These boots weren’t made for climbing, but climbing’s what I’m doin’. These boots weren’t made for climbin’ but I’m climbin’ over this peak.

Saturday, July 11

Talk about a very long, tiring week where sleep seemed to be at the bottom of the priority list. So I wont go in so much detail of everything, because I really don’t want to type up that much and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to read it. If you want the details, you’ll have to call me or come talk to me in person (meaning come visit!).

So Friday morning (July 3), I borrowed my roommate’s car (wow, she is so trusting) and drove down to Boulder to pick up Tom (who flew in that morning to Denver), shop, get a hair cut (long hair is not cutting it in this heat), and meet up with Walt and Sally Lundt for the afternoon. After I picked up Tom, we did some fast shopping and then met with Walt and Sally at the store. Unfortunately, we could not spend as much time with them as originally planned because they had to fix the propane detector on their RV, but we did get to have a wonderful lunch at this beautiful restaurant (mom, grammy-you would have loved this place), the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. The building was actually made in Tajikistan, and then sent in pieces to Boulder.It was beautiful, with original columns with engravings that were all carved by hand, colorful painted flowers on the wall. It definitely had a Himalayan theme/style. And they had rose bushes outside and delicious food.
After lunch, the Lundts gave us a driving tour of the Flat Irons and we went by El Dorado Canyon. After that, we unfortunately had to split, but it did give Tom and I some time to wonder around Boulder, before heading back to Estes Park.
Saturday (July 4th), the plan was to climb all day with Christina in Jurassic Park but unfortunately, the rain rolled in right after we finished just one route(Tom apparently flew the bad weather from New England over with him). We then spent a few hours at Christina’s house, before we headed off to a BBQ where we found everyone crammed into small shed, waiting for the rain to stop and the food to be done. Luckily, we did get a couple of volleyball games in before we headed to Jim’s to go with him to his Band concert.
Jim performed in a concert band that evening for the fourth of July. Between 2 of the songs, he received a well deserved award from his fellow band members and the community (though some people in the park service may not admit what a great guy Jim is and the amazing things he’s done for park and its visitors, the community recognizes it). After that, we went to Jim ’s friend’s house, to watch the fireworks and eat some delicious ribs.
I ended up not watching the fireworks because I got so side tracked talking to Shorty (Jim’s friend) and his wife Cartoon (who’s from Thailand). They are so amazing. Shorty is this older man who has pulmonary hypo-tension and has an oxygen tank, but this does not stop him from skiing on his own. In his day, he has done so much traveling and hiking, especially in the Himalayas. Cartoon is brilliant, knows 7 languages, and owns her own business. Their house was awesome-so many cool pieces of art from all over.
Saturday night was a late one and we had an early morning Sunday. We slept over Jim’s house, to join him, with his friend Glen (who has made 3 Everest expeditions, summiting it in the 80’s, and was using this as training to climb the Matterhorn again) to climb shark’s tooth-the most technical summit in the park-5.6 alpine climb, 6 pitches, with I think a 4-5 milee hike in and out. It was fantastic, though our day ended up far longer than we expected, and there was a close call with a thunderstorm, (we watched it blow by about 10 miles away-pretty scary when your 4 pitches up). It was awesome anyways though, and I think I (well I guess Jim really) finally got Tom hooked on rock climbing-well at least alpine rock climbing. It was pretty neat to get to know Glen too, though I don’t think he cared for us very much at first or took us seriously, until we got him talking a few times, and I went and peed on a large ledge with all the others there (hey, there’s no resisting nature’s call, especially when you’re in a harness for so many hours, and as Glen said, sometimes you have to lforget modesty on these sort of expeditions). I think it got him to see though that I do know sort of know/understand what backcountry adventures are like, and Tom and I weren’t just city kids tagging along).
Well anyways, after that long day, we had a really late dinner at Jim’s house and slept over again, to wake up at about 5 to have time to go back to my house and pack for work. Tom was able to join Luke and I for an overnight in the backcountry doing Wilderness crew work up at Pear Lake. We had the bonus too of getting an extra hike in with almost a summit of a 13000 footer.
When we got back from work Tuesday, Tom and I rushed to clean up (really just change, because we had about 10 minutes) before we headed to the Rodeo with Jim and the Venezuelans. I’ll confess, at first I thought the first 45 minutes was really boring-way too much advertisement and talk of Rodeo queens. But the Rodeo clown, the barrel races (the only event with women), and the little kids getting a taste of rodeo life with sheep-riding (so cute and kind of nerve racking at a few points) really excited things up for me. After the rodeo, we headed to a party at Christina’s (just a wee-bit late) where we were able to talk to some people, and find a ride for Tom to Boulder in the morning.
Wednesday morning, I left for work, and Tom left for the airport. For work that day, I merely spotted the trail for hikers, while Tara cut down trees, and then tossed the logs out of the camp afterwards. This was at a campsite near Big Meadows. That night I shopped, prepped for our long (probably like 20 miles) “orienteering hike” for the next day, and then checked email. At 10:30- that night however, I found out that we were instead going on a SAR the next morning to search for a 71 year old woman who got lost in the Park’s Bermuda Triangle (also known as the Mummy range). So then I had to pack for that instead-a possible overnight. It was kind of nice though not having to meet at 5 in the morning, but instead at 7. However, when I arrived at the SAR cache, I found out that the SAR was off, the woman had come out on her own, hours before the hasty search was sent out last night. Drat.
So, instead, since we didn’t have time now to do our original hike, the Wildernesss crew did half the Mummy range, checking the campsites on the way down from Yiplson.
That evening, I once again was rushing to pack in 20 minutes for my next adventure. After work, Jim picked me up, we went out for pizza and then headed to his house. I slept over to wake up early to hike/climb the Notch on Longs Peak with Jim and his friend Mark, who has also done a lot of hiking in the Himalayas and Andes. It was a long day-12 hours-but awesome. The notch is about 60-70 angle and covered in snow. We had to use 2 ice axes. After we get out of the snow, we have 2, 5.5 rock climbing pitches to the top. Once again, I find myself rock climbing in hiking boots-as I did the second half of Shark’s tooth. We just did the whole climb tandem style, to save time, and climbed down the North face. Once we got to trailhead, we talked with some of Jim’s volunteer friends at the hut and then drove back to Jim’s house to be late to Jim’s own Pieta (?-no idea how to spell) party (luckily, the Venezuelans did all the cooking and it was a real late dinner anyways).
Finally, late that night, I caught a ride home, showered, and crashed. Needless to say, today was a sort of laid-back day, very slow to get anything done.
Once again I fail to keep it short, but there were some bits I just couldn’t leave out. I met so many interested people this week and have begun to do things I didn’t think I would have the chance to do so soon.
Oh I almost forgot! Thursday did have a rather entertaining start off at the cache. A hummingbird got into the building and it was really funny watching so many people sending their jackets flying, using cardboard boxes and a snow shovel to try and chase it out. It was a good laugh for about 20 minutes.