The last half of this summer Tyler, Colby, and I have been doing quite a bit of rockclimbing.  We have goals of improving not only our rock skills, but especially our rope skills before this winter sets in.  I have many goals this spring, many of which will require rope work.  It will be nice to be more efficient at this in order to speed up climbs and descents.

Todays ticket was an area outside the roaring fork valley (can’t tell you anymore).  The rock is awesome with plenty of granite slabs, faces, and cracks to play in.  Someone has been setting some sport routes in the area that range generally from 5.7 up to 5.11.

We weren’t totally sure that the weather was going to do, with possible rain and snow in the forcast.  That said, we arrived at the parking lot to mild temperatures around 50 and dry weather.  The approach was short and only took about 10 minutes to be at the base of some of the best climbing of the summer.

We climbed a mix of sport and trad routes including two sport routes rated 5.7 and 5.8 as well as a 5.7 trad route.

Partners today were Brian, Brian Long, Tyler Christoff, Colby Christoff, and myself most of the pictures were not lighted very well with the cloud cover, but here are a few that came out ok.

Colby leads the 5.7 sport:

I had lead the route earlier but we left the anchors at the top so that we had an excuse to lead it again.

Tyler leading a 5.8 sport route:

Myself cleaning a 5.7 trad route:

We climbed most of the climbs alpine style in order to practice switching belays and general rope handling.  The leader would set an anchor (usually just to the bolts at the top) and belay the next climber up to the anchors.  After we would both rappel down.  This gives the climbing more of an adrenaline rush.  We managed to spend about 6 hours up at the crags before it was getting too chilly and we decided to leave.  It was a great way to spend our sunday afternoon before there is truly enough snow to play in.

Thanks for reading

JW