Now that warmer days are here, it’s time to get up into the high peaks and enjoy the freedom of summer mountaineering in Colorado. I love how efficient travel over snow covered mountains on skis is, but there’s something to be said for heading off into the peaks with a jacket, water, some food and maybe an ice axe. Add to that abundant sunshine, and climbing mountains in the summer is all about being free to go wherever your legs can take you.

A good friend from New York got into town Tuesday night, and we decided to kick start his acclimatization by heading up Grizzly Peak off Independence Pass. At 13,988, Grizzly is the highest 13er in the state, and at one point was considered a 14er before more accurate measurements were made. Regardless, it offers some interesting snow climbing options, and we chose to head up the classic Grizzly Couloir on the north face.

After a quick and easy 3.2 miles to the lake, the climbing begins. About 1000′ or so of kicking steps takes you up the couloir, which is pretty mellow except for a few steeper spots near the top. The snow was a great consistency, just soft enough we didn’t need crampons but not so soft that moving up was difficult. The views got better and better, until we stood on top and had an incredible panorama of peaks before us. Grizzly stands isolated from other mountains of its size, and the view is well worth the effort. To the west, the Elks basked in the July sun, still holding on to quite a lot of snow. In our immediate vicinity, the other Sawatch peaks rose up to greet the sky, La Plata and the Collegiates to the east and south, Massive and Elbert to the north. The San Juans were even visible way south, still covered with sparkling white snow.

After what always feels like too little time on the summit, we made our way back across the ridge to the entrance of the couloir. The glissade down was fun, but would have been a little less rough on the bum if the snow had softened up more. The rest of the walk back to the car was mellow, and as we enjoyed some thick slices of pizza in Aspen, we relished the great adventures we have been on and those we look forward to in the future.

Well we finally got up to Independence Pass on Saturday for the first time this season. We decided to check out a crag called Phat City in the Lincoln Creek area, it’s a newer cliff with a good range of routes from 5.8 to 5.11, and the book recommended many of the lines. Hiking up through the woods it looked like we might have been the first people to walk up this trail this year, with a couple of lingering snow patches we had to walk over. A quick 20 minute jaunt brought us to the base, and the views were fantastic, as they often are on the Pass. The climbing turned out to be a mixed bag, some of the routes were lame, some were really good, regardless of whether they were recommended in the guidebook or not.

The one thing we all agreed was lame, however, was the state of several of the anchors up there. Now I know firsthand that putting up routes is expensive, but if the route is worth doing, it’s worth having good hardware on it. This is completely unacceptable:

The skinny chain is attached directly to the bolts, with no hangers to clip. It’s also hard to get a biner through the chain links, and there is just one skinny link for lowering. And this was on one of the better routes up there. This is just lazy, go back and spend the extra $7 to put some hangers on there, buy some real chain and big quick links.

Despite the shoddy hardware, we had a blast, though I wouldn’t recommend the crag. It’s got a lot of choss, and there are way better cliffs up there. Now we know, and it’s always fun to check out a new spot.

A local paper, the Post Independent, has an article today about the new Rifle Mountain Park & Western Colorado Rock Climbs guidebook. It focuses on Dave Pegg, the motivating force behind the guide and the founder of Wolverine Publishing. Definitely worth a quick read.

In other news, NPS officials are starting to confiscate stashed pads in Rocky Mountain Park. This seems to be somewhat of a controversial issue for some, but if you’re too lazy to carry crash pad a couple miles, then maybe you shouldn’t be back there.

Also, the Climbing Narc is giving away some DVD’s and Pimpin and Crimpin has an entertaining interview with Climbing Mag Editor in Chief Matt Samet.

Here at SplitterChoss.com headquarters we’ve got some more reviews coming down the pipe, as well as some interviews with local climbers, and a whole lot more.

Here it is! The new guidebook for climbing in Rifle Mountain Park and other areas in Western Colorado.

Featuring over 900 routes at the following areas:
Rifle Mountain Park
Rifle Arch
Main Elk
The Fortress
Glenwood Canyon
The Narrows
Redstone
Coal Creek
Frying Pan
Lime Park
Hagerman Pass

Many of these areas have never been published before and are a wonderful addition to the climbing in this part of Colorado. This book is packed with incredible action photos and concise beta that you can’t find anywhere else, not even on this site!

Check out the sample pages below:

Project Wall - Rifle
Glenwood Canyon Intro
The Skillet - Frying Pan

All orders get a free SplitterChoss.com sticker. So what are you waiting for?

Had a nice mellow weekend, checked out a new zone at the Narrows that should yield some fun new routes on great rock. I thought the pitches would be long, but the upper half of the formation is hollow, too bad. Still, these 50′ routes will be a lot of fun and nice addition to the place. Stay tuned for a topo once it’s all said and done.

Also got out to Thompson Creek, had the place to ourselves except for one other party that came and went pretty quickly. The skies flirted with rain all afternoon, but we enjoyed nice temps and got some good climbing in. And for me it was yet another brutal reminder of how long the ski season was, and how much climbing is kicking my ass right now. At least it can only get better, right?

The access situation at Thompson Creek remains the same for now, so please continue to respect the voluntary measures that are in place limiting climber “impact”. Hopefully in the not to distant future the local climbing community can enjoy unrestricted access to this excellent local resource.