Posing in front of the beautiful Red Rocks cliffs
Wendy: The climbing or the gluttony? Which to describe first?
I'll start with today's climb. We had a slow morning, out of bed at 8 AM, putzing around for a while, then on to the climb "Tunnel Vision" (5.7). The climb was supposed to be 6 pitches, but my over ambitious men ran pitches together, making it 4 pitches long. Running pitches together is the way to go faster, but it also complicated things since I had my heart set on leading original pitch 4, which Andy subsumed into his pitch. My consolation prize was well worth it, however, since I got to lead the "tunnel" pitch. A tunnel? I put on my headlamp, and started up an easy chimney which tunneled behind the wall into total blackness! The word "go" and an arrow pointing to the blackness were written in chalk on the ledge where I started. I followed the arrow, and crept up the dark wall, only to find the letter "P" and an arrow on the wall. I understood what "go" meant, but what did "P" mean? I poked my head around, didn't see anything, and assumed it meant that someone had taken a "pee" in the arrow's direction (the tunnel was stinky). I continued up the pitch, only 2 pieces of protection in 120 feet, until I saw the light and exited the cave. What a cool pitch!
Andy followed the pitch, and when he got to the "P" on the rock, he looked around and saw that the arrow was pointing to pockets! Someone had left directions for where to place more protection! Duh, "P" for pockets and protection. Oh well, I made it up, albeit a bit unsafely in that I didn't have much protection.
We came back from climbing to our cushy hotel room at the Marriott Spa, Golfcourse, and Casino. Our room is the size of a 3 bedroom apartment, with a roll away bed for Jon and a huge king bed for me and Andy. A nice dinner at the local Irish pub, a shower under the rain-shower, and an evening watching bad TV completed a very fun day.
Posing in front of the beautiful Red Rocks cliffs |