Monday, January 21, 2013

The VOG

It had been a while since I'd been to the desert.  So when it worked out that Bill and I were able to sneak away for a day in Valley of the Gods I was stoked!  I picked up Bill at 5:30am and by the time we pulled into VOG it had warmed up to a balmy 15 degrees.  Luckily there was no wind and the sun was out.

We started out the day with a small tower called Sitting Hen and then moved over to Petard.  As we touched back to the ground after rappeling off the top of Petard I thought things were going great, two towers down and only one to go.  The ropes were pulling smoothly and then suddenly stopped... shit.
The end of the rope as it snaked up the tower had gotten stuck on top of pitch 2.  We pulled and bounced and changed out angle but to no avail.  I was getting pretty Hangry at that point and was ready to just leave the rope.  Bill was not about to leave 200' of rope hanging off a tower even if it was a crappy old rope.  He started jugging the questionable "fixed" line simultaniously placing gear on lead incase the "fixed" line became unfixed.  He go to the top of the second pitch and freed the rope then rappeled back down using the rappel stations we had skipped.  Next up was the Anvil.  We decided to try and free a route called 'Iron Bear Crack' which ended up going at about 5.10.  We watched a great sunset on top then hurried back to the car.

Great day in the desert! Can't wait for the next!




Summit of Sitting Hen

Subaru advertisement with Petard in the background.
Bill following the first pitch of Petard.



Last pitch of Petard

Top of Petard with Anvil in the background.


Starting up The Anvil.

Anvil's Mascot.

The VOG.
Bill was so excited about the light. 

Heading back to the car.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Hall of Justice

Matt and I went up to Ouray last week and climbed at the Hall of Justice.  Super fun!
Matt on Pull the Trigger