I actually went climbing!
Yes, I live in Colorado so I should be climbing every day. No, I don't actually do that. Yes, I regret it.
Now that we got that out of the way, I will go into a detailed description of my second outdoor, but first top roping experience in Boulder. (Don't worry, it's not going to be detailed...there was some rock, some rope, some people, and some gear. That's about as detailed as I will get)
Up in Boulder Canyon, which is down the street from me, but near the Nederlands (which is located at the top of the Canyon), there is some sweet climbing with grades ranging from 5.6+ to 5.12+, which is set up for sport or top rope, which is AWESOME! The best part about climbing in Boulder is that the majority of climbs have bolts all the way up or two rings at the top of the climb to put two quickdraws and a rope and be done with it. (The Gunks should really learn from them) However, to get to these climbs, there was quite an approach, and that included crossing a raging river. But don't worry, there was a huge log to cross, but did I mention I have HORRIBLE balance? Don't get your hopes up, I didn't fall in but I was shaking more than a chihuahua on a cold day. It took me about 5 minutes to cross this log, and it had branches to hold onto on the way across and I was on my knees crawling like I was going to die (which I didn't seeing that I'm writing this blog entry now) Once we all crossed the log, we took a 15-20 minutes approach up to some beautiful crag. There were so many people there but it was just such a positive group of people; everyone smiling and laughing with their dogs and kids. There was a woman there, who I thought was 28, was celebrating her 40th birthday (Yeah, I'm really bad at age), and everyone in her group was wearing a shirt where on the back it had numbers 1-40 and boxes under each number. When I asked her what she was doing, she explained that for her 40th birthday, she was doing 40 pitches. All of us stood there with our mouths wide open because that is SO hard to do in just one day. But she had her husband, kids, and friends, set up multiple routes and she would just climb them over and over again. She was such a badass, I hope that I am just like her when I'm 40 (And I may be stealing that idea for my 23rd birthday)
So after all of us watched her in envy, we got on our first climb, which I can't remember the name of which is slightly making me depressed. But throughout the day, we got in a 5.7, 5.8, and 5.9, and some people in my group did a 5.10b which i knew I wasn't capable of which made me sad and wanting to become more badass at climbing. At one point in the day, when my friend was letting me down, she wasn't really paying attention and let me down way too fast and I swung out and smacked my back into the rock next to me. I slightly freaked out since my biggest fear is falling but I felt bad because she was horrified so I pretended like it was no big deal (but it was).
Around 2:30, we saw clouds overcasting the mountains and we decided to bail because we didn't want to have to desend the mountain on wet rock. My roommate and I decided instead of crossing the log again, to cross the actual river. There was a rope that went across so you could hold on and walk so I thought, why not? I rolled up my pants, as high as humanly possible and started walking. The water was freezing because the water rushing down is mostly coming from the snow that's melting off the top of the mountain, but after climbing it felt amazing until I got to the middle of the stream and the rapid hit me and threw me back. Even though I was still holding onto the rope, water went halfway up my body, making the whole, rolling my pants up, pointless.
On our way back into town, which took about 10 minutes, we decided to stop for coffee and walk around a little bit. It was that moment I realized how much I love Boulder. The fact that I can go climbing, go into town, and come home all within a few hours is perfection. Everything is in such close proximity, sometimes it's just flabbergasting. Everyone says that you never leave Boulder because everything you could possibly want is here. As stupid as I thought that statement was, it's 100% true. You want to climb, kayak, go tubing, horseback ride, bike, run, shop, eat, bowl, go to a movie, watch an outdoor movie, go to carnivals, or a farmers market? Don't worry, it's all in Boulder. You want good weather? You want sun? Yeah, it's in Boulder.
I don't know. Climbing, good food, really nice people? Seems like Boulder is a pretty amazing place to me. I can't wait to have more days like these.
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