Spring Climbing Fun

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

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.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Optimus_Prime_%28G1%29

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:

Moab Late Fall

Posted: November 23, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Backpacking/Camping, Mountain Biking, Rock, Utah
0

Where: Moab, Utah

When: November 6th-8th

Who: Caitlin, Andrew Giamberardino, Whitney Hoover, Ben Strauss, Scott Miller, Paige Powers and Myself

Weather: Low 70′s during the day with a steady light breeze and mid 40′s overnight; in other words, Perfect

On extreme short-notice a group gathered to go down to Moab to do a little camping, biking, and climbing. We all left Denver around 7:00pm on the Friday night and ended-up hitting the campground just after midnight. Luckily we found a couple of sites just down from the Big Bend campground and set-up for the night.

We woke up early the next morning, made a quick breakfast and after getting a few rental bikes headed to the infamous Slickrock trail. On a side-note I have been to Moab on at least 6 trips but I have never gone mountain biking, so I was really stoked to finally get out and do something really cool.

Pulling into the Slickrock parking lot I realized why coming to Moab in November was so utterly awesome; this massive parking lot is usually overflowing down the road and this time only about a quarter of all the spots were taken.

We spent the rest of the day out on the Slick-rock trail enjoying the slight breeze and moderate weather; the views were also amazing with a light layer of snow on the La Sal mountains to the East and views of fall foliage all along the river-banks below us. The trail was more enjoyable and a lot more difficult then I anticipated and glad to finally tick it off of the list. Also the 7 person crew was a lot of fun and were able to enjoy large stretches of the trail just by ourselves.

Map of the Slick-rock Trail.

Biking Shots on the Slickrock trail:

Scott hitting up one of the wild switch-backs on the first part of the trail:

Andrew, Ben, and Whitney doing one of the really fun downhill sections with some of the better views of the trail:

Scott and Paige:

Caitlin and Me in front of the snow covered La Sal Mtns (almost done with the loop section):

The only small issue with Moab in November is that the sun is set by 5:30pm so it takes a few hours off of the day. Not too big of a deal as we ate some delicious Chili Whitney cooked up, sat around the fire, ate some s’mores and made fun of each other.

Here is a 12 minute exposure of the Milky Way from our campsite taken at 7:20pm. The stars were unbelievable and then sometime after midnight the moon rose with some really intense light.

The next morning some group shots at the camp-site:

And one of Caitlin:

Then myself, Paige and Caitlin walked over to the Big Bend boulders and had a fun day. Caitlin sending a nice tall problem:

Working on another right next to the road. This one had really cool crimpy pockets and an awesome finishing lip:

Awesome random weekend. It will be hard to ever go to Moab any other time of the year.

Bouldering in Camp Dick

Posted: October 3, 2009
By: andylibrande
In: Backpacking/Camping, Colorado, Front Range, Rock
1

Who: RAMBO, Brea, Caitlin, myself, and Andrew (who is one of Brea/Rambo’s friends that is brand-new to climbing but straight-up crushed it).

When: August 22nd-23rd, 2009

What: Camp Dick is an awesome alpine-type bouldering area with big blocks sitting all along a beautiful valley that backs up to the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Located about 30 minutes outside of Lyons and about 1.5 hrs from my house in Denver it is an awesome place to visit and has some great camping. A decent sized river runs through the middle of the whole canyon and a 4×4 road and a hiking trail lead-up are on either side of the river.

I had been here once before a couple years ago for a short overnight trip and was glad to finally get back (photos on that trip here).

All of the free camping is up the 4×4 road and therefore we had to park our cars and hike in with crashpads and all of our camping gear; luckily it is only about 1/2-3/4 mile hike before you get to the first boulders and all of the free camping. The camping is also really awesome as you can get right down next to the river with some great flat spots.

The Bouldering: After setting-up camp we hike all the way to the fartherest boulder some 2.5 miles on a very rough 4×4 road in the heat of the day. Once we found the Alpen-Glow boulder we spend around 2 hours trying to find the Jumbotron boulder which according to the guidebook would be just uphill. We had no luck in finding that rock and with the sun starting to get low in the sky headed back to the Alpen-Glow boulder for an suprisingly amazing session.

The Alpen-Glow boulder is a beautiful 15 ft boulder in the middle of a open field right next to the trail. It has a mixture of easier problems to some good moderates.

Andrew working on one of the arete problems:

Brea cruising up:

Brea enjoying the top-out:

Caitlin making short-work of the problem:

Then we switched gears and started working on a harder arete that Rambo and Andrew sent. Some funky but cool looking movements on the rock. After both had sent the sun began to really set and the colors just went off. Rambo was ready for the twilight send.

Just one of several great shots as Rambo sent the boulder at 7:45pm that evening:

Shortly after it was pitch-black and the walk back to camp was a little challenging without flashlights, however Rambo gave us a sneak-peek of his new climbing clothing line due out later this year:

The next day we broke-camp and went to the Fingerbanger boulder and the Pyramid boulder (the best part about Camp Dick is that most of the boulders and individual problems appeared to be named by a bunch of perverted 15 yr olds, which fit our groups personality/lack of maturity just fine).

The campsite as viewed from the river:

Brea working on a very tricky problem on the Pyramid Boulder:

Caitlin working on the Pyramid Boulder:

Rambo working on a beautiful problem called “Treetop Flyer” that starts low following the crack to a high crack that ends up being quite the high-ball:

The afternoon rainstorms eventually came in and we hiked out a little wet:

Another solid trip.

Random Updates

Hey Everyone,

A few things have been added to my website that I wanted to share with you. The easy one is that I finally got around to posting a photo album on facebook for the 2009 Winter Season; go see it here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097098&id=20202675

Secondly I have been working on some new pages (look above) for Useful Links as well as a Climbing Map.

The Useful Links holds a ton of awesome links and one of the best things is that I have included 20+ links to some of the best action sports photographers out there (located at the bottom of the page). This could easily distract you for days…

The Climbing Map is a map of all the areas I have visited in a nice visual location. Go to that page to get more details, meanwhile I have included the scaled-down version here:
View Climbing Areas Around Denver in a larger map

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:

Elevenmile Canyon

Posted: October 30, 2008
By: andylibrande
In: Backpacking/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):