apAdventures

Next stop:
Poudre Canyon, Colorado

Posted by arr

We’re in Colorado now and bouldered at another place we’ve never been, Poudre Canyon, just west of Ft. Collins. At this elevation the Aspen are in full color. Beautiful area, beautiful boulders and beautiful temps! Too bad we’re feeling subpar strength. As expected, the trip is starting to wear on us.

We primarily bouldered at the 420’s. We had really really REALLY wanted to get to Against Humanity, v7 at the Gandalf area, touted as the best of the grade in Poudre. But unfortunately it required a river crossing. We were hoping to wade or rock-hop but neither panned out safe enough to do with the kiddos. While scoping it for us, Paul slipped and fell in and dropped the guide book in the water. He came back to the van totally soaked and had a chat with a fly fisherman as to what the hell he was doing, haha. So sadly, until we come back equipped with waders, Against Humanity is untouchable. Which is probably a good thing (for me anyway), cause given how tired I feel it no doubt wouldn’t have gone well.

The Puffing Stone, v6

Staring down the crux move of Scuba Steve, v7. “Staring” was about as far as I got on this one. Never stuck it.

Paul had no trouble though. The topout of Scuba Steve, v7

Merlin, v7. Paul was having trouble with this one until I gave him the best beta in whole wide world. And then he sent next try. Check out his feet – heel hook with your right and then step on your heel to get the height to reach a left-hand crimp. I call it the heel hook stomp. Heel hook and then stomp on it! Too bad it didn’t work for me. The crimp was too far away and for the first time I can remember I actually used the excuse “out of my reach.” I’m sure there’s probably another (burlier) way to do it though. There always is.

Grrrr. That was MY beta!

Silas sending his own climb. This could perhaps be the cutest photo ever. Look at little Ivan spotting him!

And then Ivan picks one. Looks as though his could use some cleaning.

Atop his first ascent

While bouldering in Poudre we stayed up and over the Cameron Pass at the North Park KOA. All the campgrounds around the bouldering were closed for the season. And the closest open one was about the same distance down-canyon. The scenery at KOA was absolutely gorgeous and again we had the whole campground to ourselves. We just couldn’t pass it up.

Scarface, v6. I had hoped to be able to send this one before we left but the intensity of the trip is catching up with me. I need a good rest.

Paul sent it though, a couple of times…

…cause it was just that good.

Paul ticks Tilt, v7, just barely. He too needs a rest day or two…or three.

Bye bye Poudre. On to the next destination.

posted by arr

This October 2nd will mark TEN YEARS of marriage for Paul and I. Although ten years does kind of sound like a long time, to me it feels as though Paul and I have been together much longer. I reason that it’s probably because we’ve done a lot since we first met – a lot of climbing trips, moving out to Arizona together, a house, even more climbing trips, and now kids. We’ve really packed it in over the last decade. So ten years of marriage isn’t so mind-blowing to me right now. What IS mind-blowing to me though is the fact that Silas was born half-way through that ten year duration. That’s the fact I’m trying to come to grips with. My baby Silas whom I can clear as day picture as a newborn in my arms just yesterday is somehow turning five years old this October! Ten years with Paul I get. Five years with Silas I’m still shaking my head over in disbelief. I’m only just starting to understand the phrase “they grow up so fast.”

Paul and I decided this year’s anniversary we needed to do something adventurous. Not only because it was our 10th, but primarily because since we had the kids we haven’t really done much for our anniversaries, other than maybe toast with a glass of wine. I know, LAME! Here’s a recap of anniversaries past:

1st anniversary: Yosemite. We hiked to the top of North Dome and ate our wedding cake on top, with a magnificent view of Half Dome. (After our wedding in upstate NY my mom had saved the topper of our cake in the freezer, then shipped it to us in Arizona in dry ice a year later and we packed it in the cooler and took it with us to Yosemite, then hiked it to the top –a travelin’ little piece of cake that was!).

2nd anniversary: Grand Canyon. Having recently gotten psyched on long-distance trail running and completed Imogene Pass Run in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado for the first time just a few weeks prior, we decided it’d be fun to run across the Grand Canyon and back. It was both fun…AND HARD! And we loved it.

3rd anniversary: Long’s Peak. Hiking/running it, not climbing it. Hiking proved to be almost as epic as climbing might have been though because I got altitude sickness and we had to turn back below the summit. Still a great time though and we redeemed ourselves with some Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) bouldering the next day.

4th anniversary: Bishop. This anniversary was spent in the midst of our dreamy six month Colorado-Pittsburgh-Rocklands-Marathon New York-Bishop-Yosemite trip. Basically the entire six months was a big anniversary celebration that year. 

5th anniversary: Mt. Lemmon hike two weeks prior to Silas’ grand arrival. I was ready to pop! I remember doing a short little hike and then eating a cookie at the Cookie Cabin that I immediately went and upchucked in their bathroom.

6th anniversary: Can’t remember. My webposts around this time don’t even give me a clue so chances are we did the whole “cheers with a glass of wine” deal.

7th anniversary: I was pregnant in my first trimester with Ivan. If I had to guess I was probably vomiting most of that day. (Pregnancy was not good to me with either child).
8th anniversary: These were sad times as Morgie had passed away. ‘Nuff said about that.

9th anniversary: Feeling that we owed it to ourselves to do something (anything!) for our anniversary that year we arranged for our dear friend Linda to babysit the kids while we went out on the town. Unfortunately Linda fell ill and had to cancel last minute. So we instead gobbled down the homemade mac & cheese I had made special for the kids and the four of us were all in bed by 8pm.

So in classic apAdventures-style, we’re gonna go big this year. For our 10 years of blissful marriage we’re going to boulder at 10 blissful bouldering locations throughout Arizona, Utah and Colorado over the course of 17 days. Stay tuned. We hope to be able to do some posts along the way.

posted by ARR