Well, little Sawyer is now officially 1 month old and we celebrated by taking her on a 4WD adventure in my Tahoe and hiked up to one of our favorite campsites we have dubbed “Top of the World” at 11,710′, her personal altitude record thus far in her short lifetime. Its only about a mile and 600′ vertical gain to the campsite from the parking spot, but man what a view of all of our favorite Gore peaks to the north, Tenmile Range peaks to the east, and Northern Sawatch peaks to the south.

Sawyer on the hike to “Top of the World”

Kristine & Sawyer – I didn’t even realize that Zodiac Ridge made it into the picture in the distance between the trees

A gorgeous day to be up high

Kona!

Raindog enjoying her first snow of the season

Family Pic at the “Top of the World” campsite

Left to right: Mt. Silverthorne, East Thorne, Zodiac Ridge, & Red Peak

Outer Mongolia Bowl and the northern Gores

Left to right: The Grand Traverse, Palomino Point, Mt. Valhalla, and Snow Peak

At about 2-1/2 weeks old, I took Sawyer up Arrowhead ski mountain with the dogs for her first time up this very familiar spot – one which she will undoubtedly go up and down on foot, skis, & swiss bobs hundreds and hundreds of times. She did so very well and seems to always love to be “on the move”. Its comforting for her. And, she didn’t fuss about being hungry until we got back to the car. Its about 2 miles and 1,700′ of vertical gain straight up the ski slope to the top of Arrowhead. This little first adventure for Sawyer allowed Kristine to finish her paper for her master’s class.

Top of Arrowhead (9,100′)

Then, the day before Sawyer turned 1 month old, Mike Santoro and I headed back down to Tiara Rado in Grand Junction for some more crack climbing.

Me leading 100′ Hands again…just so good

Me leading 100′ Hands

Mike on the lower corner system of 100′ Hands

Mikey jamming

Mike

The feet are good on 100′ Hands

After a cruxy roof move, I gave this route called Large Surprises a try…it was interesting

Me in the thick of this offwidth crack…ugh. I had to aid my way up the final 20′ using two #5 cams because I could not figure out how to make upwards progress. I think I will stay clear of offwidth cracks from now on

Mike on the initial roof move of Large Surprises

Mike laying back to the small ledge

Sawyer is definitely getting bigger, able to hold her head up, and growing on Rainier & Kona.

Me & Sawyer

Kona being a good babysitter

Until next time…

Its so nice to have some high quality desert crack climbing within a 2 hour drive of Edwards. Yes, the mecca of desert crack climbing is still an additional 3 hours drive in Indian Creek, Utah, but Grand Junction’s Colorado National Monument area does just fine for our needs. Jesse Hill and myself had been eyeing this obscure cragging spot called Tiara Rado for some time now and we made it happen this past Saturday. J and I drove down for the day and met Mikey and Jesse for some desert fun in the sun. Yes, it was hot. Temperatures up on the rock approached maybe 95 degrees and my feet were burning under the black climbing rubber. Fortunately, we had some good shade and realized the “Rado” may be more of an afternoon spot due to less direct sun as it faces more southeast.

Me leading the easiest route at Tiara Rado – an awesome cupped hands route called Short Cupped Hands (5.9+)

Short Cupped Hands may be only 50-60′ in height, but it surely doesn’t disappoint. Just awesome cupped hand jamming

To keep some anonymity regarding this crag, I’m not going to disclose specific directions, but it took us a good 2 hour hike to actually find the crag, but now we know the “more efficient” route of getting to the crag.

J on Short Cupped Hands

Mikey on Short Cupped Hands (5.9+)

Mike jamming

Even on a Saturday in September there were zero other folks at the crag. Hopefully, this is a common occurrence. All we could hear was the loud speaker from the Tiara Rado golf course down below. I then led a fairly grueling 100′ 5.10 route next door to Short Cupped Hands called Dirty Martini. My feet were burning on this one as I was in the sun the entire climb. I could have used another #1 cam as I had to lower 15′ en route to pick up one and place it higher. So, not a clean send, but good beta for next time.

Jesse nearing the top of Dirty Martini (5.10)

Jesse lowering

J laying back the crux section of Dirty Martini

Jesse & J had fun stemming between the main face and a tower next to Short Cupped Hands as well.

Jesse climbing Short Cupped Hands as seen from Dirty Martini

Jesse on stem

Eiger Sanction-esque?

J figuring out Short Cupped Hands

J jamming up Short Cupped Hands

J doing the stem

By 3pm, we had pretty much gone through all of our water and Gatorade and it was still really hot. We had climbed these two routes a few times each and then called it a day as we still wanted to find a more efficient approach route. I checked out the route called 100′ Hands (5.10a/b) and contemplated leading it, but honestly I was so thirsty and we pretty much had nothing left to drink. Save it for next time. Honestly, we cannot wait to go back to Tiara Rado and climb more awesome cracks hopefully sooner than later.

The next day was a bit dreary with overcast skies and rain, but Kristine, the dogs, and I did one of our favorite little local hikes/runs – the A10 Loop from Edwards to Arrowhead. The A10 Loop is maybe 6-7 miles in length and it was a great 3 hour outing. Even at 37 weeks pregnant, Kristine still does superb and can crank on the uphill. The downhill is a bit uncomfortable, so maybe next time we will pick a hike with more up than down. Isn’t that how we always like it, anyway?

All the Chalks on the highpoint of the A10 Loop (9,400′) looking back into the East Lake Creek Valley

Kristine at 37 weeks with our little gal!