It was 55 degrees today! The trails are still too muddy to ride unless they’re frozen so I hit the road for a nice jaunt up in the Colorado National Monument. It made for a nice cardiovascular compliment to yesterday’s ice climbing. There’ll probably be mote of this to come this week.
Today I climbed with Carl Cudworth on two of Ouray’s less frequented classics, The Skyrocket (aka Bride’s Veil Falls) and The Killer Pillar.
The Skyrocket was steep, sun-bleached, punchy and hollow. It’s a little thin on the top out, but pretty good: thought provoking.
The Killer Pillar was much more straightforward, though steeper and to the point. 5.7 rock climbing to a short and narrow section of well protected WI 6. Both climbs were excellent!
The Sun finally broke the horizon for the Ouray Ice Park. It & the warmer March weather will start melting the ice in the Park soon. Time to go higher up!
Here’s Carl Studworth topping out on one of the Five Fingers.
Oh yeah, it was snowy, too! The tempurature was 30 so the mud did not set up like ” frozen peanut butter.” It was more like “refridgerated peanut butter,” still firm enough to ride on without making ruts, but slightly pliable. It was good and grippy under the inch of new snow. The new deep lugged Panaracer Rampage on the rear wheel didn’t hurt either.
