Black Mountain Lodge and had some snacks we brought and a pint of Fat Tire. There is something about having a pint at 11,000 feet that just makes it extra special. After snacking and beer we went out for another few runs and turned in for the day. Tonight we went to a local Microbrewery called Gore Range in Edwards Colorado. Good food and good beer. Now we are gonna watch a movie, have a couple mas beers, and relax in the hot tub. Goodnight to all.

Arapahoe Basin

Sitting at 12,456 feet

At the Black Mountain Lodge (After snacktime)

Hello again! It is now 6:45 pm on May 12. 6 days until I will be moved into our apartment in! 6 days! Yesterday we got up at about 8:30 and had breakfast with the intention of hiking up to Beaver Lake. From the looks of the map it appeared to be a little over a mile with a steady increase in elevation. We started up and found that the trail was more of a snowcat trail for the ski resort. That’s ok. We also found that the trail was not marked well. About 30 or so minutes in we found a sign that said the lake was still almost 2 miles away. Shit. Well either the map was wrong or I was wrong. Probably the latter. Either way we kept truckin because the scenery was pretty nice. We go another mile or so and decide to turn back because we don’t know if we will be able to beat the storm if we continue to the lake. The hike was nice albeit frustrating because of the lack of trail marking and less than stellar topo (topographical) map at the trailhead. When we got back down I wanted to look at the map again to see how I messed it up so badly. Well upon further investigation the trail was penciled onto the map, and the scale for judging distance went from 0 to ½ to 0 to 1 mile. It gave you 2 separate scales in 1 marking. I had never seen that before so I overlooked it and assumed that the whole scale was 1 mile. Oh well. When we got back we relaxed for the rest of the day. We had pizza for dinner and had a movie night. Here are some pics from the hike.

Today we got up at 9:30 and found that it had snowed about 6 inches. We went down to the little café to get coffee and breakfast. The town was beautiful. It was also quite warm which made it even nicer. I had a really good egg sandwich panini and Jenny had a crepe with strawberries. The coffee was really good too. It came in your own personal little french press! Afterward we shopped around a little bit in Beaver Creek. We also saw a map that showed where we stopped yesterday at being over 10,000 feet. The lake we were trying to reach was only at 9,700 feet. Apparently maps here don’t actually correlate with the actual landscape. I have given up trying to figure out where in the hell we were, or where we were going. When we got back to the house we relaxed for a little while and decided to head into Vail for the afternoon. Well we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up by Mount Massive, which stands at 14,421 ft. It was pretty amazing to see but we unfortunately went 30 miles in the wrong direction. I just kept thinking of the Dumb and Dumber quote about driving a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. Anyway, by the time we got back on track we just came back home. Now here I am. We are gonna go eat at a sushi place called Sato in a few minutes then probably have another movie night. Until next time…

The trip has come to an end. I am on the plane on the way home, which is still pretty awesome since it is via private jet again. Since last time not a whole lot has happened but I can still recap.

We got up yesterday morning and headed into Denver to sign for our storage unit, load some things in there and tour the city a little bit for Jenny to get her bearings. The drive wasn’t great since the Vail pass was getting a snow/rain mixture. Once into the city it was pretty nice though. We got to the storage unit no problem. It is only a block from our apartment, which is very nice. Rick, the property manager was a nice guy but was as creepy in person as he was on the phone. Not creepy in a dangerous way, just creepy in a “I don’t really wanna hang out with you” kinda way. After we got all our stuff signed we went back out to the car to find that the battery had died, of course. Well we went back in to talk to ol’ Rick. He kindly came out and jumped us. See I told you he wasn’t actually a creep. Very nice of him. After that Jenny and I headed out to explore the city. We had lunch at a place called Paradise Café. It was kind of like a Panera but not a chain. It was really good. Soups, salads, and sandwiches and stuff. When we got done wandering the city we went back to Cherry Creek so Jenny could get a better handle on her new mall. We weren’t there a real long time but long enough for her to get an idea of how to get around and how to get there.

When we got home we all met up and went to a place called the Gashouse for dinner. It was a local place in Edward’s CO which was well known for it’s wild game meats. None of us indulged in any of these but they did sound quite good. There was something called the wild game grill that had quail, elk, and something else. I was curious as to how the quail came out. Our waiters response was, “it is a whole bird,” and put his hands out like he was getting water from a stream to show me the size. I went in a different direction. The food was really good and we all headed home, after ice cream of course. Diet starts now….or not. When we got home Matt, Jaime, Jenny and I got in the hot tub for a little while. Matt and I thought it would be a good idea to leave the warmth of the hot tub and trek the 20 or so yards to the nearly frozen creek and then back into the hot tub. After a few minutes of debating we hopped out and went for it. It wouldn’t have been so bad except there was no direct route to the creek or from the creek. So once we were out, then once we were cold and wet from creek water, we had to navigate through brush to get back. Oh well, at least we’re fun. Today we got up and went to a place called the French Press for breakfast. It was maybe my favorite breakfast of the trip. We came home after and cleaned up the house a little bit. Jenny and I went for a little walk through Beaver Creek before lunch at a local café. Once again, very good. We all had GIANT paninis and then went back home to pack up the car. Now here I am, back to real life. Just 3 days and I will be out here for good. So much to do and not a whole lot of time to do it. Very excited about the 20 hr drive with Boss, Sharma, and Matt.

One More Go Round At the Red

It's getting down to the wire. I have officially have 3 more days in Oxford OH. 2 Days until the 8th when we leave for vacation then I'll be back for the 16th. Very weird to me. Anyway a couple days ago Matt and I went down to the red for 1 last time before I leave. We have been trying to for a long time and work or weather has impeded our ability to, so when we heard that the rain was going to stop Monday morning we decided to try. As always we only had a day to be down there so we left Oxford at a ridiculous hour. We got down to the red at about 8:45 and were a little unnerved to see what we saw. Everything was flooded. The red was underwater. The Kentucky Mountain Highway had water sitting somewhere between 2 and 5 feet below the highway. There is no water near this highway. This was all from rain. Apparently they had just been getting pounded with no type of sensitivity from mother nature. We crossed over the Red River and saw that it was not the tiny little trickle it usually is but instead a raging river. It could have been class 3 rapids where it usually too shallow to put a boat it. As we get closer to Miguel's things do not look any more promising. Standing water is everywhere. Everywhere. As we observe in horror we both talk about how the climbing was secondary and we really just wanted to be able to take a trip together before I left. Although this was true it would have been a bummer. We stayed positive and headed into Miguel's for coffee and breakfast...ps the parking area was as empty as i've ever seen it...shockingly. Once inside we inquire to the guy working, which was Miguel's son, for the climbing report. His response was that as of last night the Gorge was flooded; and continued with "I hope you like hiking." Not pleased. A little disheartened we ordered our delicious breakfast wraps and gigantic coffees and post up in front of the shop. Now time to think. Where gets immediate morning sun? This was my thought process. We need a place that will be pounded with sun as soon as it's up; and preferably with a quick approach so if it is a no go we haven't hiked for an hour for no reason. My first thought is Roadside Crag, which is a frickin tourist attraction because of the huge # of climbs and it's ridiculously fast approach. However it gets sun all day and with 49 lines there something has got to be dry enough to climb! I thought. Well we get to Roadside and the 1st route we encounter is called Roadside attraction, which is a really cool 140 foot trad line. Well it used to be. Now it is a waterfall of epic proportions. Not a good start. We move down the cliffside still hopeful. The 5.10 wall is pretty overhung so there is still hope. We get there to find the holds have condensation inside the pockets. Yuck, and not to mention unclimbable. The 5.12 wall is in the same boat, which has a climb on it that I've wanted to try for a long time...which ill come back to later on. As we continue we see more water careening from the tops of the cliff. We finally make it to the last possible option. The tall but pretty moderate slab wall. It is also unclimbable due to water running down it.

As I pout Matt begins to paw at the start of a nice climb called Ledger Line. As I stare in confusion he turns and says, "this is pretty dry..." Note, this climb is literally right next to an area that has turned into a small waterfall and is spilling water straight down onto us. I return a look of being unsure of his statement and walk over. He was right, it didn't feel that wet. Now, it was slab, which means small holds for both hands and feet... and possibly wet. Also, when you fall on slab (slab means the rock is leaning away from you), you don't fall into the air, you fall onto rock and sometimes slide down it...especially if you fall via foot slipping off a hold. All good things that are really pointing us in the direction of "try it." I tell Matt I will get up on it first and hang the draws. PS this is Matt's first outdoor lead climb! Very exciting! I tie in, unsure of what will come my way. He was right. The holds were pretty dry. I did come upon some pockets that had been turned into little ponds, however I just skipped those and continued upward. The route was really nice and was pretty long, (80 feet). After I got down Matt got on it. It went really well and for his first outside lead was very successful. Kept a cool head and just concentrated on climbing.

By this time some other people were starting to show up and it seemed more climbs were starting to dry out. We got on the climb right next to ledger line which was also really nice. It was called All Cows Eat Grass and was a little harder than Ledger Line. Similar climbing which a more difficult finish. It involved a little chimney in a dihedral to a traverse on crappy holds to a nice jug to clip the anchors on.

At this point we decided to move back left and check out some of the previously wet climbs. When we got back to the 12 wall I took a look at Ro Shampo (12a) with whimsical eyes. I've wanted to try it for a long time and I knew this was my last trip to the red for a long time. Also I have been saying I want to get on a 5.12 before I leave. This things all added up to me deciding I wanted to try it. It it about 60 feet of very sustained overhung climbing. Very overhung climbing. I won't say it went well but I made it through all the moves after some work. The route was unreal. Really cool moves with high heelhooks (making you horizontal) and some really cool flagging and big hucks for good dishes. The crux (hardest move or section) involved a little pocket that you could fit about 2 and a half fingers in but was only about 1/2 a knuckle deep. You had to hit this pocket and then while falling away from the wall grab a big dish about and up to the left. Very cool move. After Ro Shampo we moved further toward the trailhead to climb 1 more route called fadda, which was my first lead when I first started sport climbing. It was kind of cool to go back to it and see how different it seems now. Afterward we called it a day and went to the beer trailer...for 1 last time. So sad. Also, Donnie, the guy who is usually working at the beer trailer, wasn't there! Kind of disappointing...oh well. We had a Red Stripe on the picnic table and headed back to Miguel's for dinner. The pizza was unbelievable as always. I got the usual, ranch dressing, chicken, spinach, bacon and feta. So delicious. Matt got a new one, he got bbq sauce, chicken, black beans, corn and pineapple. It sounded less than appetizing but was actually quite good. We enjoyed our pizza and our last remaining hours sitting outside Miguel's and headed to our tent for bed.

Our plan was to get up at 6am, which did not happen. We made it up at 6:45 though...not too bad! We had delicious waffles with vanilla yogurt and blueberrys on them for breakfast and headed to a crag in the Gray's Arch Region called Left Flank. The hike in is usually pretty uneventful however the smalls stream that we cross was not a wee larger. Matt decided to heave himself over while I teetered across a fallen tree. The climb we had our eyes on was called Mr. Bungle. It was 60 or so feet right on this blunt arete. It was a really aesthetic climb and really fun. Unfortunately this consumed all our available time at the beautiful Red River Gorge. We hiked out and made the drive back to Oxford.

Since we got back I have been running around trying to finalize all the little things and cross the ts. I am not a details person and this is not easy for me. It has been a sad week. I worked my last shift at the wall and said goodbye to a lot of people that I've become really close with. Last night Jenny and I had a get together at Skipper's to see everyone we could before our departure. It was a really good night and we got to see a lot of people that we may not have been able to otherwise. Well, off to pack some more. Until next time...

Goodbye Oxford

Joshua Tree and Bishop

Some pics from the trip!!

Post trip moustache

and Jennys response to "post trip moustache"

The happys

More climbing in the happys

My favorite Problem in the Buttermilks called Rib Direct

The Rail problem

Bowling Pin (The reason I missed Sharma)

Ug, slab

Campsite

The Molly Dyno (V6)

Gleaming the Cube (V8)

Buttermilk Road

Joshua Tree

From Roof Romp

Roof Romp

BLM Campsite (desert)

Santanas

Summit of Ryan Mountain

Caveman

Mas Caveman

Good morning everyone! I just woke up and am sitting at a coffee shop in Westwood CA, just west of LA. The coffee place is pretty much right across from the movie theater where most Hollywood movies open; like with red carpet etc, so thats kinda cool. The location is the best thing about this coffee shop unfortunately. I am actually writing on receipt paper right now since, surprise surprise, I don't have anything else. Lets recap what's happened so far. We got to the airport at 2:15ish yesterday and had no problems with security, which was nice. Once through security, OH, the woman in front of me had a very manish suit and kinda looked like George Bush. Anyway, once through security we went to the airport Outback Steakhouse for celebratory vaca drinks.

The plane was full and Jon and I were sitting 1 row apart, me behind him. As I watch people peruse the aisle (my row is full and Jon's is not) I wonder who will sit down next to him. All of a sudden I see 2 asians wielding a baby come meandering down the aisle, and they look like they are ready to sit down. Yes. A giant smile, which had to cover the majority of my face came upon me. I was right. They sit down and as I gaze at Jon I notice that he does not look as excited as me. I wonder to myself if this turn of events will affect his decision to order an in flight cocktail.

The flight was smooth and the baby liked me; which they usually do for some reason. I think they can sense that my mind has the same # of processes going on as theirs. Anyway, I listened to music and relaxed, every once in a while scanning a climbing mag (both which I've probably read 25 times). Each time I look up I see the baby peering over the seat in front of me and cant help but think that this human is slobbering more than my dog does.

After getting bags Jon and I hop on the bus for Westwood and then walk to meet David (Jon's brother) at the hospital at which he works. PS walking around LA with a 5000 cubic inch pack on reminded me of Europe. We dropped our bags off at his place and visited with Dave for a bit followed by sushi at a place called Yamata. It looked like an old church that had been gutted and decorated for LA. Very cool place. It was also very cheap so Jon and I ordered enough to feed all of Rhode Island and went about our business. Afterward, we retired to David's for sleep.

It is now 3:43 on Sunday afternoon and I am on the way back from Jtree and writing on the back of a Carl's Jr comment card with a stolen pencil. So, we left la yesterday at 10am and really made pretty good time after we got out of the la traffic. After gassing up Jon forgot to put the gas cap back on, and since we are men (and idiots) stopping unnecessarily was not really an option. Therefore our drive was riddled with people pulling uip and telling us about it to which our response was something like "yea" or "we know, thank you". After we picked up our crashpads from Jtree outfitters (the shop was awesome and the pleople were awesome and wicked nice) we headed into the park. My camping concerns were well justified seeing as though the WHOLE PARK was full. We decided that we would deal with it when we needed and got set up to climb. After spending several minutes trying to get oriented and floundering around in the parking area a nice climber asked if we wanted input. Yes please and thank you. I think he was a jtree local and had a lot of good info. After playing on the problems he suggested we were all pretty underwhelmed. Very sharp rock and all vert or very slabby, not fun for me or us. 1 problem was pretty solid but I hadn't taped my fingers and it was shredding my right middle and ring fingers. Luckily JT is packed with rock formations for scrambling. The 3 of us spent a while just playing on those and moved to a boulder problem I was very excited about called Caveman. It was a juggy roof problem with cool huecos and toe hooks. Jon and I worked the moves until we had exhausted our physical and mental abilities. Afterward we drove a few miles to a trailhead that would allow us to summit Ryan Mountain at 5450 ft. It was a fast hike at a little over an hour. It was pretty touristy and included some strange groups of people. By the time we finished we were all starving. We found a fairly suspect place called Santanas that we settled on. 1, there was no on in there. 2, it was kind of like fast food mexican. 3, the woman working had black eyebrows tattooed on and a black line tattooed around her mouth...very nice. Seemed fine to us. Well the food was ok and plentiful so thats important. Also I think we set a trend because as soon as we ordered a ton of other people came in. Trend setters we are.

Since camping was kaboshed in Jtree we were given directions to some BLM (bureau of land management) land we could camp on, ie middle of the desert. We set up tents and all sat around and caught up. It was really nice and felt like old times. This morning Jon and I got up and drove into the town for breakfast. We ate at a really cool cafe that was just awesome. The food was so good! It was really the only restaurant in Joshua Tree that didn't scare the hell out of us. When we got back we tore down tents and drove back into the park. We had a place in mind to climb but since the book was written by a clown we couldn't find it (bad descriptions and black and white pictures of random rocks in the desert that all look the same). We stumbled around in the desert for a while and happened to come upon a problem that looked pretty fun. It turned out to be badass and was called Roof Romp; after scouring the guidebook. We worked it a little bit and after a few tries I sent it! Turned out to be v4 and I was very excited. We spent some more time scrambling and then returned to the car. Great time and successful trip. PS Carl's jr is awesome.

So this is a 1st. I am actually writing in a notebook! I bought 1 from Kmart (which I didn't think existed anymore) to take with me on these trips. Lets pick up where we left off. Once back from JT we had dinner at a really cool seafood placed called Malibu Seafood. So good! Right on the beach too! After, we jumped on the road for Bishop. It rained for the 1st hourish then finally cleared up. The drive was long but not too bad. We rolled into town at about 2am and turned into what we thought was our camping area. It turned out to be a very creepy something else. Maybe from the horror movie House of Wax? Upon further investigation we found our site next door. Seemed pretty standard. RVs and some tents. We found a fairly dark spot and pulled in to set up tents. A minute or so into this process we hear a very loud MOOOOO. Apparently this campground was right next to a large field of cows wielding megaphones...and apparently we had bothered them. They would not be quiet. Loudly and frequently they would moo. Jon and I were almost in tears we were laughing so hard by the end of it. I fell asleep fast , despite the ridiculously loud future ground beef.

I woke up early, ready to see Bishop and get climbing. Well technically the reason I woke up was because I thought my tent was going to be hit by a car. The only thing separating our tents from these cows was a road that people like to practice for nascar on. At about 7:45am we headed into town. PS after I got out of my tent I was able to see where exactly we were. Due to the night time drive in we didn't see that we were in a valley surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. We had breakfast at a local place called Jack's to wait for the shop to open so we could pick up our crashpads.

Once obtained we headed up to the buttermilks. It was amazing. Literally took my breath away and turned me into a giddy child. The buttermilks are known for huge boulders (the biggest up by 60 ft high) and beautiful scenery. Both were accurate. The first boulders that we saw were Grandma and Grandpa Peabody. They were huge. Also the hardest problem in the world is on Grandpa, just climbed March 30 of this year called Lucid Dreaming. It was ridiculous. It looked so hard. Awe inspiring. We spent the next 4 or 5 hours climbing there with different levels of success. The climbing was hard but really great. Mid-way through the day we met 2 people named Donnie and Jill who were climbing on the same boulder we were. We left for 20 min or so to try a problem called bowling pin (which beat my ass) and when we came back Jill asked me if I had seen Sharma? My mind was blown and I was very sad. Apparently he was climbing right near us! So cool! The best climber in the world and the guy my pup is named after was climbing right next to us! What are the odds?

After the buttermilks we went to another area called the Sads. We hiked in and didn't really find much at first. It is a volcanic rock bouldering area in a gorge so quite hard to navigate. Finally we heard a couple other people and made our way toward the sound in hopes they could send us in the direction of rad problems. It was Donnie and Jill again. Small world. We climbed there with them for a while and did a sick dyno called the Molly Dyno. Ps, Dyno means all points off (jumping). So sweet. When we were getting ready to head out Donnie mentioned something about some hot springs and offered his placed to us to crash after. Since I can't say no to hot springs we decided to go, even though they were 20 miles or so North near Mammoth Lakes. We got there via miserable dirt "road" with the concern brewing that we were going to get robbed/stabbed/raped. Once there it was worth it. Beautiful night and the water was really hot. Donnie and Jill were fun and good people. Also very generous of them to share kind of a local secret with the donkeys from the midwest. We looked at stars, talked for an hour or so and headed back to the cars. It was another 10 minutes or so to Mammoth. We finished the night with some drinks and crashed pretty hard due to a long day climbing and a long night driving prior. Now, today, we got up early and had breakfast at an awesome local place in Mammoth called The Stove. Also, Mammoth is a big ski town and at about 7000 ft elevation, so awesome. The drive back was pretty and we got right to climbing once back to Bishop. Back to the buttermilks. Another great day of it. Sent some hard stuff which I was very excited about! We also went to an area called the happys. It was more my style of climbing, (big holds, overhung, big moves) so that was really great. My favorite climbing out there, aside from the buttermilks scenery. We ate at a weird thai place for dinner and retired to our beautiful campsite. Now here I am sitting around a campfire, looking at stars and writing. Can't complain. Well except a scorpion just crawled across my leg and scared the shit out of me. Not my favorite. Time to go into my tent. Goodnight.

Well there it is. Now I'm back home with the lady and the monsters. It was a good trip but I'm glad to be home. PS we move 1 month from today.