Post Mortem on 2015 Goals

Each January I make up a giant list of goals for the coming year and generally do a mediocre job on getting them done. I'm okay at the physical/outside goals, but when it comes to producing creative work, I suck. I have some ideas on how to help myself be better in 2016 and we'll see. At least I'm striving for improvement...

Here are some of my goals from 2015 and how I did against them:

Climb 52 different peaks:

     Success. I did 63 unique mountains and a total of 162 ascents. Here they are:

Date	Peak	Notes	Number of Ascents
1/1/2015	Flagstaff	First person to top out Flagstaff in 2015. Nicely packed trail until I went off-trail for the summit. Then snow nearly up to my knees. Also climbed with Mark and Sheri	24
1/2/2015	Mount Lady Washington	Cold, but no wind. With Mark Oveson. 5h20m for the roundtrip. Also climbed this with Charlie and Jason on the triple couloir linkup.	2
1/3/2015	South Boulder Peak	Combined with Bear Peak. Packed snow all the way. Went easy the entire time. Also climbed with Mark	16
1/3/2015	Bear Peak	See above. Also climbed with Mark adn Will and Marcus	13
1/4/2015	Sanitas	Did a cool loop to the west. Cold: 12 degrees. Also climbed with Sheri	13
1/6/2015	Green Mountain	With Homie. Up normal route and down via First Flatiron route. Microspikes the whole way up and down. Also climbed with Mark and Sheri and Corey	24
1/10/2015	Estes Cone	With Mark and Octavian	1
1/29/2015	Longs Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman. Also climbed this with Charlie and Jason on the triple couloir linkup. And with Homie in March	13
1/29/2015	Mt. Meeker	With Charlie Nuttelman. Also climbed this with Charlie and Jason on the triple couloir linkup.	2
2/15/2015	Coal Creek Peak	Solo, all off-trail. Avoided snow mostly	1
2/15/2015	Crescent Mountain	Solo, all off-trail. Avoided snow mostly, except near the very summit where I did a bit of postholing. Took it slow	1
3/22/2015	Independence Monument	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/23/2015	Ancient Art	With Derek, Arthur	1
3/24/2015	Assembly Hall	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/25/2015	Window Blind Peak	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/29/2015	Twin Sisters	solo	1
4/19/2015	Rainbow Mountain	via Rainbow Wall w/Chris Weidner.	1
4/20/2015	Juniper Peak	Linked two rock climbs to the summit with Chris Weidner.	1
5/2/2015	Wigwam Peak	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie, Mark, and Charlie	1
5/2/2015	Buffalo Peak	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie, Mark, and Charlie	1
5/2/2015	The Castle	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie and Charlie. A dicey 5.6, bouldery scramble in my hobnail shoes	1
6/7/2015	Wheeler Peak, Nevada	In Great Basin National Park with Derek. Cold, windy, and no visibility on the summit.	1
6/9/2015	Half Dome	Snake Dike with Derek	1
6/10/2015	Lembert Dome	Hiking and scrambling with Derek	1
6/12/2015	Cloud's Rest	My Favorite Things with Derek	1
6/13/2015	Boundary Peak	Highest peak in Nevada - with Derek	1
6/25/2015	James Peak	Early morning ascent with Mark	1
6/29/2015	Eldorado Mountain	Solo. Found a good trail up the lower part and then a decent route at the very top. The steep section in between is difficult and tedious	1
7/3/2015	West Spanish Peak	With Sheri and Derek. Fun, casual hike. Top part is steep and loose, but not too bad.	1
7/4/2015	Wheeler Peak, New Mexico	With Sheri and Derek. Super fun, beautiful hike.	1
7/4/2015	East Spanish Peak	With Sheri and Derek, after Wheeler Peak - huge day. Raced the darkness on this one, not starting up until 2:40 p.m.	1
7/10/2015	Handies Peak	With Sheri and Derek	1
7/12/2015	Sneffels Peak	With Derek	1
7/15/2015	St. Vrain Mountain	With Corey, Jon Ortega	1
7/15/2015	Meadow Mountain	With Corey, Jon Ortega	1
7/22/2015	Mt. Audubon	With Corey and Mark	1
7/29/2015	Gannett Peak	With Derek - awesome!	1
7/29/2015	Miriam Peak	With Derek	1
7/29/2015	Dinwoody Peak	With Derek	1
8/1/2015	Grand Teton	With Derek - Major crowds, a couple doofuses	1
8/3/2015	Granite Peak	With Derek	1
8/3/2015	Tempest	With Derek	1
8/5/2015	Pawnee Peak	With Mark	1
8/8/2015	Apache	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/8/2015	Dicker's Peck	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/8/2015	Navajo	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/22/2015	Green Mountain (RMNP)	With Sheri	1
8/22/2015	Nisa Mountain	With Sheri	1
8/22/2015	Mount Patterson	With Sheri	1
8/23/2015	Mount Ida	With Sheri	1
9/6/2015	Mount Antero	With Sheri, Derek, and Danny	1
9/20/2015	Half Mountain	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Storm Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Pagoda Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Chiefs Head	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	McHenry's Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Powell Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Taylor Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Otis Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Hallet Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Flat Top Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/26/2015	Mt. Spaulding	With Kraig, Brook, Gabi	1
9/26/2015	Mt. Evans	With Kraig, Brook, Gabi	1

Climb the five local peaks (SBP, Bear, Green, Flag, Sanitas) in every month of the year:

     I succeeded here. My final totals for the local peaks were:

South Boulder Peak	16
Bear Peak	13
Green Mountain	24
Flagstaff	24
Sanitas	13
Total	90

My biggest month was December where I did 14 ascents. January (12) was the only other month with double-digit ascents

Longs Peak Project:

     Check. This was a late addition to the list, not officially getting on there until February. The final tally there was:

Month	Date	Route	Partners	Comments
January	18th	Loft/Clark's Arrow	Charlie/Jon	FAILED! - 4h18m
	29th	Loft/Clark's Arrow	Charlie	8h20m
February	13th	Northwest Couloir	Charlie	8h13m
March	15th	D7	Charlie	FAILED! - 14h04m
	21st	North Face / Cables Routes	Charlie and Homie	7h35m
April	11th	The Trough	Charlie	7h20m Skied into base of Trough
May	31st	Flying Beaver Traverse	Charlie	10h10m
June	21st	Martha's Notch Weaver	Charlie and Jason Antin	13h55m. Huge day! Finally cleaned up the triple couloir linkup.
July	8th	Failed nighttime Keyhole attempt with Andrew	Charlie, Stefan, Andrew, etc.	5h12m
	24th	Triathlon via Kieners	Charlie	11h06m (10h40m or so from/to Broadway and 28th)
August	21st	Casual Route	Anton	11h25m
	29th	Mary's Ledges	Charlie	8h17m
September	20th	Glacier Gorge Traverse via Keyhole Ridge	Charlie	12h55m
October	3rd	Southwest Ridge	Charlie	8h21m
November	7th	Right Dovetail	Charlie	10h18m
December	6th	Keplinger's Couloir	Charlie	12h50m

Two state high points:

     Success - I did four state highpoints: Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana

Other various climbing goals:

     Redpoint 53 5.11's in the gym: I did 62

     Redpoint 5 5.12's in the gym: I did 10

     Climb two 50CC routes: I did zero

     Climb a peak in the Never Summer Range: did not even try

     Traverse from Navajo to South Arapahoe: did not even try

     Redpoint first pitch of Genesis: succeeded

     Redpoint first pitch of X-M: Got it clean on my second TR try, never tried to lead it

    Redpoint Vertigo and Psycho's first pitch: Did not even try

     Climb Cloud's Rest: success

     Climb Mt. Watkins: once again, failed to attempt it. This is the face that has been on my list the longest.

Completed LPP!

Strava

Photos

This is probably going to be sappy. Move on if that bothers you.

I passed Thanksgiving with my wonderful extended family down in Mexico and around our massive dining table we went, each saying what we're thankful for. We're always thankful for our wives, kids, brothers, sisters, parents, but this year I also brought up my friends. I am so deeply thankful for the friends I have and am a bit perplexed why I have so many unbelievable people by my side. I know I don't deserve it and I try never to take it for granted.

For our twelfth and final month of the LPP, Charlie and I chose to do Keplinger's Couloir. This was the route of the first ascent of Longs Peak and the route I used when I did the LPP in 2008. It also starts from the Wild Basin Trailhead, the lowest trailhead for Longs, and hence has the longest approach and the most vertical gain. Why such a hard finishing route? To add weight to the LPP. I think the LPP requires at least one ascent from the three major trailheads of Longs Peak, Glacier Gorge, and Wild Basin. And since I'm making the rules...

Confident that we'd succeed, Charlie and I sent out an open invitation to the Satan's Minions Scrambling Club. This is a club I founded with Homie, Mark Oveson, and Trashman to scramble and sometimes race up the Flatirons. It seems to have evolved into a vehicle for meeting elite climbers and adventurers, and a number of them joined in for this climb. Peter Bakwin, legendary ultra-runner and man who ran the Rock Hard, Hard Rock (look it up - it will blow your mind), did most of the work in the couloir itself. Jason "there's nothing I can't do" Antin, whose list of accomplishments is so long I hesitate to even list a few, but he's done the Leadman, second team to complete the complete Elks Traverse, Nose-in-a-day, climbing in Greenland, etc. Martin Le Roux joined me years ago to do a one-day winter ascent of Mt. Alice. He's climbed big mountains all over, including what may be the biggest mountain on earth: Mt. Logan.  Homie is, well, if you don't know Homie, you likely aren't reading this blog. When it comes to Colorado 14ers, especially in winter, he's one of the best on the planet. John Ortega has been a ridiculously fast trail runner with more than a few big victories. Stuart Paul is on his way to mastering every facet of climbing.

But of all these great partners, one still stands out, as the most easy going, modest strongman of them all: Charlie. I might have cheated and tainted my ascent of Longs this day by following in the footsteps of all these great guys, but that's okay, because I followed in Charlie's footsteps for twelve months. There is no way I'd have done this without Charlie. The real accomplishment is that Charlie did it with me! He'd have been faster with most any other Minion. I thank him for his patience and incredible camaraderie. I'm truly blessed.

My son Derek also was excited to join us and so it was nine of us that left the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead at 4:40 a.m. We went for about a mile and a half before strapping on our snowshoes. It took us two hours to get into the lake. Derek had already hurled, mostly from anxiety. This was an intimidating group for anyone, but especially so for a 17-year-old with no winter mountaineering experience in hand-me-down boots he'd never worn before and no training since tennis season ended. It turns out even for a young, athletic, tough kid, that's too many strikes against you. It was silly of me to ask him, but I love adventuring with him and he was so enthusiastic about it that I failed to think it through. Seven years ago when I did this with two other very fit, very experienced partners, neither of them made it.

Despite foot and knee pain and lagging well off the back, he wouldn't quit. Ninety minutes above the lake I had to turn him around. I felt terrible doing it, but he not only wouldn't make the summit, but I wouldn't want to leave him as we entered much more difficult and technical terrain and therefore I wouldn't make the summit. I had already thought about coming back the next weekend, but what about Charlie? I'm sure he'd just do it again with me, but... I put myself in a terrible, stressful position and then I turned my son around. He apologized to me! I asked him to come and I encouraged him to come because he seems a better version of me in every way. And he is, when he's fit. I just thought he was even without training. He promised me to be very careful on the way out, alone, and I turned with tears in my eyes to catch up to the rest of the team. When I told Homie, the first thing he said was, "You want me to go down with him?" The least worthy person in this group was me... Jason made the same offer when we caught the rest of the group. To offer to do such a thing after arising at 2 a.m. and toiling uphill for 4+ hours and finally below the climb, shows real character and deep friendship. I declined their offers, as I was confident Derek would be careful, he had a track to follow, and he'd meet Sheri and Kristen on their way into the lake. I also knew Derek would feel worse if someone else turned around with him. I had to show Derek I believed in him to descend solo.

Charlie and Jason did a masterful job of trail breaking, at an incredible pace over difficult ground. My hat is off to guys this strong. We finally arrived at the base of the interminable couloir and left our snowshoes behind. The team spread out as we all entered the pain cave, ascending difficult, frustrating rock, then loose snow, and finally hard snow, where we donned crampons and could finally move upwards efficiently. I'd push myself to go a hundred steps before bending over and taking 15 long breaths before I could move again. Near the top it was hard to go 25 steps. Charlie waited for me at the start of the traverse over to the Homestretch and I just followed in his and Peter's footsteps. A couple hundred feet before the top, Peter stepped aside and let Charlie and I finish together. That was cool.

On the summit, we were whipped by strong winds. We stayed just ten minutes and only had time for me to dig out my goggles and down twenty ounces of badly needed liquids. The three of us were just starting our descent when Jason and Homie reached the summit. Five minutes further down was John Ortega. Another five was Martin and another five was Stuart. All made the summit.

The three of us descended to the bottom of the couloir with heel plunging and a touch of dicey glissading. We took a break here to change clothes, eat and drink, and Jason caught us. We continued as a sub-group of four back to Sandbeach Lake where I was hoping to meet Sheri and Kirsten. I thought the odds would be no better than 50% because we were a bit later than planned and I thought they'd get cold waiting. They also had no floatation and I wasn't sure they'd make it in there.  Sure enough, they were there with badly needed liquids and greatly appreciated brownies!

Within forty minutes we were back in one big group and finishing off the champagne that Charlie had carried in for the celebration. After some group photos we plodded out the long 4.5 miles miles back to the car, doing the last ten minutes in the dark, but not turning on our headlamps so that Homie's prognostication of not needing them would be right. We got there just under 13 hours after starting.

While the Longs Peak Project might be a silly, trivial pursuit, it is our pursuit. While it also might not be a particularly challenging accomplishment, it was for me. I believe that Charlie and I are the only two who have completed it. Yes, that is largely because only about a handful of people have even tried. But that's cool nonetheless. What will I do next...? I guess that depends on which strongman I can convince to partner up with me. I'm trying to be pro-active about this and I'm grooming and training a new strongman now: Derek.

Right Dovetail - Month 11 of the LPP

Getting to the start of our first roped pitch

Photos

Strava

The Right Dovetail is very cool mixed route that ascends an impressive wall to the left of the Keyhole Ridge. It was our objective for month eleven of the Longs Peak Project. When I left my house the temperate was just 23 degrees. With the summit 9000 feet higher, I wondered if this was a wise choice - going for such a technical route in such cold conditions. 

Charlie and I met in north Boulder, as usual, drove to the trailhead. There is some construction going on here, but I doubt they'll make much progress until Spring. They even have the pit toilets roped off and locked. That seems dumb. I'd love to hear the thinking behind that.

I was dismayed with the weight of my pack. Actually, that isn't quite true. In my pack was a light harness, a pretty complete rack, crampons, two tools, 60-ounces of liquid, some food, spare clothes, a headlamp, and a SPOT. It wasn't that it was so heavy, it was that it felt so heavy. Trudging up the trail I wondered how the technical climbing would go.

We took the first shortcut and then just stuck to the trail, as none of the cuts were tracked. I was moving slower than normal. It was my first time in my double boots since our May triple couloir outing and I felt out of shape and clumsy. Above the Chasm Cut-off, traversing right along the slopes of Mt. Lady Washington on the trail, we came across three separate parties. 

The first, a couple, stepped to the side with the woman saying she was tired. So was I. I asked where they going and the guy answered, “We’re not sure, but hoping to check out Alexander’s Chimney.” “Oh, that’s cool,” I said, but you’re not heading that way. You need to take the trail towards Chasm Lake and eastern cirque.” They thanked me and turned around. I doubt they even made the base of the route.

Charlie leading the way up frustrating snow

The second couple was planning to climb Mt. Lady Washington, but were continuing along the trail, headed to the Boulder Field. I told them that if they really wanted to make the summit, they should just start heading up directly. There is somewhat of a climber’s trail that starts at Chasm Cut-off. Eventually all routes become boulder scrambling, but there is no need to hike away from the summit on a trail that barely gaining any elevation.

The third team was a couple of guys who had never climbed Longs Peak before. This is a bold move. Not as bold as those two Polish climbers trying D7 in winter for their first Longs ascent, but bold nonetheless. They were going to either the Keyhole or the North Face. I asked if they had ropes and gear and since they did, I recommend the North Face to them, but they were reluctant, despite having listed it as one of their options. They quizzed me about descending via Clark’s Arrow and the Loft since the leader had climbed Meeker before and knew the way down from there. These guys had been breaking trail, but we took over, or rather Charlie did. They quickly fell far behind and something told me they weren’t mentally committed. I predicted they’d get to the Keyhole, take one look at the shaded, snow-covered traverse and turn around. We saw them in the parking lot when got down, and that’s exactly what happened. They asked us, “What’s the trick with the Boulder Field?” Indeed.

Charlie ready to head up the first and crux pitch

There is quite a bit of snow up there, especially for early November, and it is completely unconsolidated. To move in the Boulder Field, you had to hop from boulder to boulder. Any time you stepped in the snow, you plunged way down. This made for a tiring traverse, mentally and physically. We took a short break at the campsites and then continued boulder hopping towards the initial couloir. We geared up just before entering the shade of the north-facing wall and then started the most frustrating and tiring part of the entire climb. 

Charlie led upwards, postholing to his knees most of the time and sometimes deeper, but it was worse than that, because even then nothing was solid beneath your feet. I followed in nearly as tiring conditions.  For the next 300 or 400 vertical feet, we waded through the worst snow of the year, for us anyway. We roped up when the couloir pinched down to about ten feet wide and became bare ice. Charlie led upwards and found the ice incredibly hard and very brittle. Ice chunks and shards rained down, fortunately just to my right. Charlie disappeared from my view, as the couloir constricted further and angled back to the left, but the rope pulled steadily through my belay device. After 190 feet he called down, “Off belay.”

Nearing the top of the first pitch

I started up and continued an incredible sequence of whines that started with massive foot discomfort. On the approach my feet were just killing me and I didn't know why. My boots are still relatively new and I really should get some custom fitted liners, as I was in some serious discomfort. As I started up this first pitch it was cold hands, but I'm whine about cold feet on the second pitch. I forgot to bring eye protection at all and would have whined about that as well, but we seemed to either be in the shade or have our backs to the sun all the time. That's the advantage of heading west at the start of the day and returning to the east.

The higher I got the colder my hands became. After I pulled out Charlie’s sole screw and then had to ball up my hands to try and get some feeling back. Further up I stemmed up a steep rock corner. I climbed as fast as I could so that I could finish the pitch and recover my hands before they went too far gone. I wouldn’t have climbed this way without a nice tight belay from Charlie.

At the belay I went through the screaming barfies. I had to defer the next lead to Charlie, as my hands were barely functional to belay. I put on my down mitts with big chemical heaters in each mitt and before Charlie was halfway up the next pitch my hands were back in business. This next pitch started with some snow and then some very nice, plastic ice. Why was this ice so much better than the ice below? Because it was insulated by an 8-inch layer of snow. It didn’t bother me that I could see my frontpoints or my picks, as they felt so solid. The second half of the pitch was all rock climbing and most of it was easy, but there was one dicey move where I had my crampons on a sloping foothold.  

Charlie near the top of the second pitch

With my hands back in working order, I took the next lead, which was entirely a rock pitch. I stowed my axes, but kept my crampons on, as there was still plenty of on the rock. I moved up steadily and the climbing got easier. I hit the top of the wall, where our route merges with the Keyhole Ridge and set up a belay. Charlie followed and led the traverse over to the notch, where we grateful felt the sun’s rays and unroped. 

This is me in about the same position as Charlie in the previous photo 

The last few hundred vertical feet to the top seemed especially difficult. I had to stop to catch my breath a number of times and so relieved when the angle finally eased. We made the summit just a couple minutes under seven hours. Despite my fatigue we didn’t stay but a couple of minutes on top. The descent to the rappels was tedious and tiring as we once again fought deep unconsolidated snow. More deep snow was below the rappel and I wondered if it was in danger of sliding. If it did slide, it would slide down to rock, as this was one completely loose layer. We careful worked down the snow past the fourth-class sections and then I sat down and glissaded as far as I could. I didn’t make it all the way down to the rocks due to the angle easing and the soft snow. We then started the endless boulder hopping once again, broken by a short break back at the campsites.

This is me leading the third pitch

We stuck to the trail down to treeline and then took some of the shortcuts, arriving back at the car after ten hours and twenty minutes. This was a tough ascent, especially for me, but even Charlie was tired back at the trailhead. It’s been quite a journey, but we’re now one step, one ascent away from completing the Longs Peak Project. For our last ascent we chose Keplinger’s Couloir from the Wild Basin Trailhead. This is the longest route up Longs, with the most vertical gain - 6000 feet and it will be in the month with the least amount of daylight. It also involves a mile-long trail-less, bushwhack through dense forest and big boulders. We’re going to invite all our strongmen friends to join us. You might think, “Who’s going to be interested in that?” but if you did, then you don’t know our friends...

Eleven months down. One to go.