Feb 15 - Feb 21

2/15, Monday - Off
Sick. Actually, happy that I'm sick as it hopefully means I'm not quite as burnt out I thought.

2/16, Tuesday - Scrambling - 8 miles, 2900', 2:34
Left from campus with Jack and missed the Regency but ended up on some rando flatironette right below the Hammerhead which we scrambled. We then went over to Dodge Block on the 2nd which has got to be a sandbagged rating for 5.6 because we both felt pretty gripped on the water slot before the tunnel (5.7-8? We were both in highly non-sticky rubber, which made the final exposed move pretty stressful). Finished with a cheater lap of the 1st via Atalanta then downclimbed the 2nd to avoid the ice.

A photo posted by Cordis Hall (@cordisimo) on Feb 16, 2016 at 3:20pm PST

2/17, Wednesday - Scrambling - 9 miles, 2900', 3:02
Similar route to yesterday. Met Hillary at Chautauqua and we did the Regency/Royal Arch combo before tagging the Hammerhead. I was hoping convince her to try the south side of the 5th, but after downclimbing the fairly exposed Yodeling Moves on Hammerhead it might have been a good idea that we didn't. Finished with an easy lap up the Freeway. Running back home I apparently was averaging 5:45 miles (granted, its downhill) without much perceived effort. Glad to see some payoff of the speedwork I've been doing.

A photo posted by Hillary Allen (@hillygoat_climbs) on Feb 17, 2016 at 10:35am PST

2/18, Thursday - 1st Flatiron - 6 miles, 2000', 1:29
The weather was phenomenal so I took off from campus for a lunch run. I had planned on just running around on trails but the 1st just looked too inviting. The scramble took a bit longer (~25min, on dry rock, no less) in my non-sticky-rubber and extra-cushioned new kicks but it made the subsequent romp back down and onto Kohler-Mesa quite smooth. I guess I can't totally slam the cushy shoes until I've really given them a chance.

2/19, Friday - 1st Flatiron, Green Mtn, Seal - 9 miles, 4300', 2:35
The wind was quite powerful so I gave in and drove to Chautauqua. I had to pause a few times on the 1st to breathe on my hands and tuck them in my shorts to try and get them to warm up, but they ended up being essentially numb the whole scramble. After tagging Green I went down Bear Canyon and scrambled the Seal, which I would frequent far more often were it not so randomly isolated on the Nebel Horn. The 4th class rating Roach gives this rock is fairly sandbagged, it felt more 5.4 (as its listed on MountainProject.com), so I spent more time -- particularly on the downclimb -- then I had planned, so I skipped tagging Bear. I took Enchanted Mesa back down to add in some distance and avoid the pounding of Bluebell Road.

2/20, Saturday - Off
For some reason I had actually zero motivation to even go outside today. Seems like some resurgence of Monday's sickness. Decided to just take off to make myself as ready to go as possible tomorrow.

2/21, Sunday - Longs Peak + Mt Lady Washington- 11 miles, 5500', 7:46
Gave another try at the NW Gully with Kendrick and Peter. They were kindly up for a third round with Longs this month (I couldn't skip class Wednesday to join them for their successful summit), to help me get my February tick mark. The winds were much kinder and we enjoyed relatively tame conditions to the Keyhole although my hands were completely numb at the shelter. After putting on the puffy coat (and every other article of clothing I had) and holding my hands in my pants for 10 minutes I completely regained feeling and we set off through the Keyhole. The climb itself was only a tiny section of 5th class hidden in a few hundred feet of 3rd/4th class scrambling. We soloed the ascent but broke out the rope for rapping down Cables. We were making good time so we decided to traverse the ridge from Chasm View over to Mt Lady Washington, to find out Kendrick had never been on top! Fun stuff.

Peter followed by a hiding Kendrick coming up the gully before the "crux".

Views of Glacier Gorge were...memorable.

The "crux", its an easy 5.1 (which is a pretty generous rating). The standard route goes through the cave formed by the pancake-like rocks, but I elected to climb around it so as to avoid becoming some cave dwelling troll.

View of Mt Lady Washington (left) and Chasm Lake from the bottom of the Cables rappel.

Peter leading the way up with me following with my school backpack; you'd think an Ultimate Direction guy could remedy this issue. ;) Photo by Kendrick

A very mellow week. I fell down the stairs with a cup of barely-not-boiling tea and oatmeal which gave me some nasty burns on my hip and arm plus some hard bruising on my back; so that, with getting sick sorta had me out of commission. Luckily, I was able to get up Longs on Sunday to somewhat salvage the week.