Around Mt. Falcon, Stretching, Everest, And Videos

Around Mt. Falcon, Stretching, Everest, and Videos


Ran around Mt. Falcon early this morning. I really enjoy doing the outer loop of the peak from the bottom lot - up Turkey Trot, then up to Meadow, Old Ute, Devil's Elbow, Parmalee, Tower, and then back down. The route tags the high points and takes you out to Devil's Elbow for a nice view south on a trail not many travel. Ran into tons of wild turkey tracks today, with only a fleeting glimpse of one turkey in the woods. I think the loop is around 13 miles and 3,000' of gain, which is basically the same as the loop I ran Monday. Need to find one with a few extra miles on it to get into the neighborhood of 16-18 miles.

The New York Times had a post on "reasons not to stretch" which was being passed around FB by some runner friends. I commented that the two articles discussed in the post really argue for not doing greater then 45 second static stretches prior to workouts, and not necessarily to not stretch. Here are the two articles (here and here). I do some 10-20 second "stretches"/poses prior to my runs, along with some leg swings, back cracks, etc. (but really I just warm up as I go), and every night I try and do a 20 minute routine of more static (greater then 30 second) stretching which I believe helps with injury prevention and relaxation. My problem with the NYT article is that it just uses the word "stretching" without any qualifications. The studies themselves make these qualifications, but most people don't read the actual studies. I guess everyone, even the NYT, is looking for clickbait headlines.

I put up a post one of the bouldering areas Tara and I developed over the past 4 years called The Titans just outside of the Indian Peaks on the west side of the Divide. I back dated it and kept it fairly vague so that the area retains it's adventuring feel.

I won't get into the whole Everest thing, as it has been out of control for years now and I have no desire to climb the peak, at least not using expedition style means. However, I like to honor the early pioneers, and on this day in 1983 Swiss alpinist and mountaineer Edouard Wyss-Dunant passed away. I mention him because he led the 1952 Swiss expedition to Everest that was responsible for opening up the Khumbu Icefall (the location of this years tragic avalanche). This is now the standard route on Everest, but back then it was an unprecedented success to just get through the Khumbu and make it to the South Col. He also was a doctor and coined the term "the death zone" which is anything above 8,000m. Here is a video on the expedition with cool historical footage:


Finally, Salomon has released their final episode of Season 3 on Emelie Forsberg. Another great piece of eye candy for sure!

The Titans Bouldering

The Titans Bouldering


This is a post to confirm that there is good, fun bouldering in Grand County. Although a ton of people mountain bike, hike, fish, run, ski, etc. in Grand County, climbers have tended to stay away from the area for a couple reasons. One, there is no easy access climbing anywhere in the county - there are a few roadside boulders that offer up a couple fun problems, but almost everything worth climbing involves a fairly long approach and some adventuring. Over the past four years, Tara and I put up around 50 problems in the county - most in RMNP or in the Indian Peaks - that range from V0 to V10+. There is potential for a lot more development at a couple areas, and there are a few areas that we found which we never got around to developing. For those looking for some fun stuff in the Granby, Fraser, Winter Park area, here is the low down. I'll put up more in other posts, this one is focused on The Titans.

Winter Park/Fraser

There is not much here. We put up a couple small problems on Berthoud Pass in Second Creek, but nothing worth mentioning. The only real area that we developed over the years is called The Titans. This is a fun area with several house sized granite boulders along with tons of small boulders sitting on the edge of the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I'll describe the area briefly here. To get to The Titans, find your way to the west side trailhead for Devils Thumb Pass. From the trailhead, hike for about 1.5 miles, passing a couple small fun boulders with short problems right by the giant meadow. Continue around the meadow and continue on the trail as it runs along the south side of the meadow. On the far side of the meadow, in the trees, the trail will pass through a series of granite boulders. This is the first zone. Just up from the trail are a few easy problems on small boulders, but the two gems are downhill on house sized boulders - The Grand Surf V10 and The Project V11+?. In this first zone we put up around 25 problems with the project above the Grand Surf and the project on the northwest corner of the Grand Surf boulder still needing to be done. If you continue hiking, the trail drops a bit and you hit zone two, with some massive boulders and a small little cave type feature on the north side. Here again are some fun problems on the main boulders as well as on all of the smaller boulders nearby. From there you can hike back towards the meadow and you will find a couple more boulders with fun problems on them. If you keep hiking on the trail, it will cross a creek. Hiking up the trail from here another 20 minutes brings you to the third zone of boulders, which are big, highball, and fun. If you hike up the side trail that runs north along the creek, you will run into more boulders with little or no development.

Grand Surf

Grand Surf

The Grand Surf project finally went down this morning. An amazing line on an amazing boulder! Still a couple projects to be had at the Titans...