BOULDERING ON THE BOULDERS IN BOULDER

[so what by miles davis]

finally... so happy to be "out there" again. aside from still having a slight 'trigger finger', my knuckle seems to be holding up under the pressures of rockclimbing. the plan is day-on, day-off, for awhile at least; to ensure continual recovery.

i got to climb friday for the 1st time in over 2 weeks. it felt so good. went to the flatirons with nick, dan, joe, jeremy, and a few others from boulder. did lots of easy warm-ups before stepping it up into the intermediate range. got shut-down on a 5 vert crimp/balance thingy. then flashed a 4/5 roof that was super fun.

then i was actually pretty surprised that i got close on the area classic turning point (8). it didn't matter that i fell on the last couple moves, b/c i was so happy to be climbing anything. after that went and did all the warm-ups again to cool down; and finished the day out on a couple low-balls we missed in the morning.

here's some more pics from the pine needle forest:

pictured left is turning point. sorry you can't see the slopers and crimps on the sunny side of the face.

here's ander doing what he does best: messing w/ people, especially while they're climbing! and sometimes he climbs (but only indoors for right now).

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also got out on sunday to another area in the flatirons called the terrain boulders. quite a hike this one: 45 minutes uphill, but worth it. did quite a few moderates, including a flash of a highball/solo (5). it was a little scary since i was the 1st to go up, not knowing where to go because there was no chalk; but sacked up and finished it (only because i didn't want to jump off from 15 feet, half-way up. it was more heady than hard).

saw an old friend, jen sauer, who lives in denver now. once again a fun day with a good crew in a new area.

finished off the day flashing parasol 5 and making quick work of plush 7 and kenny g's meat whistle 8. in addition, i lost the most skin since i've been on this trip, seeing as how this is some of the sharpest sandstone i've climbed on.

i feel like i'm getting old though. hurting fingers, getting bruised/achy knees (my knee popped on a back-step on my ascent of plush). nothing major, but it is sore today. i think i'll probably have to be that guy that starts only doing easy sport, because that's all my body will be able to handle after this road trip.

so all in all, i think i'm getting back into the swing of things. hopefully i'll be crushing full-on at my limit soon (maybe tomorrow when i go and check out yet another area in the front range).