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Afternoon Hang: BoCan's Tonnere Tower

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  Tourists meandering to Boulder Falls beyond us seemed to move with a distinct lack of purpose. Sarah yelling for slack cut me away from the dull overwhelming lull of noise emanating from Boulder Creek below. For a second I was almost relaxed enough to nap, even despite the slight hanging position I was sitting in at the second belay on our way up Tonnere Tower in Boulder Canyon. We had considered climbing this jutting formation within BoCan many times before, as each time we’d whizz by on our way to Nip and Tuck, Sports Park, anywhere else, the dominating position it took above the hustle and bustle of the Boulder Falls lot cut through the normality of stopping your car simply to gander at water falling down. Each time we’d considered it though, as if guided by fate, weather moved in, or there was someone on the route we’d wished to do already. This time was different. The summit was clear. The sky was a nice hue of deep blue in the mid-May sun. It was a Monday. There was no specific
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3-Star Chossaneering: Wild Ridge via/El Diablo de Oro (5.8 III)

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  I could feel the heat of the late-day sun, its rays giving a light burn to the tops of both of my arms. Below me fell away the rest of Wild Ridge for about 1000 feet with New York Peak beyond. Nary a cloud in the sky, the air was warm interspersed with the light breeze from the west. I couldn’t hear any of the cars below on highway 82. Some lady in Aspen was probably buying a martini for $35 about now. I couldn’t have been happier. For as much of the Indy Pass obsessive that I was, it had never occurred to me to give Amos Whiting’s long route “El Diablo de Oro” (5.8 III) on Wild Ridge a look. Having been established in about 2014 or 2015 or so, the route certainly wasn’t grand-spanking new, but it was definitely modern compared to the Harvey Carter classics that surrounded it. I was a fan of Mr. Whiting’s work, many of his newer additions to “The Pass” were near-perfect, with great bolt placements when needed and fantastic movement for whatever grade they went at. Sarah and I had c
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Short and Sweet: East Ridge of North Star Mountain

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  I swilled the beer at the bottom of my can while watching the clouds form into a large mass in the sky outside the hotel room window. Sarah and I had spent the past four days puttering around Moab, and the forecast for the following day was to be entirely rain. The climbing we’d done the days before was fantastic, but I wasn’t terribly interested in spending the last day of our trip sightseeing. The end of winter was on the horizon, but the uncomfortably cold and icy grip it had on the Central Colorado Rockies hadn’t yet loosened. We made a judgment call. There was a period of bluebird days forecasted for home and we weren’t going to waste them. I had a couple ideas for what to do with a free day but one just wouldn’t stop coming up in the back of my mind. I’d never been to the top of North Star Mountain before. Another tick off of the list for the “Summit 62” project wouldn’t hurt either. An undisputed Tenmile-Mosquito Range classic, the East Ridge (3rd II) of North Star mountain ne
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5 Flatiron Scramble Classics

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  Looming above Boulder, Colorado lies one of the best alpine training grounds the intermountain west has to offer. Seeing as the secret’s already out, and some of the best climbers in the country call Boulder home, I figured I’d throw in my 2 cents. Here goes my top 5 favorite Flatiron scrambles I've done so far. They are as follows: Second Flatiron via/Dodge Block (5.0 II) Second Flatiron via/Freeway (4th II) The Regency via/El Camino Royale (5.2 II) The Amoeboid via/Buckets (5.0) Der Zerkle via/Sunnyside Two (4th)-West Face (5.0) Honorable Mentions: Nebel Horn Via (5.0 II), Anomaly via/E Face (5.0), and Royal Arch via/E Face (5.0 II) 1. Dodge Block (5.0 II) Second Flatiron This one took the cake as my favorite scramble so far for three key reasons. First is the length. Nothing beats going the full stretch of one of the significant Flatiron formations. For being able to get this route done in less than a couple hours it really makes you feel like you’re climbing something much
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Goat Piss and Choss: Kelso Ridge (III)

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  I nearly shat myself as I popped the top of my head over the small boulder in front of me. Two big and beady black eyes stared back from an arm’s distance away. After a quick inspection they appeared to belong to an obviously well-fed, large, white, male mountain goat. It was breeding season . I popped back down and whistled to my wife, Sarah below me. We were nearly three-quarters of the way up the well-popularized “Kelso Ridge.” This route was more than proving itself to me as the best way to the summit of Torreys Peak. The weather the day we had chosen to scramble the ridge could not have been more perfect. Not too sunny, yet nary a cloud in the sky harkening any sort of danger. We chose the late season to go up it, about late September, as all the standing snow fields would be dry and the temperature moderate. I really couldn’t and still can’t find anything to complain about the day we had on the ridge. For reference, Kelso Ridge is one of the more trafficked “harder” routes on
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Big Cat Country: The Catkin Gulch Loop

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  I blew a snot rocket into the surrounding sagebrush as I continued to huff my way up the sandy streambed that doubled as the trail. Silently, I regarded the tattered pile of deer bits and fur in the bushes next to me as I passed. “Another cat kill,” I breathed out to no one in particular. I was alone, after all, Sarah and I were traveling at different paces around the giant lollipop in the south Arkansas River Valley bush. I was over half way through the Catkin Gulch Loop, a more than ample tour of the newly-minted Browns Canyon National Monument. Browns Canyon sits right outside of the small town of Nathrop, directly south of Buena Vista and no more than 15 miles north of Salida. Hosting an interesting array of high desert scrub, river fauna, and needle-like rock formations slightly recognizable to the rest of the Ark River Valley, the National Monument protects a large swath of wilderness from the seemingly unending onslaught of human damage occurring to similar areas. With any w
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Colorado Classic Crags: Boulder Canyon

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  Amongst almost all of the fantastic and world class areas that Colorado has to offer, few compare in the density, variety, and overall ease of access as Boulder Canyon. Though, it should be acknowledged, being a few minutes drive outside of one of the meccas of North American climbing doesn’t hurt. As the canyon’s name suggests, Boulder Canyon sits directly west of the heart of Boulder, Colorado. Giving quick access to the towns of Nederland and Allenspark deeper in the foothills, and allowing for quick access to the Indian Peaks, Boulder Canyon has been trafficked almost as long as Colorado has had statehood. It has been the site of many great moments in climbing history. The first 5.11a to go free in Colorado (and debatably the United States) was climbed at the Castle Rock crag nestled in these hallowed walls, a “feat” performed by none other than Royal Robbins and Pat Ament, legends of the American climbing world. The cliffs and feeder canyons of this area have been explored sin
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