Colorado

I've been here in Colorado for a couple weeks now and the weather has been anything but good. Actually it's been raining pretty much every day. Still we've managed to get some climbing in. The season is just starting in the park and a lot of the problems in lower and upper chaos are still buried in snow.

Freaks of the Industry, V13

Despite the snow, the Green 45 is in the prime right now meaning that I finally got to try Jade, V15. First day that we hiked up there I was definitely not used to the thin air at 11 000 ft. After a desperate effort to warm up I started working on Jade. I suprised even myself by doing the famous crux move on my third try. It was too cold to stay warm while resting. I got really close after a few tries from the start, but then split my tips on the tiny crimper.

Jade, V15

Yesterday we hiked back up, even though the weather forecast was bad. After I got warmed up up it started snowing really hard and we had to hide in the cave. Luckily it didn't last too long and the topout on Jade stayed pretty dry.

Whiteout at the Green 45

On my first try of the day I got trough the crux and felt solid. Then my left foot slipped. On the ground I noticed that my shoe was wet from the pads. I was really frustrated, because that try took a lot of skin, and you only get about five good tries before you split your skin on the tiny spike. Second try I stuck the crux hold, but my feet swung and I let go to save skin. Right when I fell on the pads I looked into the valley and noticed it was already snowing and saw a huge blizzard coming towards us. I knew this was my last change and with no rest I started climbing. I got through the crux, stuck the sidepull and got to the good rail. At this point it was snowing really hard and I saw some water dripping from the top. Carefully grabbing the holds I topped it out in the rain! In total Jade took me two days and around ten full tries from the start. Such a good problem! Video and photos coming up soon.

A cold day in Upper Chaos

I'm hoping the weather turns better soon, because I'm syked to climb in the park and Mt. Evans. There are a few hard projects that I want to get on before I leave to South Africa. This week we might escape the cold weather and go to Joe's Valley in Utah to climb on sandstone.

Benson

Lake Haiyaha