Halloween Party Pics

Oct 29th, 2011 was the Halloween Party dubbed “Night of the Dead”. Being the 5th halloween party I have thrown we went all out with the decorations and party supplies while everyone presented amazing costumes. Below are just a select few photos from the night, you can find more here.

Highlights of the “Night of the Dead” party included a black light bar, 22 lbs of pulled pork for a BBQ Dinner, everyone”s amazing costumes, Dessert Cook-off, Giant Jenga, crazy Decorations,  lighted dance floor, general debauchery, and one amazing and incredibly fun group!!

Thanks everyone for making Halloween 2011 “Night of the Dead” so awesome. Can’t wait until we do this again!!!

2011 Backyard Bouldering Comp Recap

Thank you everyone for attending the 2nd Annual Backyard Bouldering Comp!!!

It was a huge success and I am really glad we had such an awesome group of people out ready to climb hard and have a lot of fun. The event was at least twice as big as last year and it was one of the most fun gatherings that we have ever had!!!

Below is a quick recap of the results and the event. There was 10 problems featured this year and a brand-new feature on the wall (literally finished the day of the comp!!!). Of the 10 problems 9 were completed which means I need to make it a little harder next year. Also glad to see such a diverse group of climbers out there and really glad to see all of the costumes.

Results:

Awards: 

• Men’s 1st: Jake Fell (2nd year in a row!!!)
• Men’s 2nd: Gabe Craveiro (after just barely missing it in the climb-off for 1st place!)
• Men’s 3rd: Vinny English (a late entry that come-in strong)
• Women’s 1st: Annie Bacci (Huge improvement over the past year!!!)
• Women’s 2nd: Brea Galvin (the Chilean Hooker outfit really helped the climbing)
• Women’s 3rd: Caitlin Shay (On the podium both years)

Prizes (these are the fun awards and glad everyone put a lot of effort into it): 

• Best Costume: RAMBO (making a guest appearance as some sort of sexy chilean prostitute and climbing in extremely tight jeans)
• Best Determination: Bubbha (the hipster tried hard all not but realized it just wasn’t that cool to win)
• Midget’s Unite: Katie for not ever really rock climbing before and coming out and doing amazing
• Best Beer: Gabe/Marcio (for bringing a delicious belgian beer)(lots of hard competition)
• Most Bonus Holds: Andrew Giamberardino (somehow winning this prize both years for hitting the most amount of bonus holds but not completing the problems)
• Drunken Monkey:  Andy Librande (flashing two separate problems after chugging a beer each time)

Thanks again for the awesome comp/party/BBQ!!!

More Info including the Competition Poster: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/09/backyard-bouldering-comp-2011/

Details on the Scoring Format here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2010/08/backyard-bouldering-competition-sept-4th-2010/

Enjoy some pics from the night:

Independence Pass Bouldering and Camping

When: August 5th-7th, 2011

Where: Independence Pass, Colorado

Caitlin and I took off after work on a Friday to head-up to Independence Pass between Aspen and Leadville. The idea was to check out the bouldering that is all over the area, enjoy the sights, and escape the heat of Denver. We rolled in after dark and after taking Caitlin’s volvo for a little 4-wheelin’ action , somehow found free camping up Lincoln Creek road.

After sleeping like logs in the crisp night air (the denver heat was not making sleep easy), we awoke to a beautiful day. Amazingly our friend Terra happened to drive by our campsite as we were getting ready to leave for the day…small world.

Saturday we hit up the James Brown Boulders which we had a little difficulty locating as we were one pull-off too soon. Once we found these great boulders in the shade it was a nice day of trying a number of problems and enjoying the crisp air.

Caitlin working one of the tricky easier problems near the James Brown Boulder (notice the grassy top-out):

Me on the James Brown Boulder (awesome block):

We headed-up to the pass for some sunset viewage. Here is Caitlin showing-off:

Beautiful last chunks of light:

Small pond right next to the road right as the sun disappeared:

The craziest thing happened when we were back at camp and done cooking dinner. We were just sitting there pondering the night sky when a huge tree came crashing down in the forest behind us…scared the living crap out of us and it was pitch black and impossible to investigate. No idea why or how it fell but it was a crazy event that was a little unnerving.

Sunday morning cooking some breakfast:

Playing in the Grottoes:

Cool waterfall formation:

It was 100 degrees when we rolled back in Denver…nice to enjoy some cool weather and experience an awesome place!

Link to blog posting:   http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/09/independence-pass-bouldering-and-camping/

Backyard Bouldering Comp 2011

2nd Annual Backyard Bouldering Competition:

• Party – BBQ – Climbing Competition
• Saturday September 10th, 2011
• Starting at 4:30pm

The time has come for the 2nd Annual Backyard Bouldering competition. Following the success of last year I invite anyone ready to climb hard and have a good time. The scoring format and flow will follow very similar to last years with awards for Men’s/Women’s plus prizes for Best Costume, Most Determination, and other new ones.

See you there!

Backpacking in the Eagles Nest Wilderness – Peak C

When: July 17th – July 18th, 2011

Where: Eagle’s Nest Wilderness, Peak C, Upper Piney River Trail  (TOPO MAP LINK)

Caitlin and I decided to add a little fun overnight backpacking trip onto a busy weekend. After going to a quick wedding reception in Frisco we headed over to Vail to embark on a short overnight backpacking trip. After driving down a very long dirt road (which uses the Red and White trailhead that we snowmobile in the winter) we finally reached the Upper Piney Lake Trailhead. Immediately we were greeted by a pretty nasty evening rainstorm which we decided to wait out in the car (and only took about 30 mins).

It quickly turned into a beautiful evening and as we started putting our packs on we were startled when two hudge BULL MOOSE popped-out of the brush 50 yards from us at the parking lot. Of course I had to get some photos of this incredibly rare occurrence (I have only seen moose in Colorado from a very far distance). Moose enjoying the tasty-treats:

Of course I wanted to get as close as possible and luckily we were down-wind from them. I sneaked over to an area with some thicker trees and tried to get as close as possible knowing that these animals are incredibly dangerous. I got this shot through the dense brush:

Right after I took that photo a jeep coming down the road saw them, slammed on their brakes and started taking photos as well. A group of car-campers nearby that were behind a small hill heard the commotion and joined in on the moose watching. I suddenly found myself in close proximity to two potentially dangerous creatures as the tensions quickly increased. The big guy looked around and gave me the stink-eye so I high tailed it out of there before he could test those hooves on me. Unfortunately the two never posed together but you can see both of them in this photo:

Moose distraction aside we started our hike in on an relatively easy trail with incredible views of the valley in front of us.

Caitlin measuring up against the local flauna:

Andy checking out the beautiful Peak C (Rough-rider Couilor is just visible on the notch to the right of the peak) We ran into a group that skied it on Sunday:

We backpacked in a few miles since the sun was setting quickly. Set-up camp and had a great cooking area overlooking two different valley’s. The next morning we got up and hiked around the area up the side of the mountain next to peak C. There are not really any trails in the area (and the ones there are poorly marked as we found ourselves somewhat misplaced).

We were camped at the bottom of this valley. To the Right is where the Trailhead for the Upper Piney is and a very large valley. In front of us in the valley is where the trail continues to Upper Piney Lake (which we missed this trail the night before). On the otherside of the peaks on the left is East Vail. The clouds made it hard to get a solid photo.

After watching the clouds build for a couple of hours a quick moving rainstorm scared us back down to the campsite where we got back just as the weather unleashed for 20-30 mins. Then it was back to clear skies and an awesome hike back to the car.

Beautiful valley views on the way back to the car:

Caitlin and I almost back to the car:

A view of the “Rip Saw” ridge from the road on the drive out:

Nice to get away!

Link to the full post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/08/backpacking-in-the-eagles-nest-wilderness-peak-c/