I’m off to the desert for a bachelor party weekend, looks a little warm but should be a good time. Going to the Creek and hopefully ride the Slickrock trail on Sunday, which I’ve never done. If you are going to be in Colorado this weekend, I’d say there’s a good chance the right Laundry Chute on Sopris has ice in it. You can easily scope it from the Crown with a good pair on binoculars. It’s a fun alpine outing, with about 200 feet of ice, followed by some easy snow and rock climbing which spits you out several feet from the summit. If you go let me know how it is. More info about the route is available here.

The annual Rifle Clean Up/Most Raging Party on the Western Slope is taking place this Saturday, Sept 30th. There will be a variety of trail projects you can help with, and of course the party/bbq afterwards with free food and beer. More information is available on the Climbing Mag website. This is always a great time and a fun way to give back to the park. Climbers and the City of Rifle have a good relationship and this helps keep it that way. I wont be able to make it as I’m having a bachelor party weekend in Moab. Getting married in less than two weeks, so I’ll be pretty busy and updates may be somewhat sporadic.

I just checked the weather for the weekend, and what do you know, it’s supposed to rain/snow. Do I see a pattern here? Apparently we have entered some kind of alternate universe where it rains/snows every weekend and is perfect every Monday. Can’t this kind of thing wait until winter? This is enough to drive the most stable weekend warrior insane!

Despite the funky weather over the weekend we managed to get a good bit of climbing in. Worked on some new routes on Saturday, got snowed on, good times. Saturday night drove down to the Black and got a little sleep before heading down the Cruise gully to climb Journey Home. This was my first time on the route and I had a blast. Truly an awesome climb in a spectacular setting. Every pitch had good rock climbing, making for a very enjoyable fall day. On the drive back to Carbondale, the scenery was great, with the colors starting to change and quite a lot of snow covering the high peaks. Glad that fall is finally here, if only it would stop raining on the weekends!

It’s a great time of year to be a climber The leaves are changing, the temperature is perfect and you are hopefully in shape from a summer of climbing. Fall is my favorite time of year, no matter what part of the country I’m in. I definitely get nostalgic for the northeast this time of year. Climbing at the Gunks above a canopy of New England foliage is simply one of life’s finest pleasures. Of course, hanging out at a local crag in the shadow of beautiful mountains surrounded by golden aspens ain’t half bad either. The only bummer about this time of year is that you realize the season is coming to an end. We’ve got maybe 6 weeks left, and you start to feel the crunch. Projects left unsent and crags you wanted to visit all start to pile up. And then you realize it’s time to head to the desert! I hope everyone is having a great fall and enjoying the local climbing. I’ll be spending weekdays out at the Coal Creek boulders, now that the days are getting too short for roped climbing after work. If anyone wants to check them out, drop me a line and I’d be happy to show you around and hopefully we can send some new lines!