This was Grace's first whole weekend off in three months, so we did our best to make the most of it! On Saturday we headed out to Eldorado Canyon to climb Ruper: 5.8+; 6 pitches; ~ 200 m. Sunshine and 55 degree temperatures kept us happy for most of the day, but a combination of wind and intermittent orographic cloud cover made us grateful for our jackets.
This was a phenomenal climb, marred only by a large ledge/ramp that has to be crossed between the third and fourth pitches. Otherwise, the climbing was incredibly steep and sustained. Every single pitch contained challenging climbing, and a great variety of it! From the crux off-width crack, to the scary hand-traverse, and the incredible steep wildly featured face climbing on the final pitches.
On Sunday we partnered up with Brice for some ice cragging in RMNP. We went to Loch Vale Gorge, and spent the whole day working various lines on a single flow. Brice led a WI-4-ish line to a tree anchor, and we spent the rest of the day top-roping harder varitions. WI-5 pillar, mixed cave starts, thin rotten smears. Basically we climbed until our arms gave out.
Surprisingly enough, we had the whole area to ourselves, except for a few passing snowshoeers. Perhaps everyone else was up in the alpine, or out rock climbing of this fine weekend.
The high temperature in town today was -4 F. It's hard to believe we were out climbing in our shirtsleeves only a few days ago!
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Ruper:
Loch Vale Ice:
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