Photos by pinto

Matt Wills leading the bolt ladder to Boot Flake. Just around the corner is a beautiful 5.10 hand crack.

Way up on the nose... I have no idea how anyone could free this pitch. Just aiding around the corner on the bolt is reachy!

Looking down from, I believe, the Glowering Spot. I need a better pair of wall boots!

Matt Wills leading up with another party above us. All five of us spent the night at Dolt Tower that night. Good people (You know who you are.)

Yup, it's been taken a thousand times, so what's one more time, eh? Matt Wills leading the chickenhead pitch.

What a great pitch! The exposure finally kicks in and the climbing is superb. A nice fun pitch after seemingly endless chimneys.

A good reason to not screw up! I fell on pitch 4 of the Reg. NW face and ripped off the tip of my pinky finger. Not sure how it happened, exactly. I think it must have gotten caught between the rope and a carabiner. Man did that hurt! The end result: 14 stitches and a failed attempt on Half Dome. We came back later, though, and sent it without problems.

For those of you stout of heart and strong of stomach, here's the close up of the flapper from hell.

10% Real is one of the best routes in Orient Bay. 60m of steep ice and funky structures keep things interesting all the way to the top. Rock-climbing-esque moves are required to get through overhangs formed by ice mushrooms. Very, very cool.

What a cool little alcove. We fixed one more pitch past this, up the rivet ladder, then rapped back to Dinner Ledge. The ring-tailed cat got into our haulbag that night. It ate a Clif bar and some jerky. God only knows what happened to that poor creature's digestive system!

This was the first of the two steep pillar pitches. This one was the shorty (WI4). Strange, funky, hollow ice near the top made for some excitement.

Matt is leading the crux pillar pitch of Mean Green (WI5). It was at about this point where he realized that the BD Fusions really don't swing well. Perhaps the wrong place to learn new tools! He cranked it out like a champ, though, no matter how many swings were needed for a stick!

The mighty power of the reverso at work. I don't know what I'd do without one anymore. It has made me lazy! Anyway, beautiful ice on a beautiful route. There was some wierd, fractured ice blocks perched on this route on some inopportune places, but you work around them. (Then send them trundling down after everyone is clear--good fun!)

Ahh gorgeous alpine valleys... and the not so gorgeous trails that descend into them! For those of you interested in climbing Capitol, take the trail to the right of the parking area. The trail to the left drops 500' into this valley which you immediately have to reclimb. Urgh! It is pretty though, so if you have calves of steel and extra hiking is your thing, knock yourself out!

Taken at the beginning of two beautiful days in the mountains. Capitol is definitely one of the coolest peaks in Colorado. Steep, steep and more steep!

Ahhh... Such fun. This was the "one last climb before we go back to iowa" climb. We had just spent the week in Nipigon climbing up there and made sure to catch this gem on the way back. It's only half an hour away from the highway!

The Zanzibar Dihedral (5.8)is one of the many second pitch options on the Weller Slab. Beautiful, high friction granite slab climing with some wonderful cracks. This pitch was an absolute classic! Unfortunately, we were a bit pressed by the incoming storms so I didn't really have the time to enjoy it as much as I should have! Well worth doing if you're in the area. (This was Matt's first trad climb, by the way!)

This picture (actually 5 pictures, digitally stitched together) was taken from the highway near Twin Lakes. It was taken with a Canon PowerShot A40. Unfortuately, I didn't pay enough attention to the exposure and it was a bit washed out. Oh well. Still very nice. :)

The good old first flatiron, in great conditions! There was something like seventy mile an hour winds. 5.4 never felt so entertaining!

George's tree, a killer 5.9 flared "finger" crack (more crimping on face holds than jams, really), on a beautiful day. Osiris was busy so we headed one crack system over. It looked easy, but it ended up being a pretty stout 5.9.

A nice morning outing on Mt. Evans. We left a car on top and a car at summit lake, making for a 3 hour jaunt up the (very little remaining) alpine ice on the north face. Global warming has wreaked some havoc on this climb. :(

This picture was totally accidental. We were up in the basin on the north face of Mt. Evans--I didn't even see the reflection in the lake when I took the picture. You can see the summit of Evans reflected in the tarn. (You can't, however, see the tourons hanging out on the summit watching us..)

Just finished soloing some moderate stuff. I don't know what the deal was with the expression. I think the altitude made me stupid. Great day in the mountains, though. A little ice, a little snow and a LOT of talus. (I would have rather had more snow, honestly...)

Yet another picture from climbing at Mt. Evans. Greg found an (unfortunately) empty can of Schlitz (the king of crappy beers) on the talus field at the base of the north face of Mt. Evans. I'm willing to bet it was thrown by some tourist from the top (there's a road to the top, so you CAN drink beer at 14,000 feet, if you're so inclined).