From Costa Rica 2012

The first thing anybody should know about our stay here was that we weren’t lacking for good fresh healthy food. Our breakfast included fresh squeezed OJ, fresh watermelon, pineapple, honey and granola. Then they brought out eggs scrambled with cheese, bacon, ham, peppers, etc.

There is a down side to all that food. Eventually, it makes its way through you and we’ve found that they are not really big on flushing toilet paper here. Apparently, plumbing doesn’t include Kohler power flush.

From Costa Rica 2012

The city is quite the place to be if you like to drive recklessly down crowded streets. I’m certainly no world traveler, so it took me a bit to get used to the fact the stop signs and road markings in Costa Rica seem to be more of a suggestion than diretion of how to manaja sus coche. (I think that’s “drive a car”) This leads us to our Spanglish, the offical language of Costa Rica. With a bit of hand gesture, the occasional attempt to ask for una cerveza, you can get by quite nicely down here. You can even pay in Spanglish money. Any combinaton of dollars y colones seems to work just fine.

Our second day brought us to La Fortuna where we stayed just outside of town in a beautiful little cabana with a view of the Arenal Volcano. Now, the clouds roll in most of the day so you can see the base of the volcano but not its peak. As I type this, the afternoon rains have brought thick clouds that envelope the entire surrounding area. We did get a chance to hike throug the rain forest around the volcano, and through it doesn’t appear to be active, it’s had enough eruptions since it blew its top in 1968 to keep most tourists at a healthy distance.

From Costa Rica 2012

From Costa Rica 2012

The next day was rafting on the Sarapiqui river. We had a blast, charging through class III-IV rapids chanting the nation’s motto of “Pura Vida!” which translates roughly to “tourism rules.” Photos really tell the story so click on them already (well we’ll be adding more when our Internet is more consistent).

From Costa Rica 2012

Day 4 (I think – I’ve lost track already and frankly, I don’t care) brought us to our rain forest canyoneering day. I would have to say that the rappels were very pretty and I enjoyed the view and blah blah blah, but the real enjoyment was i between each rappel, Heidi and I got to scamper throug the forest to the next destination. Along the way, splashed down wet canyon walls and enjoyed every moment of another day in this tropical paradise.

From Costa Rica 2012

The guides each day started every sentence with my friends so in that tradition – My friends, if you are thinkning of coming to Costa Rica, I think it’s easy for me to say two thums up so far. We’ve still half the trip in front of us and we’ve already had un tiempo fantatico. Who can say no to fresh breakfast, advenure days (did I mention that they feed you afterwards each time?), quiet evenings, and warm sunny (mostly) weather? I didn’t even mention the hotsprings yet. We’ll come back to that one.

BTW – Internet is not that accessible, so bear with us as we play catch up on getting you posted.  Muchas Gracias.

We saw a cool little snake along the stream, and bela thoroughly enjoyed rock hopping!

I didn’t mind it either

The Night ended with the short drive to Longmont where we’d made a last minute reservation and found a yummy BBQ place before passing out for the night.

The alarm goes goes off at 5:15 and we all start dragging ourselves out of bed. Filling up water bottles and grabbing gear while trying not to wake up Robert (another old VE employee staying with B&K). We load up the Cube and make our way over to Boulder’s Chautauqua Park (or whatever it’s called). We start getting organized, determining who will be carrying what when we realize we only have 2 ropes (it was left in the other car so “we wouldn’t forget it” LOL). While normally 2 ropes seem like plenty, on this day we needed to have 3 to keep things going at a nice pace since Bela had figured out a splendid plan for a team of 4 with only 1 leader. So Ben took off to get the forgotten rope while I played with this adorable kittie. She had a dead mouse but preferred to play scratching post with our 2 ropes. Beautiful kittie wandering in boulder – i hope the bigger critters didn’t get her!

Due to our altitude deficiency (my excuse) it was decided that we’d get hiking and mr. forgetful colorado could catch up with us upon his return. The hike starts out fairly flat and deceiving… though after about 5 minutes i was taking a break to “enjoy the view”. We saw a few hot air balloons off in the distance as the sun was rising and it really was a beautiful sight.

It is actually over a mile and quite steep to get to the bases of the flatirons so Ben caught up with us quickly. Master navigator that I am, i ended up finding our trail (ok i just read the signs) and after some time we make it to the base of the first flatiron – our climb of the day. Many of the climbs start at the base, but ours included a scramble over to the ridge, which we’d planned on following the whole way up the @1000 ft climb following the North ridge the whole way. In the image below you can pretty much see each pitch – where you see trees or a notch that was likely a belay spot.

Bela was ready to go and hopped on the sharp end with a smile on his face. He planned to lead each pitch while trailing 2 ropes for us gals. I’d start up with Karleen simul-climbing a few feet behind me.

Once up, I’d start belaying Bela on the next pitch while Karleen would belay up Ben. It was a great system!

The first pitch was pretty quick and simple, a nice slab that took us out of the trees. Although, funny enough, it ended up back in the trees. On multi pitch climbs we’re used to the belay spots being very tight and usually quite uncomfortable… sometimes with a hanging belay, but this one was quite large and we weren’t even worried about being on a real anchor.

And did i mention the view? It was AMAZING! View from pitch 1 first, then from pitch 2

Lazy belay at the top of 2…

and what rope management???

So next comes the (now infamous) 3rd pitch. Bela led it like the master he is and ended up finding an anchor way off to the side through some tees (another foresty belay stance). I came up next with Karleen right behind me. What bela didn’t factor in was that there was a move on this pitch that us gals REALLY didn’t like. He did a fancy reverse pullup to get down from an overhanging rock – but us gals were like ‘ Ugh no way!’. It was kind of funny i’m sure to watch (if it weren’t so frustrating for the boys – bela attempting to belay from 50′ away with no anchors in between, and Ben down below with no idea what was going on). I went up to it, did the attempt but my pullups don’t work the regular way, let alone setting up for one from the top and letting your legs dangle to an unknown distance with a definite swing if you miss… needless to say I got freaked out as Bela would try to sweet talk me into trying it yet again. Karleen was like I’ll give it a try (and i thought i heard a “hear me roar” in there but maybe that was me thinking it) – i didn’t feel quite so bad as she agreed with me that it was a muscle man move and she didn’t like it either. Here we are deliberating our options (granted from this view it doesn’t look THAT bad- i swear it was).

so after a few minutes of more attempts, we decide that Ben should come up make the superman move and set up a quickie anchor so us gals would feel better. He of course did and we later determined that we could just jump the Gap! Notes for next time

After we all make it to the anchor it was time for the 4th pitch. Bela started up and found the “5.4″ move of the climb – a small ceiling with a crack. He made it look easy of course, but did yell down that “wasn’t easy” or something like that but we didn’t yet understand what that might mean for the rest of us.

Once he got to the top of the pitch it was my turn – i quickly made it to the evil ceiling and proceeded to grunt, yell, transplant a tree with my foot (poor thing that was a good hold), and eventually sweated my way up the thing. The main issue was that the best hold was the crack which is exactly where the rope wanted to go but gravity wanted you to go left and with no good footholds on the right it was weirdly balanced if you aren’t spiderman. Luckily the rest of the climb was pretty easy and i made it up to the top of the small belay area at the top of a spire.

Now it was karleen’s turn – she’d held off since the roof looked tricky and now she made the unhappy realization that her super tight bouldering shoes really weren’t meant for multi-pitch ALL DAY climbing. Unfortunately after trying her shoes, ben’s shoes, chacos and even barefoot – the roof won the battle and the decision was made to escape if possible. Now the guidebook claims there is no escape – but let it be known that from that start of the 4th pitch there most definitely is – an easy scramble over the ridge (we rapped down to join our team as we were not going to leave any man or woman behind) and we found some nice game trails or possibly real trails leading back to the beginning of the climb and bottom of the ridge.

While the summit had been in sight, we still had a tremendous day of epic climbing and we vowed to go back to one day gain the summit. We’re not so sure Ben and Karleen would try a repeat but you never know

We finished the night with some well earned nachos.

Our first day in Colorado was quite exhausting after all that driving, hiking, and climbing so we decided to have a nice day off. Karleen had to work during the day so the boys decided to play some tennis while i enjoyed hanging out in the grass typing up the first day’s blog entry. After a nice dip in the pool we opted to grab a quick lunch while checking in on Karleen at REI. We timed it perfectly and were able to grab a bite during her break at a cute sandwich place right across the street.

On our way back we learned that Ben and Karleen had never been to Eldorado Canyon, and decided that we at least had to show Ben how wrong that was… they live not 10 minutes from this amazing state park that has some of the world’s most renowned climbing and some cool hiking to top it off. We made our way into the park and Bela and I relived our previous trips (and epic adventures) for Ben. We pointed out the Bastille Crack (my first out door climb ever!) which was easy as it is literally on the side of the road and you almost hit the belayers as you drive by.

We parked a bit further in and ended up walking back towards the Bastille and Wind Tower. The boys of course had to boulder a bit and touch the rock. We then told been of our epic climb on Calypso on Wind Tower – which was fun to actually take a look at it years later and see the route (or route not taken) and read in the guide book things we should have read then… we did learn a valuable lesson – read the guidebooks no matter what!

With our stroll down memory lane over, it was time to meet back up with Karleen and start planning our next day’s fun – climbing a flatiron (a bucket list for heidi!). It was decided we’d head to the next town over – Louisville (yes Louis- ville, not lou e ville), a quaint little town that Bela and I loved. After some wandering, we decided to get some fancy pizza followed by some wonderfully evil ice cream. I think it was called Sweet Cow – but i remember it as Happy Cow.. either way they had some fun flavors that reminded me of the ice cream shop in San Francisco that had flavors like Salt n Pepper, Jesus Juice, Secret Breakfast (bourbon and cornflakes).. this time i got cinnamon chocolate and molasses, while bela got fruity pebbles — in homemade waffle cones. Bliss. (oddly no photos again of the ice cream, it was that good, again.)

We knew we’d be getting up early so we turned it in to get some more much needed sleep in preparation for our big day.

Every year Bela and i try to take a trip that’s just for us, not always climbing but something we both enjoy. This year we decided to head west to my favorite state for some climbing, hiking, and exploring. It just so happens that many of our friends happen to think it’s a great state as well so we have a few friends out here that we’re going to visit and hopefully meet up with to climb with… so as the weather in Chicago finally cools down from its ungodly humidity and heat and becomes bearable again, we decide to leave…. luckily i don’t feel so bad about that knowing we’ll be in the foothills and mountains soon enough.

Thursday afternoon arrives and after a few quick errands we’re finally on the road. We missed most of the traffic, but as always there’s construction everywhere… luckily we timed it well and didn’t get too delayed. As we got into Nebraska rain started coming down pretty strong as we hit a pretty big storm. The visibility got worse and worse and it got to the point where we were going at least 20-30 under the speed limit just to see the lines on the road. i may be conservative when it comes to driving in the rain, but i just dont think its worth the risk and since we weren’t under a real time constraint we ended up pulling off into a rest stop to take a break and let the storm pass.

On the way into the parking area i noticed something hopping on the road – a frog. On the way into the parking area i noticed something hopping on the road – a frog. then i noticed it wasnt just 1, they were every where! Big ones, little ones… crossing the road, hanging in the grass. They were loving the rain, we didn’t. Since it was 2am we decided to take a nap.

We woke up to dawn and got back on the road. after a few miles and just shy of colorado our stomachs reminded us that we needed some sustenance…. After a quick breakie and top off to the tank we could have gotten on our way…. but as most folks know a great road trip just isnt complete until someone rides/pets/accosts some plastic/metal animal or sculpture (mythical or extinct ones just get you extra points). So this is when we realized that the sinclair station does in fact have a miniture dinosour that is just the right height to attempt to ride So bela does a great impression of an old time cowboy and leaps right on up onto his back, proving that if cars magically disappeared that he’d likely be able to function and ride off into the sunset and make it look good.

After a quick ride, it was my turn and let’s just say that it wasn’t pretty. Lucky for you all bela was snapping off pics of my wonderuflly not graceful mounting of betty the brontosaur. we had a great laugh at my awkwardness as well as the few folks who drove by and saw the mid 30 year olds riding a fake dinosaur…. It was awesome.

Front Range Tempatations

The rest of the drive went quickly as we entered colorado and then had the big debate – where to go and what to do? we figured our friends ben and karleen were likely busy on a friday morning so we decided to head to my old stomping grounds… I had lived with my sister tiff back in the summer of 1997 at her apartment south of denver. so we drove by my old jobs – performance bikes and the movie theater that had the 3 story high screen… It all slowly started coming back, things looked very familair and it was fun to see if my memory worked at all. it did!! ok well most of it, i was able to get us back to the general area of the apartment but didn’t quite find it. i decided that it didn’t matter and we had to make a decision on what to do with our day.

Now bela isn’t that familiar with the area so i started explaining to him that i would start driving west toward a bouldering area just in the foothills and a mere 15 minutes away and if we didn’t like that we could head north another 15-30 minutes and hit Golden – another spot for climbing and a cool little town, or we could head north yet again another 20-30 mins and hit eldorado canyon for some more climbing and so and so on… There’s climbing in just bout every canyon/valley here and you really have your pick on where you want to go.

So we deciced to start with Golden since it was so close. I mentioned that we probably didn’t have a good guidebook seeing as how we left it at home since it was from 1995 and things had likely changed a bit since then. the Bent Gate (an awesome climbing gear shop) just so happens to be based out of golden so with a new guidebook in hand we had a plan – grab a quick lunch and check in on the kids to see if anyone could join us for some afternoon fun on the rock.

Karleen had to work, but ben was available but had some errands to run so we had an hour or so to fill. i had vaguely remembered my friend steve mentioning a whitewater park in the foothills and thought maybe it was in golden so i convinced bela tthat we should explore the area in town. There are some nice parks and great walkways along the river right in town and we parked when i saw some whitewater boats and got a bit excited.

We’d found the clear creek whitewater park!! While the park is manmade, it is quite natural and has some nice features. Including some nice surf waves and play spots with some really great places to hang out and watch. i noticed 2 gals just socializing along the river and ended up asking them about renting boats becuase i may just be able to convince bela to let me go out for a few hours to play in the water – its just too tempting! luckily there is an outfitter in town and i should be able to rent when the time comes (we’ll see!)

So by that point it was time to meet up with ben and we headed off toward golden cliff’s north table. Both bela and i had been there before and remembered the hike up being horrible, not to mention the late afternoon sun on a nice warm day… It didn’t seem the best choice but we really didn’t care at that point, we just wanted to get on some rock. So we prepped our gear and in no time ben pulled in and we were off up the steep climb to the rocks.

Despite the heat the hike wasn’t nearly as bad as we expected, and we found the area we were looking for fairly quickly. there were 2 nice 5.7s in a small alcove that was almost in shade so we decided to do both of those and then see what else looked good.

The first two climbs went really well with bela leading them both and they both ended up completely in the shade so we didn’t have to sweat the whole day. The rock was great – fun holds, ledges and moves. ben even pulled off a superb chaco toe crack move in addition to climbing the 2nd one totally barefoot (he brought his super tight shoes that no longer fit…) We finished the day with bela leading a beautiful 10c that had some tricky moves. I made an attempt (halfway wasn’t too shabby!) and then Ben finished cleaning up.

We worked our way back to Superior where B&K live where we got some dinner and waited for K to get off of work. After catching up with everyone we realized that we were all exhausted and that it was time for bed….

We declared our first day in Colorado to be quite a success… tempation at its finest. Tomorrow’s plan – tennis, relaxation and maybe some bouldering