penitente canyon and "noodle arms"

i found a good read on a writer's climbing adventures in colorado. kudos to msnbc.com for the highlights. the article makes reference to someone getting the nickname "noodle arms" during an intro climbing course. funny.

finally, some rock! i'm heading out to penitente canyon tomorrow with my friend erik. the plan is to hike and sport climb for two days. we'll leave from breckenridge in the late morning and return on tuesday evening. i'll take my nikon d70 camera and put together a brief photo essay. you can see some of my photo work here: www.davidmejias.com

any other climbing newbies out there reading this? i'm curious.

endurance training and where to climb?

my goal this summer/fall is to climb outdoors once a week or so, join a climbing gym some time this winter and then get ready for some '06 spring climbing. i'd like to do more. hopefully i can meet some people to climb with.

until i join a gym or start climbing outside more regularly, i've decided to to try some endurance training exercises i came across online. it's a ten week program. this week i've been working pushups, plie squats, reverse dumbbell wrist curls, and pronators. since i don't have access to a gym at this point, i've been working on pullups as well. i've also been spinning at 24 hour fitness 3x a week for about two months now to make the heart a bit stronger.

today, my height is 5'8, and my weight is 138 -- i need to gain some weight! speaking of weight, i recently bought a box of oat-rageous health bars by promax. Pretty good mix of carbs/proteins/fat. yum too.

wet scramblin' in dream canyon

i went to new mexico this weekend with my friend lynn. what a beautiful drive. there are some amazing mountain ranges out near santa fe that seemingly bleed during sunsets. lynn's family invited me to visit them in espanola at any time. i'd like to hike/climb those parts some time.

ah, scramblin' in the rain. i drove to boulder this afternoon to meet up with erik in an attempt to hit some newbie 5.8/5.9 climbs. we arrived in dream canyon at around 245pm and spent a good two hours getting seriously lost (again - ha!). the experience was more exciting than i expected. we twice traversed some white water across an old beaver's dam, and then steeply scrambled out the canyon as a lightning storm struck. we left the area completely soaked - head to toe. rocks can be very slippery when wet.

it was fine that we didn't get to climb. the rain and lightning would have done an even worse number on us and the ropes.

haus rock in keystone

woo hoo! after getting unmistakably lost for about 45 minutes, erik and i finally found haus rock in keystone. haus rock has south facing climbs with great shade - worth exploring in the summer months. we were lucky enough to (mostly) avoid colorado's crazy summer heat. denver hit a record of 105 today.

i somehow managed to successfully top rope a 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8 without falling or slipping! after learning how to "clean the route", i took down all the anchors on the 5.8 ("feet don't fail me now") climb, tied up erik's daisy chain to my waist, and self-belayed myself down. i was a little dizzy with fear up there. erik is a very patient teacher.

start

i've only climbed twice in my life. the first time was way back in 1999 when i first moved to colorado and was introduced to top ropping by a group of friends. my slight(!) fear of heights kept me from ever wanting to try it again. my second time hanging around ropes was this winter (2005). a friend took me to the spot in boulder. i'm going to try it all again tomorrow. my friend erik is meeting me in keystone for some learnin'. he's generously agreed to help me become a better climber.

i hit rei today to get some equipment. here's what I spent way too much money on:

* men's spire five ten climbing shoes (size 7.5) - $80
* mammut focus harness (small) - $43
* a chalk bag w/ ball - $18
* a locking caribiner - $10
* an ATC belay device - $19

climb on!