Ice-Ice-Baby…

Posted: March 28, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Rock, Snow, Southern Mountains
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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/

Snow Preview

Posted: February 28, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Random, Snow, Southern Mountains, Summit County/I-70 Area
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Updates have been slow as I have been trying to fix my main computer over the last month or so…luckily I am getting close!!!

This doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a hell of a busy winter. Plenty of days out riding great snow, ice-climbing, and other shenanigans has made the time go by quick.

Here is some eye candy to hold you over:

Ice-Climbing in Ouray (only a little pretty):

Caitlin in the side-country at A-Basin:

More to come….

Some Favorites from 2010

Posted: January 31, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Backpacking, Climbing Wall, Colorado, Random, Rock, Snow, Travel, Wyoming
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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/

A Few from Trent and Bethany’s Wedding

Posted: December 30, 2010
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Colorado, Events & Parties, Summit County/I-70 Area
0

Date: September 18th, 2010

What: The wedding of our good friends: Trent and Bethany!!!

So three month’s later here are a couple of the better pics from the wedding night. Essentially just a sample of the nearly 400 photos that I took that night.

Congrats Trent and Bethany!!!

Jake and Annie:

Dan and Cara:

Ian and Brooke:

Caitlin, Annie, Liz:

A bunch of people:

Trent and Bethany’s first dance (under the stars non the less)!!!

Duncan, Ryan, Ilham, John:

Kate and Christian:

Rod and Maryann:

Some really creepy looking dude that crashed the party:

The next day Caitlin, Jake, Annie, and I all headed over to Minturn to do some bouldering in the aspen forests. Along the way we saw some of the best fall colors I have ever seen:

New England Trip and Bouldering

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.