Iceperations?

The Great Pyramid

My Buddy Anthony

Mt, Neva at Sunrise

High on a mountain top

Some time last summer I rode my bike  up Boulder canyon to  the Elephant Buttres/Blob Rock  area  to mess around with some rope techniques and try my hand some basic aid climbing.I did my thing, packed up and went home. Turns out I  had accidentally left one of my chocks in a crack while cleaning up in the fading light. I went back with my backpack full of gear the next day to work on some more rescue stuff when I noticed a rope hanging down from the  route I had been aiding the day before. After locking up my bike, I turned around and was greeted by a tall wirey fella, decked out in climbing gear, with a big grin on his face. Turns out he was there to   practice his rope technique too. When I told him I was there to do the same he pulled out the blue chock that I had left the day before. He  graciously gave it back to me, a bit disappointed perhaps that I had come to reclaim my gear( known as booty in climber lingo). We talked for a bit and It turns out he had graduated from  NAU in my home town of Flagstaff, AZ and was now living in Boulder, working as a middle school science teacher. Even more coincidentaly, he had worked at aspen sports with many of my childhood friends. Having so much in common, we decided to join forces and climbed together frequently in the following months.

Realizing our potential  as a team we moved into the mountains, making  an early morning ascent of Mt. Neva in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. After cruzing up Arahpaho pass trail we deviated  south and climbed the direct north face just above a small frozen alpine lake.  Flawless weather and perfect snow conditions made the climb and descent a breeze.

A great way to spend the day

                

Head in the clouds

2 worlds

23 years old

The next  month Anthony and I climbed James Peak from the Moffat tunnel. The alpine forest was wet and humid during the approach, we hiked through a thick fog for a couple hours .The weather that day was crazy and the continental divide  had split the clouds to the west and clear skys to the east.We left the woods and emerged in a glacial bowl  below the cloud ceiling,. We had a good idea of the direction we needed to go, but were unsure if we would find the summit in the dense coverage. After ascending a large snow field we poked out of the clouds and had our first    view of the mountains around us. Our route merged with a well beaten trail and a half hour later we stood on top. Clouds swirled around us and sporadically opened, revealing the spine of the Indian Peaks. Breathing in the summit, we passed in and out of two worlds , it was my 23rd birthday. Our decent took a bit longer than we had planned. A ton of bushwhacking and weird down climbing later we were left  searching for our next goal.
                                                                                                                                               

We had both heard rumors of a  Grade 3 route on  the north buttress of Mt Royal  in summit county that was supposedly 20 pitches.. After talking about it for a few weeks we made our move.

Royal Flush

 Leaving Boulder in the morning darkness we sailed smoothly through the state to the town of Frisco. The base of our route was a mere 5 minutes from the car. We harnessed up, double checked and began the climb. I took the first lead and strung the first two pitches into one long wet slabby pitch. After anthony joined me at the ledge it became obvious that it was going to be an adventure. The temps were cold and both of us climbed in a down parka and a wind shell. Gloves were neccecary for the belay and the rocks were partialy wet. In some places the moss and  slimy stuff made the climbing feel much more difficlut than it was. We moved up methodicaly pitch by pitch. Increasing our efficiancy with each belay change. We encounteed a plaqu  in commemoratin the late Ros van Kanel,(who was a real bad ass) He passed away in a climbing accident.

Uber Dude

 

Anthony, staying positive

The final pitches snaked up the big rock block seen from the interstate.The Cars on I-70 looked like ants beneath my rock shoes, birds dive bombed all around us. It felt like they were reminding us that this is their realm. We were both feeling solid that day and ended up climbing the more difficult variations on some of the pitches. I had the privlage to link up the 10a pitch more than a thousand feet off the ground, the exposure was epic.

Tim Toula bolted this route in 2009 .He is a legend in the climbing world and one of my personal heros. Turns out  Tim, like Anthony and I,  also lived in Flagstaff.   He wrote the guide book for Climbing in Northern Arizona. His book is still the only published info on the area.  Back at home in boulder canyon Toula had established a ton of classic climbs, only a few of witch Iv had the privlage to climb

 Just as we reached the last bit of roped climbing we spotted an amo box that housed a register for the climbers to sign their names to. It appeared that no other climbers had done the route in the past couple weeks,
 This seemed unbeleivable to me considering the quality of the rock and the safety the bolts provided. But it was cold ,we agreed that climbing this route any later in the year would be unpleasant. one final  gully of loose bits led us to the top. We basqued in our acomplishment for a moment before  gathering the rope, changing into our  tennies and husleing down the trail.

Adding a Caption

On top

 Anthoy is a competitive trail runner and has placed well in many races including the legendary Immogene pass race. Our paced quickened on the decent into asteady jog.Our climbing gear weight belts clanked jangled loudly.The people we passed on the trail didnt know where we had come from, thinking they were on the only route. We made it back to the car in record time.
Id like to thank my buddy Anthony for being consistent, trustworthy and an all around good sport. Id also like to thank Res Von Kenel and Tim Toula for their vision and insperation

Iron Lung.....no wait....Lungs of Steel

The home stretch

Passing on the lesft

Ive been rooting trough a  lot of photos lately and stumbled on these shots from my brief  competitive running career in 2010/11. I  placed in the top 20 in the 21 yearold male category, during the 2010 BolderBoulder 10k. Over 100,000 people participated that year. Because I had a good run time I was invited to run the Colder Boulder 5k the following winter.

Stoked

 

 I ended up placing 4th in my class during that race.It just so happened that I got  the #420 bib in my race packet too. Ironically. I'm working hard to get back in peak form for 2012 and hope to beat my previous  race times by a couple minutes.  Wish me luck...... also, Thanks to Glass Photography and to my brother Jesse Caldwell for the photos and brotherly support.

Unload and raise the Bar

 The new years arrival  didn't catch me off guard this year,  Iv been doing some closet cleaning, prioritizing and soul searching in preparation for the best year yet, 2012!

Take it to the top and raise the bar

In March I will be joining my friends the Eidenhoffer family on a huge trip through the heart of the Grand Canyon. This is a trip I've been dreaming about for years.Since I first laid my eyes on the magical labyrinth, I've always wanted to raft the river.(but I still have little knowledge of boats) I plan on being in peak mental and physical shape and keeping it that way. That means a few lifestyle changes and a fair amount of hard work at the gym, yoga studio and on the trail. So far I have climbed to the top of Mt. Sanits west of Boulder every day of the year.

Dusty trippin out on the scenery atop Sanitas

Even though im skeptical as to whether I can keep up the pace, I've given consideration to trying to climb to some kind of high point each day Preferably for sunrise or sunset but I'm not picky. I'm back on track with my yoga practice and have been swimming and gym climbing a bunch too. Diet is another big issue that needs to be addressed. It doesn't need too much tweaking, just a few conscious changes. Beer consumption is dropping as well as my apatite for sweets just before bed. I haven't had a sip of coffee in 2 weeks, in stead I'm learning to appreciate the calming effects of green tea .In the future I hope to post a more in depth look at my training practice and overall health goals.

Moon-rise or Sun-set, I say both

 Im taking it one step at a time, old habits are hard to break. Last time I checked I was still a single, highly eligible, semi hansom, bachelor too.(achhemm...ladies.) I also look forward to seeing another part of the world this year and add another chapter to my book of international experiences. Right know I'm considering my options and haven't quite chosen where to go  yet, time will tell. Chime in........... Im open to thoughts on how to make this year the best one ever!

Can you believe Iv been layin off coffee

Hidden Falls, we found it!

I also wanted to throw in a couple photos from my  recent trip to Hidden Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park. My good friend Tommy and I left Boulder pre-dawn under a  calm cloudless sky only to exit the car into gale force winds and flying debris 40 minutes later. During the approach we both thought we heard the sound of a bear but saw nothing. With the winter bringing such little snow I wouldn't be surprised if hibernation was abandoned. I was stoked on leading the whole flow from the ground up that day but the wind and a  large piece of rotten wood that loomed above the climb deterred me at the last minute. I climbed the first half of the waterfall  belayed by Tommy and built a basic anchor for a top rope session. We wriggled up a small gully around the corner and hiked to the top to set up another longer top rope on the upper portion of the fall. When I shook the suspect log it tore loose and sent a couple pieces over the edge. I'm glad I chose not to go for the lead,  had a piece of wood fallen I too may have been thrown off.

Ouray, Telluride, Silverton and so much more!

 Earlier this month I was was able to coordinate a little three day winter vacation to the southwest part of the state with my good pal Dusty Buck .  Over the coarse of  our roadtrip Rusty and  I accomplished  a solid amount of Ice climbing, Beer drinking, Hiking, Hot Spring soaking, Camping, Snowboarding, and general Exploration. The  greater
Telluride/Ouray/Silverton area turned out to be a big frozen playground and D. Buck and I took full advantage of our time off.
The trip started with a 7 hour drive across Colorado. We left Boulder after getting off work  around 10 PM , we promptly shoved  my Yakima roof box  full of gear in the back of  Dusty's truck. It proved  to be much easier to store gear in the box in the bed of the truck than to move all of our gear into the cab each time we left the truck parked.We threw in a couple of snow skateboards for fun as well as a bunch of emergency gear and food  that turned out to be super useful later on.After driving clear down to Ridgeway we pulled of on a side road to find a place to bivy for a few hours. In a coffee fueled, sleep deprived stupor we managed to high center the truck in  muddy ditch at 5AM. We spent the next 2 hours of the morning  trying to dig, jack,rock and spin our way out of the hole that damned us. After finaly flagging down a commuter we were able to yank it out with a tow rope.

First light after digging out the truck.

Having not slept for a full day we pulled into Ouray and couldn't even think about climbing, we were beat. So we passed out in the car in a pull off  a few minutes up Red Mountain pass. When we awoke the truck would not start. We began to wonder if we had done some unseen damage during our  muddy ditch fiasco. A dude in a truck gave us a jump and the car fired right up. I think Dusty may have slept with his foot on the brake, draining the battery.Semi rested we went into town and picked Tim's brain at Ouray Mountain Sports, to find out where the  good ice was. Filled with info and excitement we drove up to the Skylight area, famous for its gnarly ice and mixed routes.

  

Dusty Buck and Trusty Truck

We saw some guys dry-tooling some uber hard roof stuff, then  parked, geared up  and hiked in to a climb known as "Chockstone", for obvious reasons. Coincidently we ran into my front range buddies Rob and LauraLynn with  whom I had climbed 10 days prior at the Moffat tunnel Ice flow. They were at the same route we were nearly 340 miles from home. what a small world ........eh!

Swing, kick,kick, swing, kick ,kick!

We climbed for a couple hours before descending to the car. Rob and LauraLynn had done the steep  second pitch of  "chokstone" and came down shorly after us. We gave them a ride on the tale gate down Camp Bird road to their Prius. We shared a few stories and took turns pulling from a bottle of scotch. Dust and I headed down to town for a brew at the Ouray brewery. Owned and operated by ice climbers, Ouray Brewery has some great beers and a super fun mountain town atmosphere. I was glad to go back after visiting last year during the Ouray Ice Festival. While drinking at the bar, we met this gold miner who was an "explosives expert". He had one good eye and a crazy prosthetic hook on one arm. It reminded me of  a grappling hook, like batman. We never asked how he lost his hand. He told us that  ,as  climbers, we should go up to the high mountain ridges in the area  with metal detectors and scout out deposits of gold that have been exposed by erosion. The idea sounded plausible enough to me.

Crusty Buckknife Ice Mining in Ouray

 That night we drove around Mt Sneffles  and into Telluride. After meeting up with my aunt Mary  for a Carona  at her  Art Gallery / minibar, Kamruz,downtown. We jumped on the gondola with a couple bottles of amber ale  and went to mountain Village to check it out and, you guessed it, have some more drinks. We popped in on a chrismas sweater party at "Tracks Cafe and Bar"  and whitmessed some awsome costumes, none of which I  managed to photograph. One of the best things about the gondola is that you dont have to opperate a vehicle to get home safe. Dusty was beat and passed out at the gallery while I went down to the New Sheridan Hotel with Mary for a nice  chat and  one final drink. I woke up fairly hungover and hit the Steaming bean pronto for a couple dirty chai teas. Altitude doesnt help a hangover . A fact I always seem to relearn the hardway. As we drove tword Bear Creek to go climb for the day, Dusty's truck died in an intersection. We pulled it off to the side and proceeded to try everything we could think of to get er runnin again. We had it towed 7 miles out of town and had a mechanic take a look. I stayed in town and ate  pastries while checking out gear shops. Dusty went with the truck.  I met one of my personal heros,Jon Miller, at Paragon Sports. I had seen a film the year before at Neptunes Mountaineering about the Ski the Himilayas project. I  was really inspired by the film and was able to call Jon out on his fame. He is a super cooll guy, full of vigor and curiosity, both good traits for  a climber .
Turns out there  is an emergency shut off button in the passenger side foot area. Dont ask me why. The button was reset and Dust came to meet me. We were tired from the ordeal but still wanted to check out bear creek. We'd need  to bring headlamps.......so we packed up, again, left the car parked and hiked upbear creek . An hour and considerably less sunlight later we stood at the base of a huge curtain of ice 200 feet long  50 to 60 feet high,ranging from semi steep to dead vertical.

I chose to lead  up some fairly easy terrain Id call WI2, and a bushwak factor of 3 for the chest high powder aproach.Four screws later we slung a couple trees and abseiled the vertical section to top rope a bit. It was cold and snowing, everything had a fresh foot of snow and crust on it. This made for lots of debris and a super wet experience.

 I feel like these photos kind of yin and yang well , they give a good look  at the contrasts in light, mood, and feeling. Dusty took his final laps in the dark before breaking down the anchor and having a good rappel.

Tobin   Photo:Dusty

Dusty  Photo:Tobim

After freeing our selves from the deep snow we crawled into a cave behind the ice and chilled out for a bit before leaving. It stopped snowing and the sky was full of stars .
We husled down the trail into town to catch up with Katie from the paperchase and chow down some pizza and ale  at Brown Dog Pizza. Our team the" Ice miners"came in dead last in bar room trivia. oh well, we still had a good day! After driving to nearby Placerville, CO we prepared our gear for  our next wild higs and lows. Tomorrow we Snowboard at Siverton Mountain. They had been closed for the previous week and had received somewhere in the vicinity of 20+ inches of snow. An avalanche beacon, shovel probes and previous back-ountry experience were all pre requisite to even purchasing your lift ticket. Basically, Its serious!
The next morning the sun appeared nearly an hour after we had hit the road. A cloudless day and perfect road conditions made the drive from T-ride to Silverton a snap. As soon as we parked the car it became obvious  we were surrounded by our own kind. By that i mean outdoors-men, gear junkies, powder whores and generaly bad-ass mountain folks. Firing up our beacons we headed up the lift for the first turns the mountain had seen in weeks. This meant a lot of fresh powder for everyone.

Peace on Tiger Mountain

We made six runs through out the coarse of the day but my body felt like it had been more like 10 or 12. Some of the areas we explored were: Cabin, Tiger bowl, Concussion trees, RiffnRaff and the Bowling alley. If you havent had the chance to check out Silverton Mountain Iwould highly recomend it. Our 10 hours at silverton ranks as one of the top 5 Ski days in my life!After shmoozing at the bar/ ticket office/ lodge tent thing we headed back to the truck. As our luck would have it, we couldn't get er fire up. Luckily after trying a few things we reset the button by the passenger side foot area and she fired  right up. Luckily this was the last of the car trouble we would have on this crazy trip. We called it a day and left Siverton, driving back over red mountain pass a straight to Orvis Hot springs just out side Ouray. This is another awesome destination that I would recommend to anyone. We paid a small fee to pitch our tent behind the hot springs area and had the opportunity to soak (clothing optional) out our tired muscles for a few hours. We stayed in the lobster pot (110F) for as long as we could before moving on tho the swimming pool sized main spring. The difficulties we had encountered seemed to melt away as we became more and more sedated. In sharp contrast, the clear calm night saw the temperature drop to about 0 degrees. even in our tent everything froze that night, including my eyelids.  I had left my wet swim suit out for the night  in the back of the truck. It had frozen into a stiff Frisbee that dusty and iItossed around for a bit after breaking down the tent. We had some coffee and hit the road back home. Our trip was over but the memories lingered in our mind for weeks after. It all seems like a dream.........but it was real!

Winter or what?

Even thought Colorado has been receiving less snow than many people would like this winter Ive been making the best of my free time ,skiing and climbing every chance I get.

So far Ive managed to re -learn to alpine ski and have put in 13 days between Eldora, Loveland and Silverton Mt. Iv been doing a fare amount of skinning too. A couple scouting trips in the Peaceful valley area and RMNP have helped me get used to horizontal travel.

Hidden Ice in Peaceful Valley

As far as Ice climbing is concerned, Ive been to the Moffat tunnel flow 4 times, lead the first two pitches of WI2 at Mt Linclon and just returned from an epic snowboarding /ice climbing trip to the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. While in Ouray Dusty Buck and I got to climb the aptly named Chock stone route at the Sky light area. The next day I had the chance to lead a 50ish ft pitch of WI2/3  and hang a top-rope at the awesome but crusty Bear Creek Falls outside Telluride.The final day of our trip we had the privilege to ride a fresh 20he inches at Silverton Mt. before camping at the Orvis hot springs in negative temperatures.These are just a few of the photos I was able to take on my phone. I plan on elaborating on these events one I load more photos from the pocket camera. Check back soon...

The Day of to J off! Rockin out at Silverton Mt.