Rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, we ate breakfast at the luxurious table at Saddlehorn campground in Colorado National Monument. Jason comments that it seems like every single picnic table in a national park is tilted, and I can’t help but agree. The angle isn’t so bad, and I fire up the jetboil that I purchased what feels like years ago but was really just a couple of weeks ago at the REI in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was getting sick of firing up the Coleman stove every morning, which requires finding space for the stove in our tight van. The jetboil is fantastic! I’m pretty accustomed to instant coffee at this point, which was a good call to bring instead of my whole Aeropress rig which has a high center of mass and loves tipping over and making messes and is therefore not practical on a van trip. It also generates coffee grounds, which just makes more waste. How is it that you can’t eat coffee grounds, but you can consume instant coffee? It must be some kind of extraction process. ANYHOO.
I have used this mug that Shannon made me every single day of this trip!
Last night Jason and I made the call to not climb Otto’s Route, because the comments on Mountain Project made it sound like it might be another stressful situation that our nervous systems really don’t need at this point. Apparently some cowboy named John Otto put up the route in 1911, over 100 years ago, and basically drillled out holes the entire way (400ft vertical) and stuck a pipe in the holes for aid. Allegedly he made this first ascent while wearing cowboy boots. Therefore, the climbing is not that difficult and you can protect by placing tricams in the carved holes as you walk up the carved steps. Since the climb is so “easy” and it’s a stones throw from civilization, the route gets a lot of traffic. A lot of traffic on sandstone spells out a sandy mess, which can be a little scary when you are leading and the route is slippery. Oh, and we didn’t pack any tricams. We considered our cams being viable replacements (this was supported by several comments on Mountain Project from people who successfully led the route without any tricams), but after much deliberation, decided to pass on Otto’s route altogether. “Let’s climb in Glenwood Canyon instead - I know an area with some cool granite trad routes,” Jason offered. I eyed them up and quickly agreed.
Glenwood Canyon!
We drove the couple of hours from Grand Junction/Fruita to Glenwood Canyon, this stretch of highway 70 extremely familiar to both of us. Our homecoming was welcome to both of us stinky tired souls, but I was still happy that we were slowing down the return trip. While I was excited to shower and sleep in my own bed tonight, I wasn’t quite ready to put an end to the trip.
We parked at the Jess Weaver trailhead, and I recalled that this is where I met some friends who visited from CA a few years ago but I fell sick with COVID right before they arrived, and while they stayed at an awesome Airbnb in Ouray, I stayed home in Golden and we met up for a day in Glenwood Springs. I remember feeling so bummed to not stay in Ouray with them, but thankful for the outdoor time we shared together in such a beautiful place.
The approach took less than 5 minutes from car to crag, and Jason and I explored the granite cracks that contrasted starkly with the sandstone we had grown accustomed to over the past few weeks. Granite is heavily textured compared to sandstone, with little inclusions of quartz, mica, feldspar, and whatever else makes up granite. Footholds were a-plenty, and I led some routes, too! I am becoming a bit addicted to trad climbing, thank you Jason for enabling this new addiction.
Getting started on this thin crack was very hard for me but Jason made it look easy
Good old fashioned fun on a 5.9 romp
The climbing was fun, fairly straightforward, and the rock was secure. We both felt great regarding out decision to forego Otto’s route and opt for more casual climbing instead. Jason still pushed himself by trying some 5.10’s on toprope, and I still managed to get into some shenanigans by pulling a roof to set up a toprope instead of taking the more obvious, easy scramble to my right. I sent the roof, traversed a bit, realized if I fell I’d have a huge whip onto a ledge, and was excited that I could protect my shenanigans with the gear on my harness. Trad climbing feels liberating, it opens up a world of options for exploration beyond the confines of a bolted route someone else established.
In the late afternoon we packed up, tired, satisfied, and happy. It was hard to believe that we were really heading home now. We stopped for pizza in Silverthorne at Willy and Nick’s or whatever the place is called, it’s owned by two badass women who bought the establishment a few years ago. The pizza was fantastic and we savored the mozarella and recent memories we had forged together. I couldn’t believe it - my first lead in Indian Creek, my hardest lead on trad, my first time falling on gear - so many firsts for me! Jason had put up more chimney routes than either of us could have predicted on this trip, which is impressive because he allegedly hates chimneys (maybe some part of him likes them…?). I felt a surge of pride in both of our accomplishments, both on and off the rock. Staying (relatively) calm when the van broke down, supporting each other and making each other laugh even when we got on each other’s nerves in such a confined space for week after week felt like real accomplishments as well. I know I will remember this trip for the rest of my life, and I have a feeling that I will be drawing on the memories sooner than later as I begin my next chapter in life. It’s hard to believe that the PhD has ended, full time work will begin soon (assuming I get a job offer one of these days), and my life will look entirely different than it has for the past few weeks of nomad climbing in the desert and skiing in Salt Lake.
Thank you all for following along this journey, and let’s climb/hang soon!