The Bastille

We dropped off my parents and decided we should take advantage of our location and climb at Eldo.

Top of the Bastille.  Belaying is so taxing when your partner climbs so fast!!

We topped out as the sun was dying in the west, luckily Lorelei had a new driclime (Thanks Marmot for making such a versatile and quality garmet).

Darren with the most popular 5.7 on the planet (except for maybe double choss.) 

Bob and Pod in the Colorado Mountains

Eating breakfast with humming birds in Sweetwater

Sluicing, a historical cave tour, and a frightening alpine coaster in Glenwood Springs

Watching trains on Saturday before heading to the Maroon Bells in Aspen

Sunday we headed to Redstone and Marble to hang out with Teddy

ACA Argentina Pictures from 2002-2003

I'm getting rid of my myspace account, so I've decided to preserve some of my favorite grouping of pictures on this blog.  Here are pictures and my comments that I had in an album from the year I spent in Argentina.

Puente Negro is for woosies

Como?  This was our first trip to Buenos Aires with Pattie as our guide--but honestly I think she was more lost then we were.

At the Pichu of Machu

Argentina: home of middle-aged men that think I'm interesting ;)

A portena, frambuesa boy, mate, the Brit: the essence of Patagonia

--hanging out in our awesome hostel in Bariloche

Mission Impossible.  We are good at sneakily circling people.

A final goodbye at the bus station (Maribel and Jenifer my old roommate are in the background)

The complete ACA group back in 2003--I miss ya'll!

Old Climbing Codgers--photos by Jim Herrington, narrative by Darren

Glen Dawson.  Old School Sierra Climber.

Chuck Pratt.  First ascent of Pratt's Crack.

Gnarly Jim Bridwell "The Bird"

Thomas Hornbein.  First ascent of the west ridge of Everest.  Check out his cool oxygen mask!

Ricardo Cassin.  He recently died.  He climbed a lot peaks in the Dolomites, France, and Argentina.

Royal Robbins.  Valley Christian.

Allen Steck.  "He climbed some really cool routes that I actually think I could get up."

Yvon Chouinard.  Maker of $60 t-shirts.

Doug Robinson--"He wrote one of my favorite books: A Night on the Ground, A Day in the Open."

Fred Becky.  Famous for climbing every mountain peak in North America and living off stolen condiments.

Glenn Exum.  He has a guiding company and a ridge named after him.

Layton Kor.  Colorado climber who killed it and then became born again.

Bradford Washburn.  He takes really pretty photos of Alaska.

David Brower.  Founder of the Sierra Club Foundation.

Jim Whittaker.  First American to summit Everest.

Jules Eichorn.  Partner to Glen Dawson.

Find more Herrington photos as his facebook site

"The Unpardonable Sin"

Erosion
Eating at you slowly
Imperceptible
Until the arch falls

The added weight
The rent relationship
As the phone calls decrease
Until only oblivion

You miss the laughter
The memories
But even those start to fade
Until all that is left is a shadow
Of an old emotion

You turn over
You don't write back
You don't return
Until it never returns

Aspen and Manitou

Rob and Darren flying kites near Aspen

Ashcroft ghost town

Healing waters of Manitou

Scaling the Whale Tail.  We conquered the whole section!

Colorado Springs and Kayak Fame

Darren and I randomly took a drive to check out the "new" side of our town when we ended up in a state forest filled with beaver homes and gnawed timber.  Only in Colorado!

Then on Thursday we woke up to heaps of snow!  Thankfully I had the day off so I didn't have to attempt to drive to work.  Darren and I instead walked to our local coffee shop.  Apparently I'm not the only one who has Thursday off...or everyone was freaked out by the snow...because the place was packed.

Not letting the snow deter us from adventure, we decided to do hiking at Hanging Lake Trail before the park service closes it for repairs.  We didn't know how the trail would be so we prepared for everything and brought our snowshoes.  Surprisingly the trail was clear and all I needed were my new hiking poles to prevent me from slipping off the path.

This past Saturday Darren and I are checked out Co Springs to see if we would like to live there for  a spell.  We went to the local church, ambled around the downtown, climbed at the Garden of the Gods and I checked out the local Capoeira gym.  Darren and I are not super stoked to live in a city again, but thankfully found wonderful Manitou Springs.  It has a small town feel but it close to the city.  Plus, the 12 Tribes have a community cafe there which is quite exciting.  

After eating at the community cafe we met Olivia near Salida to do some camping and check out the town as well as Buena Vista.  I liked Salida's old western feel and there were heaps of outdoor stores.  I didn't see too much going on in Buena Vista, but apparently some progressive planners are creating an artistic community complete with cute houses and bouldering boulders in between the houses.  There already is a kayak play park, so it will be interesting to see if the community grows.

Olivia shredding in Salida's play park

Darren was giddy to climb the Buena Vista "Eiger" created by the construction discarded dirt.

"You know the place!"  On the way home we learned about the 10th Mountain Division skiing, rock climbing troops who were trained in Colorado, did combat in Italy during World War II, and specialized in fighting in harsh mountainous environments.

The next week we went biking at the Boneyard

The next weekened Darren successfully kayaked his first river.  A photographer from Vail Daily happened to be on shore and Darren made the front page a few days later!  These are photos from the paper.

Joe, Darren, and my picture was later on in the article