Southwest

After some amazing days on the snow, we decided to drive southwest. The goal was to get some pitches in at the Cathedral, St. George and hopefully do one or two multipitch routes in Red Rocks.

Well, we left Aspen and as soon as we got to St George, it started raining. We camped out and spent the night there, hoping weather would get better, but ... we decided to drive to Red Rocks, in search of sun and warmer temps.  Not lucky either.  Next day, we got to hike up to Potosi, a pretty cool cliff located about 30min drive from Red Rocks and 2hs hike up a steep hill. We got some climbs in, despite the chilly wind. This is a nice area with some nice routes.  

Following day, we got to do a beautifull multipitch route. 7 Pitches at a maximum of 6b.  Pure joy. 

After this, a rest day was in order. After taking a shower and getting some supplies, we drove back to St. George, hoping for better weather.  This time, we had better luck.  Nice temps and great people made the next 4 days amazing.  We got to climb at Cathedral and try some beautiful routes.  Climbed a bunch of 12´s and I was lucky enough to send a 13b/8a on the 3rd go.  Caro, climbed some great routes and got really close to red point her first 13a / 7c+.  We still had 2 more days of climbing left, but the bad weather settle in again and we decided it was time to drive back to Colorado.  Now we are in packing mode. Three more days and we are off to Europe.

Enjoy the pics and we´ll keep you post it about our Eurotour !!!!

Climbing at the Poux

Last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. We started by taking a trip to Boulder, to get some coaching from Justen Sjong. We spent two long sessions climbing with him and learning so much, that we are still digesting some of the info and trying to apply it to our climbing. It was awesome. Then it was time to come back to Aspen and ski some more. The snow has been pretty good and we were blessed by some powder days. Those are the days that remind me why i love this sport so much.  In between work and training at the gym, we got to go climb some real rock.  Caro, has been climbing hard, re-sending some routes and looking for a new project. She finally felt in love with Experience, a nice 7c, which she´s been working the last couple of days. On my side, I managed to send I-70, which is rated at 8a, and has a very defined crux section. I worked on that route couple of years ago, getting close to send, but i guess i was too weak at that point. This year i got on it again and after 5 tries i finally came down. I wanted to complete this route before getting back on Fault Line. So that same day I got on it, feeling pretty good and strong. The next day i gave it even a better go, but I still can´t get back to my high point from last year. Instead, i´am able to climb the upper part much better. So i guess it is progress. Now i just need to conect both sections, but sincerely, it still feels a little distant.  We already booked our tickets to europe and the clock is ticking !!!! We have some exciting plans for the next couple of months. We´ll try to keep the updates coming. !!! Thanks for checking in and enjoy the pictures.

A new approach

Caro, trying Seven Spanish Angels.

                                    

After some time off climbing and mainly focused on skiing and ski mountaneering, we are back on a climbing training cycle.  It was hard to stay away from climbing. The first couple of weeks were very hard, but i guess, once your body and mind gets used to do other things and understands that resting is as important as training, everything is much better.  That time away from the sport, helped me to come back more motivated and although I still feel weak, I can see that in a couple of weeks I will be stronger than before the break.  

Santiago Valerga warming up

I´ve always focused my climbing in either sport, trad or alpine objectives.  Within this time i came to realize that in order to see progress in my climbing, would be good to experiment a little bit harder with just plain bouldering.  That is why, when we gazed the possibility to take some days off from work and  go to Bishop, we didn´t hesitate.

Caro sending a nice V6.

Santiago Valerga in Soul Slinger

We spend 5 days camping out in Bishop. The first 4 days were very cold and finally the last day was warm.  We climbed a bunch of V2 to V5/6 problems and also did some V7´s.  I was getting close on a really nice V9, but it will have to wait for next trip.  It took us, almost the entire trip get in the bouldering mood.  Totally different approach than sport climbing.   Once we were finally getting in the groove and temps were warmer and more pleasant to climb, we had to leave.  

The last 3 days were spent at Red Rocks, in Vegas. Climbing some sport and trad routes. 

Now we are back in Colorado, skiing again and more motivated for training and getting strong for the spring plans.

We have to thanks Ian Young and Julie Trombetta for picking us up in Reno and driving us around.  Thank you so much, it was a great and fun trip.

Trying Los Cholos.