Back in Boulder!

Hey y'all, I'm back in Boulder! First, a quick update on the happenings since my last post:

I finally started using a rope in the Tetons, and found some great partners, including Aaron, a local and guidebook author who took me out to climb "Sunshine Daydream", a beautiful 4 pitch 5.11 in Death Canyon.

After quitting Jackson, I rolled south to Green River, where I met up with a college friend, also named Aaron. We had a great weekend getting rowdy in rural Wyoming (redundant?) with his roommates Zack and Brian. All of Saturday was spent at a sports bar soaking in COLLEGE FOOTBALL. My Spartans proved victorious, as did Aaron's Wolverines, and a good time was had by all. The following day we punished ourselves with a 30+ (?) mile day-hike in the Wind River Mountains, which was masochistically fun. The full Wyoming experience was rounded out with a trip to the Flaming Gorge and some rad cliff diving with some drunk locals.

Finally, I've migrated back to my adopted home of Colorado, and am currently in the process of re-entering mainstream life (job, apartment, library card, etc...). A big thanks to my friend Zack, and his super-nice girlfriend Anna, for putting me up for the last few days. You guys rock!

The Boulder Skyline. They're numbered right to left, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

As part of my reintroduction to Front Range life, I've kept a strict schedule of evening Flatiron hikes/climbs. Yesterday's Third Flatiron jaunt was bizarrely fun: after reading about some local speed records, I pushed myself on the approach, speed hiking (not running, that's just uncivilized) up the rocky trail in 19minutes. The climb, a 7-8 pitch 5.4, took 9 minutes. So far, so good. Somehow, though, the downclimb took 19 minutes, and the hike down 23?! That's right, going down was slower than going up.
Hypothesis one: gravity inversion. Possible. Hypothesis two: I got lost repeatedly in the dark. Probable.

Sidenote: Apparently working batteries are an essential part of the whole "headlamp producing light" process.

The actual speed record, car-to-car, is 33 minutes. That leaves some room for improvement off my 1:10 time, but maybe next time I'll try it with some light.

Anyways, I'll try to keep updating as I settle, and hopefully soon I'll have some rad pictures of Eldo cranking action!