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Playground Topropes
There are so many different climbing areas around White Rock, we think we may just spend the winter exploring them. Today we discover The Playground, an almost beach-like sandy bench under a cliff with a lot of crack climbing, much of it top-ropeable. There is one other party basking in the warmth today, and we…
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Rachmaninoff Festival
I’ve been in Denver this week partially because my dad bought the whole family tickets to a phenomenal series of four concerts over two weekends, a Rachmaninoff Festival. This has proved difficult to explain to our friends who don’t partake of classical music, and our shifting and complex plans (like Ann going to Mexico during…
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White Ranch Open Space Hike
This park near Golden is the former home of James Bond. The Pioneer, not the secret agent. Sean joins us for a hike that begins with a tour of what must be some of the most grotesque trophy homes in the foothills. It also provides good views of the plains and some prominent flatiron-like hilltops…
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Book: Anathem / Neal Stephenson
This book had many points of appeal for me. The idea of a monastic society based on science and math instead of religion is priceless. There is a lot of fun wordplay, as indicated by the title. The story contains a primer on ancient greek philosophy and remains entertaining. There are didactic dialogs that as…
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Denver Botanic Gardens
It’s off-season for this attraction, but Mom, Dad, and I are glad we go anyway. Being surrounded by healthy living things is a failsafe high for me. I’m disappointed that the cactus house is closed, but there are many varieties of cactus growing outdoors too. The tropical greenhouse is amazing year-round, I’m sure, and we…
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Warm pre-concert climbing
We know we’re trying to squeeze a lot into the second day of the Rachmaninoff Festival, but we’re rewarded with a bluebird day that’s almost hot, and we even fortuitously cross paths with Kate, Mark and Sean. We get four routes in before we have to scurry off to clean up for tonight’s concert. I’ll…
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Trinidad Lake State Park
I learn later that there is evidence of a mass extinction in this park! We find plenty of other things to look at on our morning hike of the self-guided nature trail and other trails. Next time I’ll have to keep my eye out for a dark layer in the sandstone that marks the Cretaceous-Tertiary…
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Jicarilla Peak
A friend Jesse has asked for a good training hike in anticipation of army ranger boot camp. My first idea is see if we can get up North Truchas Peak. We head into this neighborhood from the Las Trampas trailhead, starting the steep climbing from the San Leonardo lakes. Climbing terrain this steep is new…
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Off Day at Potrillo
We don’t feel like climbing, but go because we planned to. We don’t climb particularly well, I finish by bailing off Upper Kor’s Crack 5.9, which I had hoped would just be a challenging lead. I start tense and stay tense on it until I run out of steam at the crux. Despite all this,…
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Intro to Potrillo Cliffs
Ann and Brook were here last weekend, but this is my first trip to this White Rock crag. There are a lot of nice moderate crack climbs here! We sample a few: Belly Up 5.7 My only lead of the day, the airy crux on small pro makes me shake! Belly Flop 5.9- Might have…