Quandary

We got a chance to climb Quandary with our friends Luke and Prudence yesterday.


The weather was about the best I've ever seen when climbing and not to spoil the story but we were able to hang out on the summit for a long time (a couple of us longer than the other two but I'll get to that in a bit). Yeah, normally afternoon storms are building when we summit and after just a few moments to soak in the accomplishment and snap a few pic it's time to get moving. Not the case this day...we lounged around the summit for a good long time enjoying it all, watching a mountain goat and dog get to know each other, and just taking in this summit that offers a really nice 360 degree panorama of views.

Unlike some hikes this one gives you great views as soon as you break the tree line and it just never stops getting better.


There was one thing everybody was talking about and it was rocks...the trip reports we read did not mention how much loose rock was on this hike. If I do a report for 14ers.com I'm going to mention the loose rock is brutal on the way down and just about ever person you meet on this fairly crowded hike will be talking about it.

Between the rocks, the sun, and negotiating with mountain goats for trail space like with this guy right here...

We were wiped out at lunch. All the spots we missed with sunscreen were blasted, we were drained and banged up pretty good from dealing with the rocks but it really was a beautiful hike and up top you don't care about the beating you are about to take to get down.

Ok..back to the thing about some of us gaining the summit first. My cardio was horrible yesterday. I'm not sure why some days it's better and some days it's worse but my goal for next year is cardio. My legs are fine and I'm good to climb again (maybe not today) but next weekend no problem...but the cardio, it was weak yesterday so we took some breaks so Luke and Prudence went on ahead to scout the summit for us. In the vid I had to poke a little fun at it. Prudence was not within earshot yet so.....here is how it went.

 

At lunch we were zombies...we ate some food and drank some beers but honestly I didn't taste much of it. We were simply toast.

An awesome day like this one sometimes saps your energy and I'd say we had an awesome time because we were all sapped.

Great day up on Quandary!

Lucky 13 alt

Well...one thing is obvious, this isn't an altbier. I think this is just a brewers beer. One that fails to fall into any style (at least by my taste).

In the glass this beer is very interesting. I was recently complaining about an experimental IPA that was overly sweet but the sweetness in this beer is welcome..very welcome. It's not sugar sweetness or residual sweetness. I've got it figured but hold up a second..

Aroma is light grapefruit, taste is also light grapefruit on the front that morphs into a middle of tangerine and finishes on that sweetness that is a nice pineapple. Malt weight is hanging in there pretty nicely giving a good body to this beer. I would not call it balanced exactly as it sort of moves around a bit but the effort is there and it's very pleasing.

I've got to say that Lagunitas hits at a very high %on their limited release beers. The bad part is that they are scarce. I really wish I'd bought 10 cases of that Imperial Red a few years back as it was amazing but yeah...they really crank it on they limited brews in my opinion.

No exception here, I like Lucky 13 Alt. It's sweeter than I like in my IPA's and it's lighter than I like in my maltier styles but the pinch of this and dash of that really works for me in this glass whatever style it's supposed to be or gets identified as.

I like it!

Flat Iron I

This is a hike of Flat Iron I in the Flat Irons in Boulder.

Once again Boulder delivers the goods!

In the last vid I think I've incorrectly identified the rock right over my head as Flat Iron I but once we climbed out and looked back up I was able to get a better perspective of the range. We were very close to the actual peak of FI1(and above 2 & 3)  but you would have to rock climb to get there....still, the rock over my head is still freaking cool! ;)

But before we got topside there was this surprise boulder field to discover. It is literally hidden around a corner and you have no idea it's there. It wasn't too bad really but it is a bit shocking when you first see it. There is also a small section where you need to do some hands on rocks scramble and there are actually plenty of places on this hike were you could fall far enough to get a bad boo boo.

And again the trail data was impossibly wrong. But if this was actually the 1.5 mile hike we thought it was going to be it would not have been nearly as much fun.

Short vids of the boulder field from bottom, top, and the spot where the trail ends somewhere between FI1 and 2.

 

Eelment of suspicion

What do you do when faced with something confusing enough that it makes you question yourself?

Do you figure you could be wrong....something hinky is going on....maybe you should reconsider....

Well.... Here is such a case and it's no to hard to make the call, it's just weird is all but I've got to go with what I'm getting even if it doesn't make sense.

Left Coast Brewing Hop Juice.

What is confusing me about this beer is everything written on the bottle about what this beer is supposed to be... I hardly find any of what the brewer claims to be showing up in my glass. This beer drinks like an English Ordinary Bitter to me except that it's over twice the Alcohol content of that style. As the beer warms I get some pine but cold....and I drank 80% of it cold the pine was washed out for me and I was getting was nondescript bittering hops. Maybe English hops... a little earthy.

Anyhow, the brewer says it's an IBU monster and unless I have a cold nobody told me about it's just not as aggressive as I'd expect a double IPA to be and it's not west coast style for me at all in this bottle.

It's really like an ordinary bitter that somebody screwed up by adding extra bittering hops and dumping some Sugar in to boost the Alc content. Making it a  hot/alc extra hopped bitter.

On a positive note I sort of like it but it's an odd duck. This would make a good party beer where getting trashed was in the plans. It's like a session beer way to hot for session drinking.

I can't help but wonder what adding some darker "bready" malt into this beer would do for it.

Anyhow, I think it's a decent beer. It does not fill any slot or rise above enough other beers to make it into my normal rotation but it's not bad. It's out of style to my taste but hey, who's fault is that?  ;)

This is where we breaker up...

First climb of this season was a grudge match against Bierstadt.

Last year I was sick on this climb, not in peak shape and suffered the entire climb. The mountain took a lot out of me and although I did gain the summit that day it was not as enjoyable as it should have been. This experience put a powerful thought in my mind that shaped my preparation for this year.

I'm happy to say that I did keep what I learned last year and executed my plan to a fairly high level of success. Yesterdays climb was right at about double the speed of any other 14er to date. I wanted to take this summit, look at my watch, and see a time under noon.....So when I looked at the time yesterday and it was 9:33 am it was a great feeling to see the work of the last few months pay off. The stage was set for this earlier in the year when we also smashed our time at Green mnt. So obviously I am happy but I also know this is not my limit. Not at all really and I could have done more this year...I will do more next year and already have a gameplan that will be finalized soon.

Anyhow, before the vids an interesting note is that this mountain brought me another powerful lesson from this climb. I might have to climb this one every year in order to learn the lessons for the next season if this keeps up.

Getting close to the final approach the wind started getting brutally cold. I had stopped to do something learned from watching more experienced climbers and that is to take 5 before the final approach just to relax, eat some food, and enjoy the moment. As I was eating half a bar I heard a guy say to his climbing partner "Man this wind is crazy" his partner says to him "Yeah.....this is where we breaker up". I was reaching into my pack right then to grab my hat and gloves and could feel the windbreaker touching the back of my hand. I thought....yeah, this is where we breaker up isn't it? As it went I wound up using my gear to a much higher degree than before. It's easy to just get in the zone and get to the business at hand when climbing. Well, it got me to thinking about suffering. Suffering is inevitable but there is stupid/unnecessary suffering and strategic/planned suffering. The take away for me is to tune into the experience more and not suffer stupidly. I could have easily continued up the final approach without my wind layer and just been more uncomfortable. Maybe I am doping a lousy job of explaining something that sounds as simple as this sounds but nevertheless, I'm continuing to learn from the trail lessons that carry further than they first appear.

First vid is a shaky panorama from the summit. It was very cold and windy (sorry about the sound quality) and apparently I was a little out of breath. ;)

The second vid is my attempt to illustrate the idea of "easy" 14ers. The idea came to me last year on Grays when I heard a first time climber complaining loudly that the description of it being an easier climb was misleading. Pretty soon his group gave up the fight and headed back to the trailhead angry with the idea they had been mislead. Well, they were not mislead. If you don't need ropes and helmets for instance it is an easier 14er.... But that don't make it a casual stroll.