Skyward Mountaineering

Sicktor!

SMF — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:01:06 +0000

New ice forming above the Posuers’ Lounge Cave. It should yield at least one good, athletic M-climb. It’s only ten minutes from the parking lot and is getting fatter by the minute right now.

Battleship

SMF — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:14:42 +0000

Gut punched with Josh Kling and two other Durango hardmen. I finally got my “moment” with the Megawatts. They worked as predicted: fun and fast in the smooth powder. It was a nice day for it as the snowpack is finally bridging and there is still cold snow on the less sunny aspects. The wind picked up while we were on top and seems to be hammering it all now. It was a nice window of opportunity for us.

I took the photo from Anvil, which Josh and I did as a lap on afterwards.

White Cross

SMF — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:41:01 +0000

I recently got a fancy, super light cyclo-cross bike. So far, I’ve really just used it as a road warrior and haven’t used in any true off road conditions. I was feeling a bit like poser so I decided to give it a try on some of our local single track and mud, then connect up with a big road climb to Glade Park and down the windy switchbacks of Colorado National Monument. That seemed a true “cross” outing. Well, let’s just say technical, rocky single track is not what it’s meant for. But hey, it’s really light so easy enough to shoulder through the tricky sections. At least I got it muddy and the 3,000 foot climb up the road was a good burn.

White Line Fever

SMF — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:03:35 +0000

It’s been quite warm at home lately, barely freezing at night. When home, I’ve been trying to get out on my SS on the single track early, while it’s still frozen. The good news is that the trails are drying, the bad news is their not there yet. That means it’s time for more White Line Fever (aka Road Rage!)
I’m heading up to Canada soon so I’m trying to get my butt in shape for my aspirations of alpine granduer.

Spring?

SMF — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:06:14 +0000

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.

Two Gems

SMF — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:37:09 +0000

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!

Turning the Corner on Winter

SMF — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:20:39 +0000

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.

Lunch Loop in the Dark!

SMF — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:41:24 +0000

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.

A Preview

SMF — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:35:34 +0000

Here’s a view of the comp route for the upcoming Ouray Ice Festival from the Judges Platform. Yeah, the final ice roof is hard!

A message from Tyler:

SMF — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:32:25 +0000