HI! HI! HI!

HI! HI! HI! So, I forgot to blog about my mini climbin adventure last Sunday... I woke up late to meet this guy Colin and his friends to go climbing so I just told them I'd meet them--which was a little foolish because I'm the WORST with navigating and all that. So, I printed as many maps and directions as possible before heading to Boulder. I drove into Boulder Canyon looking for this crag called Avalon where I had climbed with Colin a year ago and once I'd arrived at the spot the internet told me to park, I started looking for the huge talus field that leads to the first tier of the crag. [To clarify that jargon: I was looking for a huge pile of rocks that leads up to the first section of Avalon--where I was to CLIMB. Additionally, according to Wikipedia, a crag is "a rock-climbers' term for a cliff or group of cliffs, in any location, which is or may be suitable for climbing." JUST SO YA KNOW!!]

Looking down from Sleeping Beauty crag.

So, of course I climbed up the wrong talus field and still couldn't find a trail after a half hour of tromping through the wild wild wilderness. As I was on the way down to gather myself/see what else I could find, I saw another climber heading up the same talus field..... and it just so happened that it was Ben from Shelf Road!! So random, but we ended up climbing together because he couldn't find his friends, and I couldn't find mine... we ended up at a crag called Sleeping Beauty and warmed up on a 5.11a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a grade I'd never tryed before so it was silly for warming up on but very fun and rewarding at the end. The other extremely rewarding part of the day was learning to clean the routes of gear; as I hadn't done that before either. After Sleeping Beauty, Ben and I headed to Clear Creek in Golden and climbed some 5.10's at the crag Little Igor. Pizza and beer followed and I was sooooo happy to have such a fun day off work!

So excited!! Also wanted to illustrate the amount of gear gathered when cleaning a route.