WHEN IT SNOWS IT POURS (1/2)

[insert favorite song here]

in retrospect i feel like i left bishop too early (definintely could have used 2 or 3 more weeks there); not completely in my (present) control as my past self made plans to be here in boulder, co this week (6-12) as i (decided to go to joes for a week and) have previously mentioned; which is about the only thing i am super-psyched about in the here-and-now (but that's the next post-thought, 2/2).

but... i'm glad i spent the time to check out joes valley. this is definitely a place to get back to:


i arrived in joes valley on monday around noon and found brian, eric & jamie. i was feeling bummed about my newly busted finger and decided not to climb for yet another day (making 5 days off since the pulley tear). we checked out the new joes area, including



THE RIVERSIDE BOULDERS,








WORST CASE SCENARIO,






TRENT'S MOM, and THE ANTI-FUTURE PLAN before heading back to


camp







for dinner and a movie.

after seeing the rock and doing some approach-shoe warmup climbs i decided to tape the hell out of my finger and go for it the next day. and i'm glad i did.


we ended up going to AREA 51 (on tuesday) and doing some fun stuff (some easy and moderate stuff -only thing i know the name of was pocket rocket), and then ended up deciding that we were all (having each been on a roadtrip for anywhere from 4 to 6 months)







not motivated anymore & needing to do something other than rockclimbings for a little while.







the highlight of the day was getting on RESIDENT EVIL and doing all the moves except for the top-out.

the next morning (wednesday) jaime and eric decided after a nite full of snow, that it was time to move on. brian stuck around long enough to hike around a little looking for some problems on the right fork. by the afternoon it was still snowing, and cold. brian left that afternoon and i, not wanting to go to denver yet, decided to stay the nite and see how thursday faired.

the next day was warm again and the sun was peering out behind only partly cloudy skies. i went and tried MAXIPAD, which ended up being harder than i thought.


after getting shut down i made the short drive to new joes and area 51, to get back on RESIDENT EVIL. i couldn't do the first move that day, but was able to do the (i guess) stand start (someone told me they call it an 8). i was happy about the 2 day progress and wished i had maybe one more day to do the problem proper... maybe next time.

so friday i left around 10am and made the 7ish hour drive to denver (hoping to go to the denver art museum the next day), arriving just in time for rush-hour. then met up with a couple friends and cooked dinner and watched a movie. we all went to bed waiting for what was supposed to be a snow storm -only ended up being a dusting.

saturday made it to the DAM (denver art museum) for "free day" (1st saturday of the month) and walked more than i'd walked in a long time. my hips hurt and after having not slept too well on a too-short couch i was hungry and ready for a nap.

the no-storm was a relief for me seeing as how my end-stop was to hang out with some friends from back east for the week in where i finally made it to after the next post...