At 7:30am, Jen swung by and I hopped in her white VW (Golf?). Like Speedracer, she maneuvered her little German car expertly on the highway. In 40 minutes we were at Chautauqua parking lot staring at the Flatirons. What was the climbing going to be like? Would we be successful?
Pictured above: David, Slava (Assistant Instructor), Wendy, Roger (Assistant Instructor), Kimberly, Zack, myself, James, and TeeJay
This spring, I volunteered to be the Senior Instructor for the Colorado Mountain Club Boulder Section’s Basic Rock Climbing School. This means, I was in charge of picking our field trips, ensuring everybody was safe, selecting assistant instructors, and teaching the techniques, theory, and application of course material.
It was quite the undertaking, but by having Slava and Roger as my assistants, I felt much more confident we would have success. Roger is the Chair of the Boulder CMC Council and has been one of the knot testers for the club in past years. Slava is a serious mountain man and somebody I definitely trust at the other end of my rope!
Pictures Courtesy of Erin Thompson
The days are longer and spring is upon us, so I decide to join Erin for an afternoon of climbing The Spy. Unfortunately, we miss the proper start and she ends up creating her own line. She veers back on route, but by then, it’s too late to finish the climb.
We are cheered by the discovery of an orange metolius cam which is wedged in a horizontal crack. It looks a bit worn but still new enough to make a recovery effort worthwhile. She works on it a little bit, then I do, then we give up.
Meanwhile two dudes who are soloing come along and give it a whirl. They can’t get it out either, so as sun is setting, we get our nut tool back from them and retreat to the comforts of Boulder.
“Mmmmm, beer!” ~Homer Simpson
On Sunday, I met Erin at 5am to hike up to the base of the Third Flatiron. Erin was one of my students in Basic Rock Climbing school with the CMC. She has really taken to climbing and very eager to be leading. A good first multi-pitch lead climb is the Third Flatiron, so we were off for an adventure! (more…)
Stairway to Heaven follows the yellow line up the top edges of the fins of rock.
On Sunday, after running the Federal Cup 5K, and previously climbing Swanson’s Arete, I co-led a rock climbing graduation climb for 2 of my CMC Boulder’s Basic Rock Climbing students, Jack and Shawn.
Mike, the senior instructor and trip leader, picked the perfect grad climb: Stairway to Heaven (5.3). It is a fun climb with a few mild but interesting challenges. I was excited to climb something new and in a more remote location. On a pretty day like today, there was bound to be scads of climbers on Flatirons 1-5!
Also, I was super happy Andy climbed with us. He assisted with belay transfers, which greatly improved our ascent efficiency. He also helped me to communicate with Mike, who was way out in lead. Thanks, Andy!
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