Independence Pass Weekend

After an absolutely brutal week at the office and in life, I decided Friday morning that I desperately deserved a personal day that had nothing to do with answering voicemails and managed to catch up with Jason and Ken on their way out to Dream Canyon. They were headed out for some exploring as neither Jason nor Ken had ever been to this part of the boulder canyon. Would I like to join for some venturing into unknown pristine canyons in search of some excellent and non-chossy sport climbs as a warm up for my weekend camping and climbing off Indy Pass? HELL YES!

Ken TRing Wight of Time
Dream Canyon turned out to be just that, an absolute dream. A tributary of boulder canyon proper you wind down this steep but well constructed trail head to a roaring creek that gushes past huge granite rock walls and dives in and out between massive boulders. The rock in this canyon is well bolted, big (a little runouty and we did find a few pitons around), single pitch to multi pitch and solid granite. No chalk, no signs that anyone else had climbed it a million times, the isolation was wonderful, a true river crag with no highway noise, just the river roaring past and the vegetation and birds blowing in the wind. We finally got to climbing as Ken found a 5.9 (Wight of Time-1st pitch) that he wanted to lead, and J crawled up a super steep gully to drop a toprope as he was uncertain as to how sturdy the pitons look on a 10 that he was eyeing. Needless to say I fully plan on heading back to Dream Canyon this next weekend, to continue the exploration as we ended up spending a good 4 hours wandering around, which was simply scratching the surface. As the old climbers saying goes, "No tick list is ever finished, cause every time you go someplace new it triples" I honestly think mine quadrupled after seeing Dream Canyon.

J sending 1st pitch of Wight of Time

After making it back to Denver, I immediatly threw my gear in the car and hit the road for Independence Pass and the difficult campground. This has to be one of the most beautiful drives in Colorado, you wind past huge super resorts, windy decrepid mining towns, ruins and past eye soaring knife edges with snow capped tops all in two hours. There's at least 3 14ers on the drive, La Plata, Elbert and Massive, all beautiful and huge especially when seen from faraway.
After getting to camp, I picked Mel up at Ellen's (her Mom's best friends house) and we drove out to our site, which was serenaded all night long by a finger of the roaring fork, rushing at full tilt. We woke up the next morning with some overcast skies and headed straight out to go find the Powerline crag on Indy Pass. We were under a bit of a time crunch as Mel had to be back in Aspen for a luncehon around 1:30 pm so we got our hustle on for sure.

Mel tying in

The crag was awesome, once again no signs of chalk, no chossy rock, well placed bolts and fun moderate climbing. No sandbagged routes either. We got a 5.6 and a 5.8 in twice a piece before we had to book it back down to town. Great moderates with fun moves and just enough pitch to keep you moving your feet around. Untouched perfect granite. Unfortunatly not too many action shots as there were just two of us and it's hard to take good action photos while belaying (your climber tends to get cranky :)).

MJ kicking it near the gear at the crag
We headed back into town just as the skies decided to open up and pour rain on us for the rest of the day, which nixed our plans to hit up the bouldering area near our campground and instead relocated us to Ellen's hottub. Shucks.
After a great dinner and a good night's sleep we got up, packed the tent and headed back to the Powerline area, there had been a number of other climbs there that I wanted to send so we decided to hit it first and then try out one of the bouldering areas on the way out of town. This turned out to be awesome, I got 4 leads and 7 pitches in during the day, mostly on stuff that I'd never led before. There are some great 7s there and two phenomenal 8s that are anything but a walk in the park and give you some serious commitment moments. The sun kept on ducking in and out of the clouds as bits of rain poured in and over the pass. It's always amazing to me how gorgeous the light is at high elevation and how fast the weather can change from bluebird day to scary thunderstorms.

Mel perched atop one of the dependant boulders
After sending all the climbs at this crag we headed over to the Big Wild Boulderfield bouldering area a half mile down the road to get a final work out in before heading up and over the pass. My major accomplishment here was sending a V4 that had a mandatory throw in it. Other than that we just played around on a few larger rocks. There is so much bouldering potential still here and almost nothing is chalked out, there's probably still tons of lines to be developed and sent as first ascents. Hmmm, I think project time?

Mel rockin' out the Lone Stone
It's always awesome and liberating to boulder after roping up all day long. Your hands grip the rocks and you realize that if you fall, your hitting the ground and not much is stopping you. But with that realization comes the freedom and sometimes the confidence to just send it rather than wimping out. And seriously, bouldering at that altitude with snow covered peaks around, simply cannot be beat. Indy Pass, expect to see me again at least twice this summer.

Mel topping out the Lone Stone
Next on the list on Indy, Pooh Corner and the Burger Shack....
Stereo-Pete Kartsounes-Out of Nowhere (seriously check this guy out any bluegrass fans)