Castlewood Canyon Spring Climbing
- Posted: May 24, 2011
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Front Range, Rock
0
Location: Castlewood Canyon State Park Colorado
Dates: 3/26, 4/8, 4/9, 4/15
In between powder sessions in the mountains, hail storms in Denver, and intense wind along the front range we have been taking advantage of the beautiful climbing opportunities at Castlewood.
We have had several sessions (love the afterwork sessions) at the Fontainebleau area of Castlewood with Caitlin coming pretty close to sending Rocket Ship. Here she is on the first day out with the new Organic Pad March 26th:
Jake leading with style at the C-Section wall at Castlewood on April 9th:
The elusive Rambo made an appearance and we worked on the Plate Rock South Face Arete in an after-work session on April 15th:
Rambo up high on the Plate Problem with all of the committing moves at the top:
Eying out the most intense crack climb at Castlewood. The South Sentry is a perfect crack formation with a undesirable landing on a small boulder that is nearly impossible to protect with only one spotter/photographer…Rambo got up in it but the next moves were a little dangerous for our situation (4/15/11):
The largest herd of deer I have ever seen at Castlewood and surprisingly they weren’t too spooked (3/26/11):
Full post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/05/castlewood-canyon-spring-climbing/
Ice-Ice-Baby…
- Posted: March 28, 2011
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Rock, Snow, Southern Mountains
- 0
What: Ice Climbing in Ouray Colorado
When: Feb 11th-13th, 2011
Who: Andrew G, Hoof-Cakes, Caitlin, Brain G, Myself, meeting up with Vinny, Sarah, Andrew M, and some other dude’s whose names I haphazardly forgotten…yeah we had a crew.
Reasons why Ice-Climbing in Ouray is the shizzle:
- Gear: Nothing like playing with sharp-pointy Ice Axes all day
- Technique: The better at hitting/kicking you are the more fun you will have
- Location: Comparing Ouray to the rest of Colorado is like comparing a Salema Hayek to Rosie O’Donnell
- Ice Park: Huge area, easy access, plenty of climbs and beautiful things to look at. I am always impressed when I visit here. Plus you walk from the Motel to the ice-park.
- Ice: Unreal formations everywhere.
- Food: Classic Mexican at Buen Tiempo and a new favorite at Mouse’s Chocolates
- Hot Tub at the Victorian Inn: Best views from any hot-tub I have ever gotten drunk in (here is an idea picture)
- Not Driving on I-70: Well technically you can get here via I-70 but why would anyone want to drive on that road. Instead we enjoyed ~5.5 hours of scenic roadways and saw a incredible sunset over Monarch Pass
Yes. I was pleasantly surprised with how awesome our trip to Ouray turned-out. First off Ouray seems like a little bump in the road on the way to bigger and better things (ie Silverton, Durango, etc); however you only appreciate this town when you have spent some time here.
This is my third Ice adventure to this town with the previous two being on commercially guided trips with the DU Alpine Club back in college. Those were a lot of fun but this time was able to piggy-back on some friends with a bunch of Ice-climbing equipment and were able to explore on our own.
First day was spent at the New Funtier Area. Good area that has a number of concentrated climbs in a narrow canyon.
Vinny leading up some thin ice:
Whitney posing for the camera:
Andrew G. showing us how it is done on a sketchy pillar at the end of the day:
The second day we headed to the excellent South Park area which is much further in the canyon, however the actually area is in a wide-section of the river and makes for a nice place to hang-out and watch climbs.
Amazingly a Bighorn Sheep crossed under the canyon when we were setting-up the climbs. They hung out above us all day too:
Caitlin after cruising through the tough part:
Brian making his mom proud:
Andrew M. doing some leading on beautiful ice:
Andy L. (myself) up on the right with Vinny quickly catching-up:
Solid Trip!
For the original post please visit: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/03/ice-ice-baby/
Some Favorites from 2010
- Posted: January 31, 2011
- By: andylibrande
- In: Backpacking, Climbing Wall, Colorado, Random, Rock, Snow, Travel, Wyoming
- 0
Below is a slideshow showing some of my favorite photos from 2010. 2010 was a pretty good year with a number of really cool trips to new locations and old favorites. Hope you enjoy:
If you are following from a feed please follow this link for the full post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/01/some-favorites-from-2010/
New England Trip and Bouldering
- Posted: November 11, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: New England, Rock, Travel
- 1
What: A Visit to Boston, MA and the surrounding climbing
When: Sept 25th – Oct 2nd, 2010 (Sat thru Sat)
Took a week off from work to meet up with Chris who has been living in Boston for just over a year. The goal was to visit a number of different bouldering areas while spending some time checking out Boston. It was the first time I have been to the East Coast and was looking forward to something completely new.
Immediately we had to check out the local spot. The day after I landed we headed to the Hammond Pond area in Newton which was less then 15 mins from Chris’s house. We went to a spot that Chris had not previously checked out, as the parking for the area is questionable, called the Temple Overhangs. Awesome hunk of rock hidden in the forest made out of a weird rock called puddingstone (resembling a slick castlewood rock).
Myself stretching the muscles after the flight:
Chris sending the Classic Reefer Madness:
Chris on the Traverse Problem:
Sweet shot Chris took of me getting spanked on the Reefer Madness start:
Shortly after this decent session a rainstorm moved in and spent Sunday Evening through Tuesday Evening slowly drizzling. The weather changed the plans which resulted in us spending a lot of quality time in exploring the sites and sounds of Boston. Ate a ridiculous amount of great Italian food, ran into a number of good characters, climbed indoors at Metro Rock (really fun gym), and saw a bunch of cool sites which was an unexpected plus.
Tuesday night was looking gloomy and we could only hope that the weather the next day might be good. Much to our surprise (and contradicting of the weather reports) we woke to sunny skies, the clouds quickly burned off, and the sun was nice and warm drying the rain quickly.
The drive to the legendary Pawtuckaway State Park Bouldering area was a nice drive. The closer we got the nicer the weather was getting and we were getting very excited for our visit. We finally pulled into the area a little after 11am (we had to save a turtle from the road on the way in) we hiked into the Round Pond area due to the guidebook recommending it for lots of sun.
The boulders were perfect. Nicely clustered on the top of a small hill overlooking a good-sized pond (would probably qualify for lake status in Colorado), we checked out any climb that was dry.
Myself not liking the starting crimps on this dyno problem:
There was this unique block that is tetering on-top of another much smaller boulder. Chris crushed the problem Atlas v5/6 repeatedly for photo ops and for fun. Really awesome to watch:
Spending enough time at Round Pond we decided to head over to the main event, the area called Boulder Natural. A insane cluster of granite blocks in every shape and size nestled deep in the forest along a small stream.
I spent a lot of time trying to spend the classic Hobbit Hole but the feet eluded me:
However this dyno right next door was way too much fun:
We ended the day with Chris trying to send one of the harder classic problems in the area, Terrorist. Chris was climbing extremely well this trip considering that he took a hiatus when he moved to Boston over a year ago…very impressive to watch:
Pawtuckaway was a really cool area and I wish we had more time/energy/supplies to continue to check out this awesome location and glad that we had such a full great day out there.
More rain moved in and we were beat after our intense 6.5 hrs of climbing at Pawtuckaway. However before the trip was up we spotted one last day to go climbing and raced a storm on a Friday morning down to Lincoln Woods in Rhode Island. After an hour drive we pulled into the park right at 10am and threw-down on as many problems as we could handle at the “Warm-up Wall” which has a number of quality problems.
Myself getting some of the more interesting moves on Cave Overhang:
Chris flashing Iron Cross (with the Sasquatch the spotter not being very attentive):
Chris trying this Dyno, right before a massive monsoon downpour hit us and we scrambled to pick up the various pieces of climbing equipment and expensive photo gear. 2.5 hrs after we got there we were rained out; turned out to be just enough time for a great last session.
Andy perfecting his Pizza pick-up skills:
Street Art by Bansky:
Windy in the City:
Damn good trip.
If you are following from a feed here is the original link: http://andylibrande.com/news/2010/11/new-england-trip-and-bouldering/
Bachelor Party in Camp Dick
- Posted: September 24, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Camping, Colorado, Front Range, Rock
- 0
When: July 30th – July 31st, 2010
Where: Near the Camp Dick campground close to Lyons
Who: Ben, Andrew, Scott, Yours Truly, and Stranahan’s
Why: Well Ben decided to randomly get married on extreme short-notice so we had to throw a bachelor party on extreme short-notice.
Let’s get the elephant in the room a little explanation. Yes, we did have a bachelor party in a place called Camp Dick. Yes, it was just a bunch of dudes camping out together, drinking together, and reminiscing about the good ol’ days. And yes, it was a lot of, uhhh… fun….
We left Denver Friday night all jammed into Andrew’s SUV with several crash pads, gear, food, adult beverages, and four of us with the mission to give Ben a damn good evening/weekend. Luckily for us the drive to Camp Dick is just enough time to enjoy some beverages in the backseat and ramble on about how cool we all once were.
We get to Camp Dick and Andrew has to navigate the 4×4 road in his Ford SUV which was a little tight but we managed. We quickly found a awesome camping spot near the river and had a awesome boulder that we could sit on in the middle of the St Vrian river were we could cook and chill. Luckily I have been there a couple of times (documented here), so everything was pretty easy to figure out.
Morning was a little rough but here Scott and Ben discuss the merits of sleeping in a tent directly under a fallen tree:
We hit up the Bolt Boulder to try out our climbing skills the next day. Awesome high-ball boulder with easy access and a few really fun problems. Andrew getting high into the crux of the main easier problem there (crux is at the top):
Ben showing off his good looks:
There is a easier slab climb to the top which is much more sketchy when your hands are wet from the condensation on your beer and you have to use your teeth to hold the can:
We tried to convince Ben to eat this colorful friend:
Anyways congrats to Ben and Beth!!!
Backyard Bouldering Competition – Sept 4th 2010
- Posted: August 04, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Activity Categories, Climbing Wall, Events & Parties, Rock
- 4
Introducing the Backyard Bouldering Competition:
Party – BBQ – Climbing Competition
Saturday September 4th, 2010
Starting at 5:00pm
By Andy Librande Productions
A simple open competition taking place on the backyard wall at Andy Librande’s house. A keg of beer and a dinner buffet will be provided. Everyone and all ability types are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Please indicate that you are attending by leaving a comment below with your email address.
Close-up of the Climbing Wall Featuring Optimus Prime
Format:
- At least 10 climbing problems will be featured on the climbing wall and will range in difficulty from Easy to Hard
- Each problem will be given a set of Stars to rate its point value (and potential difficulty)
- Each competitor has at least two hours to attempt as many problems as they can with no limit on the number of tries
- Each competitor will share the wall with everyone else and take turns as necessary, time will go until everyone has climbed every problem or as attempted as many tries as seen fit by the overall judge
- Each competitor will keep track of their own scores throughout the competition
Cost:
- Entry Fee: $5 to cover beer, food and prizes
Scoring:
- Each problem will be given a set of Stars to rate its point value ranging from One Star to Four Stars
- Star rankings may hint at difficulty but are warranted more on quality of the climb. Therefore an easier but aesthetic problem may be worth more points than a harder contrived problem.
- Each attempt on a problem is worth a certain amount of points. Flash (sending problem 1st try) is worth the most. There will be no points awarded for problems that are not completed. However on select few climbs there may be “Bonus” awards that a competitor may earn if they reach a certain hold but do not complete the problem.
- A completion of the problem is considered when a competitor has complete control on the final hold. Grabbing a final hold and swinging out and not holding on will not count as a completed problem. Bonus holds count when the competitor at least has minimal grip on the hold with their hand; there are no bonus foot holds.
- Completion of a problem means that the competitor has climbed the problem clean. This means only using the appropriate hand and foot holds as dictated by the competition scorecard. Dragging your feet on the pads, accidently placing hands/feet on off-route problems/features, or hitting other competitors with any part of your body will be considered a “dab” and competitor will need to restart the climb.
Score Details:
| Star Ranking Grid and Scoring Points | ||||
| Flash | 2-3 Attempts | 4+ Attempts | Bonus Hold* | |
| 1 Star | 25 pts | 15 pts | 10 pts | 10 pts |
| 2 Star | 35 pts | 25 pts | 20 pts | 10 pts |
| 3 Star | 45 pts | 35 pts | 30 pts | 10 pts |
| 4 Star | 60 pts | 50 pts | 40 pts | 10 pts |
| *Bonus Hold only Counts when the problem is not sent by competitor | ||||
Awards and Prizes:
- Awards will be given to the top climbers with the highest scores.
- In an event of a tie the winner will be determined by a game of CLIMB (aka Horse in basketball). Where each climber will alternate in climbing a problem and then the other climber has to climb that problem or earn a letter.
- Awards will be for:
- 1st-3rd place for Men
- 1st-3rd place for Women
- Prizes will be abundant and attended to be light-hearted and will be decided by the Comp organizer (Andy Librande) or by popular vote:
- Best Costume: Competitor with the best outfit/costume/etc and earns at least 50 points. Popular Vote decision.
- Best Determination: Competitor that puts forth the best effort throughout the competition (does not mean climbs hardest). Comp Organizer decision.
- Most Bonus Holds: Competitor that attempts the most problems and gets the most bonus holds but does not fully complete the problem. Comp Organizer decision.
- Keg Stand Meister: Competitor that does at least a 15 second keg-stand and then flashes a Three or Four star problem.
- Midgets Unite: Competitor under 5’5” with the highest score.
- Awards and Prizes will range from Plaques to Gear to Cash Money
Preparation:
- The climbing wall is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week in my backyard. Let me know if you are coming by to climb at anytime. Pads are in the house and if you need them and I am not there I can let you know the keycode.
- Climbing wall will close several days before the comp to reset all of the problems for the competition.
The Wall:
- Read more about the climbing wall here: http://andylibrande.com/news/home-bouldering-wall/
Thank you and Please let me know if you have any questions!!!
– Andy
Teva Mountain Games 2010
- Posted: July 11, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Random, Rock, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Teva Mountain Games
Spent a weekend hanging out at the Teva Mountain Games up in Vail June 5-6th with Caitlin and ran into a bunch of friends that were up there as well so it was a lot of fun (Andrew, Whitney, Ben, Beth, Terra). This is the second time I have been to the games (first time documented here), so it was good to be back to check out some of the fun events with highlights being the in-town Kayak events and the Bouldering competition; compared to the last time I went there the events were good but the timing of certain events overlapped while at other times there was a huge space of time where nothing was really going on. Regardless it is still an awesome event which everyone should check out.
The coolest part about the games was the water-levels on the Gore Creek running through town were just insane with the CFS nearing doubling during the day on Saturday (what I heard from 1700 CFS in the morning to nearly 3000 that night!). The water was so high on Sunday that they had to cancel the events mainly due to the huge amount of debris floating down-river. Anyways we were lucky to witness some pros hitting the creek that night at some of its highest flows on Sat night.
We literally watched full trees come down the river as it hit 20 year highs:
Here is a picture of how crazy flooded it was that afternoon (seriously up 3ft from the morning):
Watched the 3rd Annual World Bouldering Cup held in the US. Always fun to watch top climbers hitting a wall that is nice and tall. Also really cool to see how many people come and watch this event, easily the most watched event at the games.
Really cool features that they mounted to the climbing wall:
Bouldering at the Kluttergarden
On Sunday of that weekend hit up the beautiful Kluttergarden up near Red Cliff, CO. I had only been there once before (awesome trip documented here), so I was really excited to get back-up there again to play on these beautiful boulders.
We meet up with Terra and her roommate and the four of us enjoyed several different problems on just one boulder. The place was also insanely busy but everyone we ran into was pretty laid-back and we still had this boulder to ourselves for most of the day.
Here Caitlin sends a fun little variation that she found:
This climb I am working is on the same boulder and is a cool traverse with a hard lip to try to top-out on.
Then we headed back to vail for a late lunch and to clean-up all of the give-aways at all of the booths 🙂
If you are following from some sort of feed all of my posts can be found here: http://andylibrande.com/news/
Spring Climbing Fun
- Posted: July 06, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Front Range, Rock
- 0
Spring has been busy with a bunch of activities but just wanted to catch-up with some climbing updates and some other cool photos I may have taken.
Been spending a number of days up inThree Sisters park outside of Evergreen. I have been up to this park a number of times and there is just so many boulders to play on and the scenery never disappoints.
Here is a decent photo from a trip with Ben, Paige and Whitney (I spent more time nursing a hang-over then anything else). Here Whitney works on one of the larger blocks lying in this awesome pine forest:
A couple days were up at another section at Three Sisters where there is this awesome cave feature and a really clean, fun dyno block. Here Caitlin is in the cave:
Side perspective, great overhang and something unexpected in that area:
Here is the awesome dyno (well a photo of me on the launch holds, I was 6-10″ short):
We also had an awesome Friday Night climb session at the same place as the above photos with a big crew! Jake the redhead, Annie, Paige, Caitlin, myself and with a guest appearance from Terra made for a fun evening under beautiful spring weather. Here Jake crushes the Cave problem with speed:
Went to one of the best locations for a climbing competition held on the banks of the Boulder Reservoir. Battle at the Bubble was the comp and they had two of these amazing walls set-up outside with a big-screen projector and a huge amped-up crowd. Daniel Woods pulled together an insane finale move that sent the crowd into a frenzy that I cannot describe. Here is Angie Panye (2nd place) on one of the walls:
To wrap-up here is a cool photo I took of a storm passing through Denver from the top of the DU light-rail station:
Optimus Prime Owns My Climbing Wall
- Posted: April 01, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Climbing Wall, Random, Rock
- 0
Optimus Prime is the awe-inspiring leader of the Autobot forces. On the battlefield, there are few who rival Optimus Prime’s prowess. He is easily the strongest of any Autobot his size, and what he lacks in raw firepower he easily compensates with guts. He would sacrifice his life to protect his fellow Autobots or those under their care.
In the eyes of Transformer fans, this is God.
Could not resist the above description of Optimus Prime when I was looking for good photos to base my newest addition to the climbing wall.
A couple weeks ago Caitlin and I set-out to add a new feature to the climbing wall and messed around with a couple of designs. Caitlin suggested the Triangle type shape in the corner of the wall and then we started building.
Once we had all of the pieces cut-out we somehow came to the conclusion that the shape kind of looked like an Optimus Prime face and thus the rest of the project we were focused on making the best volume that I have ever seen.
Materials and Construction for the Optimus Prime Climbing Volume:
- 1 4×8′ of plywood (the stuff that is ~$25-30 sheet not the $40-50 stuff) (Plenty left-over as well)
- 4 Metal Angles
- Wood-screws
- T-nuts
- Black/White/Red/Blue Spray Paint
- Tools: Circular Saw, Jig-saw, Screw-gun, straight-edge, triangle, big-ass hammer
Started by cutting the shape based upon the angle to the wall. Due to the complexities of the angle we did a couple sample cuts in some shitty wood I had laying around until it was pretty close. Once we started the front panel was the first piece and we tacked it to the wall to measure the side-pieces. Measuring the side pieces was all about precision with the lengths and the angle to the wall. Once we had the main angles all we had to do was cut the edges at an angle where they would fit together. Then I bent the metal angles until they were at the correct angle and screwed them onto the main board after we had put T-nuts into each piece.The last step was painting with multiple black layers first, taping out the design, then white, red, and blue. Hang-up and enjoy.
Here are a few pictures of the design process and the final product:
Caitlin holding the Optimus to give you an understanding of its size:
Optimus during construction. The wood 2×4 pieces never got used.
Optimus after receiving numerous Black Paint coats, then being taped-off for the face features, and with a little white:
Taking Optimus for a Test spin:
It’s so beautiful I have a hard time putting holds onto it right now:
If you are following via a feed, here is the permalink: http://andylibrande.com/news/2010/04/optimus-prime-owns-my-climbing-wall/
Grettings from Snowy Colorado
- Posted: December 28, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Climbing Wall, Colorado, Front Range, Random, Rock, Snow
- 0
Happy Holidays and here is to the hope that this snow becomes strong for another awesome season. Thanks to everyone for the adventures over the past year and look forward to the crazy stuff that we will come-up with in 2010!
Just enjoying the snow as much as possible:
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