Bent Forks and Broncos

The Crew At approximately 9:02 AM on Saturday, I got a call from one of those vacation peddling con-men indicating that I had won a free week-long cabin rental at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. All I had to do was to immediately bring two bags to the car waiting to pick me up. Right now. This con man was Zach. In on the con were his wife, Sevda, two friends of ours both called Dave (we’ll call one Dave and the other Dave-O), and myself. It was time for the Red. Earlier in the year, Dave, Zach, Sevda, Lisa and I had gone to the Red. It was supposed to be more than the five of us, but rain. I had actually booked the biggest non-van rental car possible, but rain. We’re talking I’ve-just-used-half-the-country’s-oil-reserves-to-get-to-the-red Chevy Suburban big. But rain. Not even the 100%-its-going-to-rain rain, but the 80% chance of rain every day rain. I’m going to skip the hour long game of telephone trying to convince people to change flights and climbing locations at 1:00 ...

Note: I've recently returned (not recent any more--it was nearly two years ago!) from an amazing trip to Slovenia and Croatia. This next series of posts (if I ever finish them) will describe some of the highlights, primarily with a climbing focus. Ok, you got me. It's almost 100% about climbing. Here's part three,  Croatia's Gym. Route Summary (out of four stars): Banana Split,  5c (15m): ★★★ (solid warmup, lots of fun). Krokodil,  6b (22m): ★★★★ Rasierklinge , 5c (9m): ★ Auskneifer , 6c+ (really?!) (15m): ?? ★ Over dub, 5c (22m): ★★ Il viaggio , 6a (18 m):    ★★★ Veleshit,  6a+ (17 m): ★★ Cuja ti si bog!, 5c+(15m): ★★ What makes a climb great? Is it the location? The exposure? The moves? The difficulty? The people you're with? I've had some time to think about the question, and all I've come up with is a vague notional idea, that feels very cop-out-ish. It's some combination of every factor, and that combination is different f...

I made it out Gretna for a short, hot and humid Bouldering Session Sunday afternoon. Not exactly ideal Pennsylvania Bouldering conditions, but I was out pulling on real rock, so I can't complain. Even though I was only out for ~4ish hours, I'm pretty stoked about a pseudo-project that I finally sent. Thankfully (sort of), gravity does still work, because I haven't sent any of my hard projects yet. Here's a quick recap of the high and low lights. The updated Mt Gretna Bouldering Guidebook that was supposed to be in stock by January (last time I went there)? Not out yet. I'm not complaining, because there's a lot of hard work that goes into making the guidebook, and I really appreciate the guys who do it. Ok, I'm complaining a little. But only because I'm stoked. I hopped back on the delicate, slabby,  Scarlet Lady --a problem I sent the first time I visited Gretna for the Bouldering competition--and bailed right on slightly scary high-ballish moves on...

Note: I've recently returned from an amazing trip to Slovenia and Croatia. This next series of posts (if I ever finish them) will describe some of the highlights, primarily with a climbing focus. Ok, you got me. It's almost 100% about climbing. Here's part two, An Afternoon in Paklenica. Route Summary (out of four stars): Vaginalna Manipulacija,  6a+ (20m): ★ Gerovit,  6c+/7a (14m) :  ★★★ (Awesome short route. Probably a fantastic warm-up for its neighbors) Butter Keks,  5c (18m): ★ (I don't remember this route, but know I climbed it) Crni Gad , 6b (20m):    ★★★★ (So good. Oh, so good). It's 1 pm, Martin and I are baking in the sun, and we haven't matched any of guidebook topos with walls. We're staring at this small, flat metal triangle drilled into the base of a seemingly blank, overhanging wall. Enscripted on the triangle is a route name and grade: Il Maratoneta,  8b+. We're not climbing this. We hike uphill a little farther,...

Note: I've recently returned from an amazing trip to Slovenia and Croatia. This next series of posts (if I ever finish them) will describe some of the highlights, primarily with a climbing focus. Ok, you got me. It's almost 100% about climbing. Here's part one, Entering Paklenica. The first day we drove into Paklenica was my second day driving our massive (especially for European Standards) Euro-minivan. The one-and-a half lane road quickly snakes through the valley, hugging the North side of the rapidly steeping valley. The sides of the roads are peppered with two types of signs: "Winnetou #N" or "_____ Kuk," the latter being listed with a climbing grade. We (correctly) inferred that the "Kuks" were sign posted multi-pitch routes; I (incorrectly) guessed that the Winnetou placards were Paklenica's unique method of marking parking lots. We hit the parking lot. Like any able bodied American, I skipped the first open spot to find so...

View Larger Map Breaking my foot left me with few outlets for physical activity. Running was out. Climbing? Out. Hiking? Probably not a good idea. Ultimate? See running. Football? See running. But I figured out a loophole: biking. With a little bit of pushing, I got my little brother to package and send my bike over. A few trips to the bike shop later, I was good to go. And it was awesome. If you haven't biked recently, steal someone's bike and go. Its the most fun you can have on 2 (or more) wheels without getting a motorcycle license. It's like flying, without the falling. Like driving quickly, but without the metal skeleton. And then I got a crazy idea: I should bike to work. So I did. Well, in actuality, I biked from work one evening and biked to work the next day (I still haven't gotten Maryland plates so I can't park on the street at my current residence). Needless to say, I got lost. In both directions. It probably took me 2 hours to make it home (...

Misery loves company, but its not very photogenic.  So we have no photos from our wet, vehicular Capitol approach. It started with one of those classic Aspen rain storms: sunshine on one side of the street and a down-pour on the other. It's Colorado, we reasoned, the storm should be done in fifteen minutes. Our campsite will be dry by the time we get there. We mistook Snowmass with Snowmass Village, failed to find the turn off, and ended up in Basalt. This didn't get us any closer to the Capitol Creek Trailhead. Nor did it make our campsite any drier. Several hours later we pulled into the Hay Park TH, two miles short of the Capitol Creek TH. Our approach vehicles, a rental Chevy Malibu and an Audi, can't handle rough dirt roads, and we had returned the Jeep already. It's too bad: Hay Park, the closest non 4wd Capitol camping location, was TH for horse trails. The parking lot was inches deep with horse shit. We didn't bother getting out of the car t...