For the long weekend, we packed the Subie and headed south for some warm sun in Penitente Canyon. I’d never been to the San Luis Valley, and it was nice to fill in one of the last blank spots on my map of Colorado. We drove down through Buena Vista as a beautiful evening unfolded before us, clouds lifting off snowy peaks in sublime light. I always love exploring new places and we were excited for what the weekend would bring. The weather forecast looked decent, and it turned out to be a beautiful three days.

I hadn’t been to an “old school” sport area in a while, and I forgot how funky the old bolting style can be. Thankfully we had a stick clip, though sometimes it was just barely long enough to reach those high first bolts. We climbed many of the moderates in the canyon, and really enjoyed everything we tried. The first day we hit some techy slabs in Penitente, Sunday we explored Witches Canyon, which offered steeper, more featured stone, and Monday was back to Penitente for more techy face climbing.

The area is incredibly beautiful, and the routes were perfect for getting back into the climbing mindset after a long winter spent skiing peaks. I’m not much good at that style of climbing, but Tracy loves it, and it was a lot of fun watching her float routes that I struggled on. It was nice to be on the road again and we’re headed to Maple this coming weekend for more fun in the sun (or maybe the shade, since things are warming up quick!)

My friend Mike has a good post over at ChossMonkey.com today. He’s launching a new column about how to get the most out of the gear you already have, versus just buying the newest gadgets and gizmo’s because they are 3.5 oz lighter with recycled vegan parts that will bring about world peace if we all buy one in each color. I completely agree with the gist of what he is saying.

So much of the outdoor industry pretends to be green while at the same time their very existence is founded upon the notion that you need to buy more new stuff. Now granted, there are times when you do need new gear, and I think that is ok. But the big joke about this whole “green” movement is that people think you can save the world by buying more stuff. The Black Diamond Icon I reviewed yesterday has a rechargeable battery that lasts a long time. I don’t suggest you go out and buy one of these to replace your already working and still good headlamp. But if you are in the market for a new headlamp, it’s one to consider.

Mike states he doesn’t want to do gear reviews because it contributes to the whole consumer driven bullshit society we live in. And I do agree to a point, but I will continue to post gear reviews on here because I like to promote things that work well and hold up to abuse, which in turn means you wont have to keep buying new things to replace it. So much of what we buy ends up in the trash, it’s nice to know what gear you can buy that will last for years (like all my Patagonia clothes, bomber!)

In today’s post, he’s talking about using rechargeable batteries for all the electronic goodies that we all use. This is a great idea, and if you couple it with the use of a solar panel, you can power all your small stuff straight from the sun, and stop sucking energy from the grid. Very cool.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that all of us recreationalists impact the environment quite a lot, from driving places to the gear we buy (you think those fancy metals just pop out of the ground?) But this also allows us to interact with the planet up close and personal, and in turn gives us a great respect for it. As long as we are all striving to do what we can to minimize our impact, I think that’s the best anyone can hope for.

The Icon from Black Diamond is unique among the headlamps of the world: it offers a rechargeable battery. As someone who tries to live in a sustainable matter, it bothers me that things like headlamps, cameras and beacons often burn through many batteries over the course of the year. This rechargeable option is just the ticket, and the Icon isn’t some sissy headlight, as this thing puts out the watts. If you happen to look into it as you turn it on, like our unfortunate roommate did, you might go blind for a few seconds.

It offers two lighting modes, one big LED and four smaller ones. There are several brightness settings for each giving you about seven different settings to choose from. To switch between the two you simply press the power button down half way, simple yet effective. I found this plenty easy to accomplish even with gloves on as I was skinning up Sopris early Sunday morning.

But wait, you say, it looks really heavy! Come on, are you kidding? This is a headlamp, what’s a couple of extra ounces? I’m not one to complain about carry a few extra pounds here and there, and when you get the kind of quality light the Icon puts out, you wont think twice about tossing it in your pack.

The rechargeable battery is said to last for up to 90 hours on the brightest setting. We’ll never let it run out though, since we’ll be recharging it from our Brunton solar panels. Pretty cool to think this little light can be powered entirely by energy from the sun.

I came across these cool videos that Renan Ozturk put together about a trip they are doing with Sender Films in Europe right now. Looks wild, climbing without shoes or chalk. Yikes! I’m sure the footage that gets released in Peter Mortimer’s next film will be intense!

Part 1

Part 2

For ease of access to a fourteen thousand foot peak, Quandary is tough to beat. You park at 10,900′ and the summit is only 3300′ and 3 miles above you. Our objective was to climb the east ridge, a mellow tour to the top, and then ski the Cristo Couloir which drops off the summit. I left the house at 4:15, only to realize I’d forgotten my gloves when I got to Glenwood. Lost a good 30 minutes, but figured I’d still be ok.

The two hour drive went smooth and I was soon racing up the ridge to catch up with my friends. The weather was beautiful and warm down low, I figured we’d be timing it perfect to ski off the top around 9am. When I crested the last bench before the final 1000 feet of ridge climbing, the wind hit hard. Sustained gusts of 30 to 40 mph were hammering. Two of the group decided to bail, while my brother and I continued up. Oddly enough, the top was calm and we hung out for a half hour, hoping the snow would soften.

We dropped off the summit onto still frozen snow, and carefully made our way to the top of the chute. Here we found soft, wind-blown powder and made fun turns up to a point where some rocks were poking through. After quickly navigating this thin section, we found everything from more pow to soft breakable snow to warm and heavy, and finally some corn at the very bottom. The skiing was challenging but fun, and it was a really great line.

There’s probably a couple of weeks of good skiing left, get it while the getting’s good!