Getting Lost in Boulder County Open Space

This is Boulder!?

With Brenda returning from her class trip (Major props to Bren for chaperoning 7-8th graders in the Grand Canyon for over a week while coping with pneumonia!) it was time for me to shed the slow moving solo daddy in favor of something a little more up-tempo.

I've been itching to do something badass. Something to push myself and shake off the cobwebs of a winter spent recuperating from surgery. I recently read about the Boulder Grand Slam on Paul Magnanti's website and thought this would be a good stretch goal for a big day hike close to home.

Alpinists send new route near RMNP

The team poses for their summit shot
on top of Unnamed Suburban Hill (9,260 ft)

Breaking News: Two young alpinists from Lafayette, CO made a possible first ascent of the Northwest Face of Unnamed Suburban Hill in Estes Park just outside Rocky Mountain National Park over President's Day weekend, 2014.
       Yvie Parker and Sam Bryan sent the route, now named Can We Have Hot Chocolate Now? in a single push from their backyard snow fort, summiting just before nap time on Saturday. Temps were in the high 40s and there was wind blowing from the West reported their support team.
       The team made the ascent in alpine style

Sir, you are full of holes

The Percoset Grins

In December I went through surgery to replace my ICD. ICD stands for Internal Cardio Defibrillator. You know the paddles in hospital shows?" Clear!" Imagine those, but implanted inside the body. It's pretty amazing tech but still not something that is often put into otherwise healthy 30 year olds. As one of my physicians once quipped: "It used to be that the patients would expire before the device did." Kinda grim but that's the reality of being on the cutting edge of medical technology. 

So it was a huge bummer but no big surprise to find out that the wire connecting my device to my heart was recalled. It's like when they recall your car because they find the brakes on your model don't work like they are supposed to. Except in this case, the brakes are inside your veins and attached to your heart. Awesome. 

A new day. A new year.

           There’s a certain energy to the New Year.  The beginning of 2014 seems full of possibilities; a chance for rebirth, to shape yourself into the person that you want to be. Maybe it’s a vow to lose a few pounds, read more books, learn a new skill, travel somewhere you've been dreaming about, ask that girl out who you have been secretly admiring, spend more time in the outdoors or with your family, finally send that route you've been projecting.

Whatever your goal is, for at least a brief time as the calendar flips over from December 31 to January 1, you know that they are within your grasp. That this will be the year you achieve, accomplish and overcome whatever fear or disability has been holding you back. 

This is the year.

What if you could hold that certainty all year long? What if you could hold that certainty of limitless possibility and potential throughout 2014? Imagine what you could achieve if every day you woke up and thought.

Today is the day.

More after the break

Some Days You Can Do It All

           

   

           “Let’s play with my new toys Mommy!” These are the last words I hear as the door shuts behind me. In the driveway, the truck looms in the blackness, leaking vapor like the engine from the Hogwarts train in the Harry Potter movies. My skis are packed in the camper cap, I’ve just finished an early Christmas morning opening presents with my family and I’m racing to catch my friends to carpool up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of backcountry skiing. It is 6:52 AM.

             Raising children, working a full time teaching job and trying to live an outdoor-oriented lifestyle is hard; mainly because of scheduling. When you try to juggle cooking breakfast, preparing lunch, teaching all day, food shopping, cleaning up the toys from underfoot, cooking dinner, doing dishes, putting your child to bed, grading papers, planning lessons and finding time to play imaginary zoo on the living room floor, you end up being limited either by your own endurance, or the pesky fact that there is only 24 hours in a day.

I had many conversations with my friends over Thanksgiving that focused on solving the problem of creating the time to both be a good father and carve out time for climbing, hiking and skiing.  Don’t forget not getting fired, which comes a close third on that priority list. We talked about carving out scheduled chunks of time to squeeze in a workout or a few laps on the project. Ultimately, it seemed like none of us were totally satisfied with how often we got out, but that we could feel good about getting after it sometimes and focusing on being a good father; at least most days.

Last weekend though, with an impending surgery rapidly approaching, I was given the equivalent of a weekend pass. Two days to play. 48 hours to fill with whatever fills my proverbial bucket. During those two days I managed to:

Take my daughter to the toy store for the first time.

Shop for my wife’s Christmas present.

Get totally worked at the Boulder Rock Club climbing with two beautiful women.

Spend an evening drinking homebrew with friends and family.

Open presents with my daughter and wife after a surprise early visit from Santa.

Go backcountry skiing, spending time and swapping tales with two of my best friends.

Go bowling and hang out with my family at a staff Christmas party.

Get eight good and well-deserved hours of rest.

Some days, it seems, you really can do it all. 

CT Hike Day 1 - Copper to above Camp Hale

Dinky pack day 1: Gotta love that ultralight style!

Rob picked me up nice and early-ish and we were down in Denver picking up Adam by around 9AM. A quick coffee stop and we were on our way! 
We parked at one of the lots in the Copper Ski area proper. Looking at the guidebook, we could have added a mile or two by parking right off of I-70, but the addition of two miles hiking across a ski area didn't seem like it would be a valuable addition to the trip. Final preparations were made and we were on our way!

Trying to make this more than annual.....

Yvie chillin' with Hayduke the dog at Rifle

So nobody likes to read a blog that only posts once a year right? In an attempt to make this a little more interesting...I'm combining all of my online writing into this blog (except the homebrew logs which will stay at On The Loose Brewery). In the next week or so I'll be posting up journals from my CT Hike and an update on how Yvie and Brenda are doing with this summer's adventures. Stay Tuned!!