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| Marble Falls |
Grace just finished a hard month in the ICU, and it's our anniversary in a few days. Good enough excuses to spend a few days exploring a new area of colorado, and swing some ice tools. I booked us two nights at the lovely Redstone Inn, and proceeded to empty the gear closet into the car: skis, rock and ice gear, etc.; five distinct kinds of footwear. We've had a few trips recently spoiled by conditions being decidedly not what we expected. Not this time!
We drove out on Saturday morning. Our first stop was Avacado Gully, a classic multi-pitch ice/mixed line just north of Redstone. Not in. Dry as a bone. We were beginning to contemplate alternatives to ice climbing, getting depressed, but driving further down the valley we found a myriad of smears and ice falls visible from the road. Redstone Pillar, Marble Falls, The Drool, and several more unnamed climbs, all in good shape.
Saturday afternoon we got on Marble Falls, and did a few laps before it got dark. Then back to the hotel, where we cooked our dinner in the bathtub of our room - wouldn't want the beer cooking our brats to boil over on any of that antique furniture! Mmmm.
Sunday, we got a leisurely start for a couple of laps on Redstone Pillar. We had intended to checkout The Drool after lunch, but we were misinformed by one of our guidebooks that it was on the property of a hostile landowner, which had us less than excited. So we succumbed to the incipient rain and fatigue, spent the rest of the day scouting some of the unnamed climbs, eating, and napping.
Monday we got up at 04:30 with tentative plans to climb Glenwood Falls, which we'd oogled on the drive over (baking in the sun at the time). It was raining when we got there at 06:00, so we pressed on to Breckenridge for a morning of glorious fresh powder skiing. Grace had to be back for work by 3:00 pm, so we didn't stay long. Highlights of the drive home included watching two separate cars spin off I-70, multiple cars stalled or just plain stopped in the middle of the highway, visibility down to about ten feet, and the aftermath of a half-dozen car pileup in the westbound lane.
All in all, I highly recommend Redstone. The Inn was great, and the climbing was awesome. Long steep climbs in a beautiful secluded setting. We didn't see another climber the whole time we were there. There seems to be just enough traffic to beat out a trail to the base, but not enough to hack out the ice or make for any kind of crowding. I definitely want to go back for The Drool and the various unnamed lines to the east.
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