The season for high-end sending in Colorado’s alpine bouldering areas started with a bang with RMNP’s Jade already getting repeated twice and the 2010 season has really barely begun. What else will the summer of ’10 bring?
Will there be an onslaught of hard FAs reminiscent of the rampage that Daniel Woods, Paul Robinson, Ty Landman and crew went on in the summer of 2007, or will it be the summer of the woman like 2008 seemed to be with Alex Puccio, Alex Johnson and Angie Payne all pulling down hard, or maybe it will be quieter like the summer of 2009 that had a few highlights but lacked the excitement of prior years? My vote is for another summer of the woman, but only time will tell.
There was a time when Mrs. Narc and I had planned on climbing in the Park this summer during a trip out west but those plans have been scrapped due to the fact that I haven’t bouldered in going on 4 months because of a finger injury that continues to bother me. I managed to survive a relatively prolific (for me) spring sport climbing season without aggravating the finger any much further, and I hope to build on that mild success when we visit Ten Sleep, WY in a few weeks to clip some more bolts. Despite my affinity for bouldering it’s been really nice to change things up and enjoy the different challenge presented by sport climbing. I know my finger joints have certainly appreciated the change of pace as well.
So, it will be with a certain fondness that I follow the goings on in the alpine realm of Colorado’s high country this summer. Not sure when we’ll make it back out there, but until we do quality videos like this one from Jon Glassberg will surely keep us psyched for that return trip:
Rocky Mountain National Park • Hallett Boulder • Jon Glassberg & Kevin Jorgeson from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.
A day spent bouldering at the Hallett Boulder in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Jon Glassberg sending Stranger in a Strange Land (V12) and Kevin Jorgeson making the first boulder ascent of a Matt Segal sport route called The End of the Beginning (5.13).
