Bitty Buttress Baby!!

Climbed Bitty Buttress route ( 8+) with J2 on Saturday. Easily my favorite multi pitch route in Boulder Canyon for the grade. Steep, exposed, and super funky moves make this a definitely must do route. Very different from most Boulder Canyon trad climbs....Actually climbs more like an Eldo route in my opinion..

Looking up the first pitch..Pretty much follow the dihedral that flanks the arete for a long pitch (150Ft) Belay on a large ledge on the east side of the buttress......

Pitch two....More funkiness and some sweet exposure on this pitch...

Looking down Pitch two....

Crux Pitch Baby!! Climb the thin crack into a shallow left facing dihedral, when it ends as well as your gear stem across and do a long reach for a hidden rail high left...sustained 8+ with good gear below your feet.....

View down the crux 3rd pitch.....Next gear placement after the crux is at my waist at this point....

J2 after the climb.....Sweet clouds and some cool rainbow virga going on in the cirrus clouds in the background.....

Peace, Jason

Flagstaff Bouldering

My buddy Mike Zadd is visiting from out of town and with this recent stormy weather we decided to take it easy and do a little bouldering up at the world class flagstaff bouldering areas....

Started at Upper y traverse for a good warm up and then we headed down to the 3 of a Kind traverse...

Your's truly getting horizontal with it on the 3 of a kind traverse, V4

Mike hanging in there...

Mike pulling down on the muppet traverse V3....

That's what I call "Extreme" concentration..Notice the sweet left hand jam utilized to reach over the bulge.. A heel hook takes some stress off the arms...

Front view of muppet traverse....

Flagstaff is quite a awesome place to come climb or just boulder, which it is quite famous for....Finger shreeding conglomerate sandstone on mostly overhanging terrain make for some sweet problems.....Just look for the chalk...crash pad optional....

Peace,

Jason

Lumpy Ridge

Lumpy Ridge, located in Estes Park Colorado, is hands down my favorite place to climb. Spectacular crack and face climbing on bullet hard granite with a unbelievable backdrop of a setting, Rockey Mountain National Park. Upon entering my fourth year of climbing on the ridge, I cant help but feel grateful that such a place exists only 45 minutes from Boulder. This season I'm hoping to document more of my climbs on Lumpy and in RMNP, and compile enough footage for a slide show at the end of the year...But that also means I really have to start remembering to bring my camera...So to kick things off here are some pics form last weekend at Lumpy with my buddy Jason " J2" Estes. He's also a DBC Courier and a solid second, always down for climbing, no matter what I put him on...

J2 on the first pitch flake.....We decided on doing a variation to Pear Buttress called Thindependence.....Pretty much what it sounds like...Some thin crack climbing...Bring RP's.....The dual thin cracks of Thindependence..





Looking Back down after sewing it up!! Whew!



Check out pitch three of Pear Buttress, awesome finger to hands crack going for 100 ft....Sweet!!





This is a pic I took after we finished, looking up at another climbing party on the same route we did about to start the Pitch 3 hand crack to the climbers left...

Looking down pitch 3 of Pear Buttress


J2 figuring out the funky moves to exit the cave route and finish the climb....

Jason "J2" hanging out at the end of the climb. Longs Peak dominating the background...





well it never really got that hot, and the afternoon T-storms never materialized so we decided do go and climb the first pitch of Georges Tree on the Book and set up a top rope. Standard lumpy flared hand /finger crack, sustained 5.9 climbing for 100 ft.. The perfect cool down...

Happy Trails!

Jason

Escalante

Went climbing in Escalante Canyon a couple weeks ago with Cory Fleagle and the dogs for the weekend. Lamont and Sarah met up with us out there as well for quite a good weekend of sandstone crack climbing.

A little soggy on Saturday..But still got a lot of climbing done...

Cory Fleagle leading just one of the many splitter finger cracks in the canyon.....
Sarah pullin through.....Definitely one of the coolest routes in the area...



Lamont, styling through the roof crux....





Sunshine making an appearance....












The " S Crack ". Finger tips to hands to fist to double fist stack inch fest......Totally sweet climbing!



Butters.... Zowie...

Just like to thank Cory Fleagle for pulling me up all those sweet routes and showing me the ways of desert crack climbing..



Peace , Jason

" The Park "

This past Sunday Aaron Miller and myself headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to check out the snow conditions near the Dragon Tail couloirs above Emerald Lake. With the recent warming temps I think we both were very intrigued on what we might find.


It was definitely warm on the approach....Aaron getting ready for a dip in emerald lake?




The snow conditions actually felt a little spring like, not too heavy to make turns, and super fast...Although it looked pretty tracked out from this past week there was still plenty of untracked lines to be skied....It was good!!




After two laps near the apron of the Dead Elk couloir we decided to go check out the snow under the north face of Hallett which was still in the shade.
The massive 1000ft North face of Hallett looms over us....
But of course as the day got warmer the glop factor ( snow that sticks to climbing skins when the temps rise ) was in full effect.....Time to get the scraper out...
The snow that was being preserved due to the shade under the N. face of Hallett was really good....Super soft and winter like ....It made for some great turns and an equally impressive show for the spectators down at Emerald lake....never before had I skied a slope and got a standing ovation from the onlooking snowshoe'rs upon our exit.....It was a little weird I admit, but probably not so out of place if say we were in Europe or something.....




Peace, Jason

Hidden Falls Hi-Lite reel

So once again I've neglected to keep up with my posts, but at least this time I've got enough good pics to sort of wrap up this past month of ice climbing at Hidden Falls. Also got the privilege of introducing ice climbing to two close rock climbing friends, Mike Zadd who was in town visiting from his law job in Kentucky, and Jacob McGuire a good buddy and sold front range rock climber. They both did awesome, which just solidified my enjoyment of guiding and introducing people to new things in the mountains...


Cory Fleagle asking me for a little privacy before he launches up a mixed line in awesome form.
Uhh....I don't think so Dude!!

Mike Zadd enjoying the experience.......Yours truly chopping away...
Jacob making some delicate moves on the ice curtain ...Till next time.....
Peace, Jason

Dirt Bag!