Miniature climbing epic

So I went off yesterday to climb Dark Shadows with my friend, Erik. And it was a great climb, too! The last time I climed it was about 12 years ago with my Mom! And we only did the first 3 pitches.

Well Erik and I go all the way up to the summit of Mescalito via Dark Shadows: a 13 pitch 5.8 traditionally protected route with several bolted belays. It was GREAT climbing! D.S. is one of the best cracks you can climb out at Red Rocks. It's got a 5 star rating and is well worth every one.

This trip with Erik was the first time I was going out the roof at the top of the 4th pitch to do all the other pitches. For the most part it was pretty easy and straightforward climbing. But then we had a jam. Erik took the lead on pitch 7 and we got lost. Blame it on poor eyesight, bad beta or even fatigue, but we missed a critical bolt that led up through the rest of the route. We spent a little over two hours searching for that bolt. When we found it we were, obviously, behind schedule.

We got to the top just after dusk and started hustling down towards the south fork of Pine Creek Canyon. We reached the first big rappel at almost dark. We finished last rappel near the canyon floor about 10:30. And we were late. I was worried that Jana would be worried. I was trying to vibe her not to worry, that we were okay and just late. Dehydrated, miserable, fatigued near exhaustion but finally on the ground.

We hiked around the buttress back to north fork Pine Canyon to search for our bags. After about an hour of hiking, a half hour of searching for our bags, unsuccessfully, and finally passed out due to exhaustion. 15 minutes later we struggled awake and kept searching for our bags.

FINALLY we made it out to the car about 1 o'clock. And, to my big chagrin, there was no spare water in the car. And I've done this MULTIPLE times! I've had water in the car but because we just got back from a weekend trip we emptied the entire car to clean it out (still needs to be CLEANED) so we didn't have the spare water I usually keep in it.

Long story short: we got dehydrated, scratched up and exhausted... but the climb was WORTH IT! Great climbing, a very put together partner and beautiful scenery. Next time I'm pre-hydrating better and taking more water. Then it won't matter if we're 4.5 hours late!

Busy weekend!

You know you've had a busy (aka: successful) weekend when you're in bed by 8:30 on Sunday night.

We had a great time this weekend, and the weekend started on Thursday night! Jana and I went on a date to a Spy On Vegas hosted FREE concert by Toad the Wet Sprocket with FREE beer provided by Fosters! And we had a great time dancing to Toad. We even high-fived just for Fernando when 'Fall Down' was played. We danced almost all of Toad's set (& encore), met some very cool people who added us to Facebook immediately, ran into some friends from the climbing meetup and then went home to bed. We were SORE the next couple of days - Jana wasn't sure from what but I'm pretty sure it was from dancing on that hard pool deck.

Friday saw us doing busies but Saturday was even MORE productive! In the morning we had a video conference with my good friend Nick and his fiancee, Barbara. He asked me to be his best man at their wedding next year in Spiez, Switzerland!
Then we went and had breakkie with my mother, after which we were off to S P A C E to make a ton of pillows for our camp at Burning Man this year. I also made a door for S P A C E as well as filled in some of the seams on one of the desks for her tenants. Busy busy.

Sunday morning 0530 and we're up out of bed, quick breakkie and off to Red Rocks to climb the morning away with our good pals Chris and Sarah. I climbed ok, but Jana's climbing really impressed me! She AND Sarah both were able to do this climb that I had a little difficulty with but which was a really nice line. Good job girls!
After climbing it was a quick nap at home and then off to C&S's for a pool party where we played badminton, ate bbq and dirt and drank some beers. It was a great day and waking up at 0530 was WORTH IT for the climbing.

The whole point of this post isn't to just detail what we did, but to point out that I'm really fortunate to have someone so special which I can share all these things with. Jana and I are such close friends, and I value and cherish that friendship to no end and don't want to ever take advantage of it. I can't imagine NOT continuing to do fun stuff forever.

Aeon