Late Spring/Early Summer – RAIN EDITION

Posted: July 22, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Front Range, Random, Summit County/I-70 Area
0

Well going through the photos it took to compile the original post: Late Spring/Early Summer, I realized that for the first time ever I might have more then enough photos of just rain to compile a post.

Therefore I bring you the “RAIN EDITION” which highlights the serious amount of stormage that has come through our area. Please realize that the vast majority of these photos are mainly for illustrative purposes and are primarily for humor. Hope you enjoy.

Golden Gate State Park in the Rain:

Three Sisters Park in the Rain:

Castlewood in the Rain:

Hiding in Caves to Avoid the Rain:

Driving in the Rain:

Trying not to get hurt by rain:

Watching Rain’s close cousin Hail:

Horestooth Reservoir and trying to wakeboard in the Rain:

Watching Rain wreck havoc from far distances:

And a picture of Rain’s worse enemy: THE SUN!!!!

Picture coming as soon as I am able to see the sun…

Late Spring/Early Summer Activities

Posted: July 19, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Front Range, Random, Rock, Travel
1

The last thing I need to mention to anyone that is living along the front range right now is how much rain we have seen throughout the latter part of spring and now through mid-July. It has been straight-up crazy.

While the rain has caused some problems with doing certain outdoor activities, there still has been some time to get out and enjoy the summer (and let me clarify, it is not the rain that is the issue, it is the insanely massive lighting/thunder storms that rush in faster then a fat kid in willy wonka’s factory and subsequently dump enough monsoon rain to make it feel like you woke-up in the middle of a CIA waterboarding torture). Anyways enjoy some of the photos of random things around Denver:

Caitlin enjoying the lush landscape (a nice benefit of the recent weather) of Three Sisters park:

Getting some climbing done at the Corridor area in Castlewood (with Jake, Trent, and Bethany):

Getting one small day of wake-boarding in at Horsetooth Reservoir (with the parental units):

Hiking around Mt. Evans and Echo Lake (with Caitlin):

Watching some Fireworks over Lake Dillon from some random pontoon-boat that we hopped in at that was parked at one of the piers (with Caitlin, Trent and Bethany):

Getting some sport-climbing done at Castlewood (with Ben, Andrew, Beth, Whitney, Caitlin, Tyler, and Kevin):

Castlewood – Fountainbleau area

Well a quickly planned Friday night excursion (5/15/09) to Castlewood turned out to be a hell of a good time. Grabbing a 30 rack of Tecate and with seven total people we tore-up our hands in the fountainebleau area of c-wood. Getting there at 6:45pm and leaving at 9:00pm was just perfect.

Well less talk and more show:

Jake the Redhead Sending the Lip Traverse (v3-4):

Gabe following in Jake’s footsteps:

Gabe topping out the problem:

Yours Truly (Thanks Ben for the Photo):

Chris working on a dyno in the pitch black:

Zuma 2.22.09

Posted: March 29, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
1

Note: Undergoing some changes to the site, if you notice anything wacky please leave a comment or send me a note.

Date: Feb 22nd, 2009

So the day after skiing with Tim Spano and crew we went back to Zuma for a little more action. While the snow was not the greatest we still sent some pretty sick lines.

Evan put down a line in the Washout area that is one of the steepest lines possible at Zuma. When looking at the slides #19-22, the duration of time is less then a second and the speed generated from that initial turn was pretty insane to watch. I was standing out on a cliff point and apparently need to re-shoot the line to give a better perspective of the sheer size of the line. The last slide (#27) shows most of the line and the three turns over 700-800 ft of vert.
Enjoy the slides:

Click here for larger photos: http://andylibrande.com/slideshows/Zuma_2.22.09/index.html

Special Edition of Zuma

Posted: March 26, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
2

Date of Action: February 21st, 2009

Location: Deer Creek Valley, Montezuma, Colorado

Culprits: Myself, Trent, Tweak, Scott, Tim, Sabrina

The long lost Tim Spano meandered his way back on an apparent epic journey back to the land of the free, hot-dogs, PBR, and of course snow. Finally got to spend some time skiing Zuma with him and his gf Sabrina which turned out to be a pretty good day on a couple of fresh inches.

Anyways here is a collection of the photos from that day in easy to use slideshow format!!! Let me know what you think of the format via the comments (or if you are lucky enough to socially interact with me you could tell me at that time as well), I have also included a few of the better photos for download at the bottom as well.

Thanks to Sabrina for taking good photos while I was skiing!!!!

Bigger size located out here: http://andylibrande.com/slideshows/Zuma_2.21.09/index.html

Time for Some Snow

Posted: January 20, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
4

Winter has been treating Colorado well lately, you know 60 degree temps in Denver while it continues to snow in the high-country…can’t really complain.

Finally had a chance to get out there and ski Montezuma again (been 8 months!!!) and luckily for us the mountain gods were kind enough to give us perfect snow, amazing weather, and some damn-fine lines.

Date: January 17th, 2009

Location: Deer Creek Valley, Montezuma, Colorado

Crew: Trent, Evan, Matt, and myself

Trent dropping into the Steeps (2nd line of the day):

Evan on the first line of the day (approx time 9:30 am):

Myself (lookers left) and Matt (right) eyeing our respective virgin lines:

Trent dropping in via “Baby Notch”, him and Evan both had to crawl into the chute to hit this line:

Evan did essentially the same line and Trent took some video of it.

Check out the VIDEO here: http://www.bcbhc.com/albums/Jan182009/BabyNotch_Evan_1172009.wmv

Tweak slaying a bad-ass line:

Myself getting some easy pow turns on the first run of the day:

Reflections on Zuma:

Check out more photos in the gallery thing:

: Evan on the first run of the day

: Trent Dropping into the Steeps

: Matt hitting a cornice into blower powder

: Andy (left) and Matt (Right)

: Andy in Highmark Gulley

: Trent climbing into the chute…crazy

: Trent on fresh tracks out of Baby Chute

: Evan dropping out of Baby Chute

: Tweak in the rocks

: Reflections

: Trent cranking back

: Andy catching the light with the spray

Elevenmile Canyon

Posted: October 30, 2008
By: andylibrande
In: Camping, Colorado, Rock, Southern Mountains
0

When: October 4-5th, 2008

Spent a chilly but beautiful weekend camping with Rambo, Chris and Page down in Elevenmile Canyon, which is a little bit outside of Colorado Springs. Really sweet place, while we didn’t have a whole lot of time there, but we covered a fair amount of ground.

The canyon is awesome as it is where the South Platte flows from a dam so the river is running full even at this time of the year. The area has a large amount of trad, sport, and boulder routes as well some sweet fishing. Anyways tried to take some shots but didn’t do a whole lot of photographing, but here is what did take place.

Here is some bouldering on the first night after we cooked dinner:

Spillway Campground A: Dragon’s Head Boulder

Anyways spent the first day doing a couple trad climbs with Rambo; hilarious since it has been a few years since I have climbed trad and Rambo has been doing it 3x a week all summer on long Red Rocks climbs in Nevada. Anyways good to mix up the climbing and do something a little different.

Enjoyed a good campfire with a special treat of smores:

Spent the next day trying to get to the Murray boulders without success due to the cold river crossing. Instead headed-up to a really sweet boulder.

Side view of the Spray Wall Boulder:

Crazy Problem on the side of the Spray Boulder. Has quite the crazy landing as it is all downhill and there is a dynamic move a few moves up.

Another view to give you a sense of its size:

Rambo gearing-up for a overhang crack:

Shot from above the Spillway campground:

Sasquatch and Beans:

Rambo (me trying to belay and shoot…ha):

Definitely check this place out.

More Details: http://mountainproject.com/

Attack of the Flying Frenchman…

BEWARE!!!

*Well not technically french, more of a dirt-bag with a mustache that airs of superiority while subtlety saying “please be quiet as I sit in my bourgeoisie-cafe sipping my espresso while I comment on all of your imperfections”

So that flying Frenchman is RAMBO who happened to take some time off from his nomadic lifestyle to hang-out in Colorado for a couple weeks.

We took a crew to the Corridor area (September 28th) at Castlewood for some fun problems with nice flat landings.

Here is Ben working on one of the many problems we did that day:

Andrew working on one of the dyno problems:

Rambo showing us a better view of the area:

Ben…doing what he does best. Has the jump height for the dyno, has his hand on the hold in the perfect spot, is looking right at the hold, forgetting to actually hold-on (x4):

We also climbed at the creek boulders for our warm-up (fun little cluster right next to Cherry Creek). Rambo working on a sharp problem:

More Pics (plus the ones already included in the post):

: Rambo

: Andrew; creek problem

: Rambo…creek problems

: The Flying Frenchman in all of his glory

: Andrew

: Failing Frenchman

: Ben…almost…well maybe…

: Priceless face…Andrew

: Foolface Ben

: Ben

Coming back from the depths…

Well first off I have not posted anything for way too long which is a combination of a variety of issues that caused this delay. Regardless of the issues I am going to catch-up as quickly as possible by posting nothing but pics and very short-dialogue.

Chris works hard on Ghost Dance at the Millenium Boulder: http://mountainproject.com/v/colorado/morrisonevergeen/matthewswinters_park/105759288

At the very end of a really hot day and after throwing himself at the rock way too many times, Chris sends and I took a real nice butt shot since he needed me as a spotter:

Took some time off from climbing and taking photos in general. Why? you might ask…well August and the beginning of September were way too busy. I bought a house, moved, was healing a tendon injury, and was occupied doing to much other random stuff.

Somewhere in there I made the little sister go to castlewood with me and here is evidence of her attempting to climb with big-ass sneakers:

Anyways that is quick and necessary catch-up over the last few months. We are coming-up to the best time of the year to be outside and I already have lots of photos awaiting their presence on the interweb.

Playing in the Aspens: Kluttergarden Bouldering

Posted: July 25, 2008
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Rock, Summit County/I-70 Area
2

Feast on this set of photos I got last weekend at the Kluttergarden Bouldering area near Red Cliff and Minturn. First off any one of any level should go bouldering at this place. It is located in a beautiful forest that is a perfect blend of Aspen trees and lodgepole pines. The boulders are all closely clustered with enough space to let various groups spread out over the area and the approach to all of these climbs are literally minutes from the parking area.

Chris working one of many of the area classics, the Minturn Mile:

Me working on one of many problems the area has:

On the drive-up the most apparent thing is how jacked up Colorado forests are due to the Pine Beetle, couldn’t believe how much forest is messed-up around summit county; guess you don’t notice it in the winter. Here is a good article on it: http://www.newsweek.com/id/148297

Also a big thanks to Page and Chris for letting me stay up at the condo that they got for the weekend in Beaver Creek!!! Not much beats waking up to a perfect morning to the sounds of a decent sized creek and then going for a swim in the outdoor pool/hottub.Â Follow that up with some fly-fishing along the Eagle River. Perfecto…

We threw ourselves at a bunch of problems with some good sendage; good thing the locals had some benches for us to rest upon: