New post coming soon!

I got a new camera!!
ahh yeah.
I will get some new photos up here soon.
Until then get out and climb!
piz : )

new school pet

AHH YEAH roller blading to a Rockies Game in Denver!

Ari and I in Norway!!

Pike on some perfect Unaweep granite!!

My new green Anole. Any appropriate name suggestions??

My new green Anole.

Get out and have fun!

piz : )

More random stuff

My beautiful wife Jane and I in Colorado Springs.

A whale tail in Cabo. (My dad took this photo and no I haven't been there)

My parents and Jane and I at Mt Evans.

Cabo sunset. (No, I wasn't there. My dad's photo again)

Cake for my sisters twins on their baptism day. Sorry I missed little ones.

piz : )

Bring it on...

Me, at the Renaissance Fair outside Castle Rock.
I pretended that I couldn't climb and I won some money by making all the way up the wall. All you climbers, you can get free entry by winning you entry on this challenge!
Listening to tunes at the Pirates Pub. They sang and were comedians! Good Times.

A couple times a day there is a parade of the the king and all his court. I almost got stepped on by an elephant.

Catapult anyone?

Who is hungry, sausage and eggs mm mm : )

piz : )

Camera's Broke

No new stuff for a little while, can't afford a new camera!
Just expect some awesome old photos.

piz : )

Ouray Backpacking

Jane at the top of the pass. She was really happy at this point because we were at the highest point of the trail and it was basically all down hill from here. Beautiful scenery, the headwaters of streams, soft high alpine grasses and shrubs. What a place to camp and watch the sunset!

On day two, the trail crossed the base of this rotten cliff band. We saw a ton of mountain goats traversing the top of the wall above us and as Jane was crossing a section of washed out trail. The goats sent down boulders and luckily Jane was able to scamper out of the way back to me. Otherwise she was going to be crippled or dead from all the rockfall and the gully that she was barely standing in.

At the bottom of the mountain, we came to the river and could see how high the water rose from the flash flood, just two weeks before.

Jane cruising through the hillside with flowers as tall as her! It drizzled on and off that day, but it was still awesome.

Sound of Music anyone. Ahhh yeah.
Get out and have fun!

piz : )

Ouray Backpacking with Jane!

Jane at the top of the pass. After being beaten down for 4 miles and 4000ft of vertical gain we did it! There was a little rain and some breaks for food but we made it!!

Jane feeling the love of a heavy pack and a long and steep hill (or should I say mountain)!! You can do it love. : )

Ah just after a little rain shower. Something has to keep the grass green!!!

Jane getting the first nice views of the hike.

Bridge to Heaven trail was where we began this adventure!

Get out and have fun!!

piz : )

Last of Tehipite Climbing

Fighting Irish cloud...nah I don't think so.

One of the upper pitches of the final 1200ft. This route was already established and is a wonderful 6 pitch (each pitch being 200+ ft long) route that goes at about 5.11. The route has a first and last slab pitch with great vertical crack climbing in between! Here is a sporty endevour with very few bolts being placed on the slab.

Ari nearing the top of our route on the last techy 5.11 crux. Notice that he is always ready to party with that shirt on!!

Ari coming up the monster 4th pitch of 5.11 big hands. Straight up and straight down perfect splitter and not a loose part of the wall in sight. What was amazing about this wall is that we hardly had to do any cleaning. The wall had no flakey rock or crumbley stone. It is really a choice line on a choice piece of stone. Compared to El Cap it certainly is a rival in rock quality.

Triple roofs, pitch 4.

RaNDoM

Bangs Canyon, just outside Grand Junction. I have been hiking and climbing in the canyon establishing new crack climbs on the variable sandstone. There are a few problems left to be completed and then I will move on, but until then I will head out there after work and see what I can clean up into a nice sandy crack climbing experience. My first route ascends the middle of the highest tower, it is an 5.11+ slightly overhanging 4 and 5 inch corner called Flash Flood. What good fun!! This route can be approached from the Mica Mine trail and it is the biggest and highest obvious dihedral in the tower section on the right side of the trail before you reach the white quartz part of the trail. Approach from the base of that cliff line and hike up the ridge to the route. It will require a little bit of scrambling. Once you pass through a narrow slot (walking but take off your pack) you will be on a shelf, follow it to where it ends and traverse to the belay at the dihedral over what looks like a huge block. Gear for Flash Flood is 1 #3, 3 #4's 2 #5's. I did it with a little less and was pretty nervous. Enjoy!

I just cleaned and put in anchors on this dihedral. It looks like a nice easy pitch to get the the half way point and then a little excitement out the overhanging off width dihedral. Bring the big gear and plan on getting scrappy! I went out Friday after work and thanks to Jane was able to have a belay for this one. It turns out to be an easy flake start, a little spicy due to some rock that you don't think is solid but it actually is solid to the belay. 5.9. Then the upper pitch climbs this chimney/OW at 5.10-. I got sucked into its depths and had to come back out. There is a bit of newness to the route but it is a fun outing if you don't want to clip bolts at the gneiss. I recommend a rack from .75 -5inch, 2 #3's, 2 #4's, and 2 #5's. There are anchors at each belay and a 60m rope is plenty for both raps. Overall, its a 5.9 to a 5.10 and I called it High Water. Not the cleanest route but fun desert scrapping! It is located just before the Mica on on the south side of the canyon. You can take the old dirt road up to it from where the mica mine trail turns white with quartz. You kind of look at the line the whole way up from the trail.

I bargained this dresser from a local thrift store for 20 bucks! What a great anniversary present for Jane. Here we are painting it black so the undercoat looks dark when we put a light coat of teal over the top! Painting with your wife is a great rest day activity.

Climbing with Pike at Unaweep Canyon. The granite walls are similar to the Black Canyon and there is a ton of new routing to be done. I will slowly get to this stuff and have fun combing the cliff lines for new route potential!

Parking at the Mothers Buttress in Unaweep Canyon. My first day here in many years. We battled out the passing storms and got some great pitches in before dark! Thanks Pike for the tour!

Get out and climb and be safe!

piz : )