Monday, October 20, 2008

Yes Yes Yes.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...."
- Jack Kerouac

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Climbing Ticklist Fall 2008

1.)  Werk Supp to Bastille Crack Link up, Eldorado Canyon: 3 Pitches, 5.9, 3 Times
2.) Yellow Spur, via 5.10c direct start to 5.10c finish twice, 5.9 start once, 6 pitches, Eldorado Canyon.
3.) Kor-Ingalls Route, Castleton Tower, Moab, UT; 5.10a, 4 pitches.
4.) Ancient Art, Fisher Towers, 3 pitches, 5.8 AO
5.) 'The Cobra', 5.11 R, [5.9 A0 variation], Fischer Towers.
6.) "Otto's Route', 5.9, 5 Pitches, Independence Monument, CO Nat. Monument
7.) 'Thunderbolts', 2 Pitches, 5.10, Bridger Jack Towers, Indian Creek, UT.
8.) 'Chocolate Corner', Donnelly Canyon, Indian Creek
9.)  Un-named route, PI 5.9+,  PII 5.11b OW, Indian Creek
10.) 'Supercrack of the Desert', 5.10, Indian Creek
11.)  Wall St./Potash Road, Maob, UT Climbs: 5.10b,  5.10c, 5.10d, 5.8+, all gear leads.
12.) 'Mother': 5.7+/5.8 OW, Vedauwoo, WY
13.) 'Friday the 13th: Vedauwoo, WY
14.) Piton Perch, 3 Pitches, 5.7+, Vedauwoo, WY
15.) 'Satterfields Crack', 5.8+, Vedauwoo, WY
16.) 'Edwards Crack', 5.7+, Vedauwoo, WY
17.) "Thunderbolt, 5.9+, Vedauwoo, WY

To Be Continued!!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Senseless Good Deeds.... and other such nonsense

So I had a most interesting and unusual experience coming back home from class yesterday.  I had stopped for Gas at the King Soopers Gas Station right behind my place on South Golden Rd. when an elderly lady approached me as I was filling up and asked if I might be able to give her a ride down the street.  I wasn't really in a big hurry to get anywhere, other than meetings some friends for coffee at Leela's downtown later, so I agreed and told her to hop in.  She  thanked me and motioned to go around the corner, where she had a small collapsable metal shopping cart, the ones with wheels that see to be popular with the geriatric slightly mentally unstable homeless crowd.  Anyways I helped her load the surprisingly heavy contents of the cart into the back of my truck, and asked her where she wanted to go.  She said she was trying to stay the night a cheap motel at Colfax and I-70, in the opposite direction a few miles from where I was going, but I agreed and we headed that way.  We got to talking and I introduced myself, she said her name was Cathy and kept emphasizing how incredibly weary and tired she was and how grateful she was for the help;  she then talked a bit about how she got in her current situation and it seemed like she was a good, intelligent, educated person who had just fallen on some really bad times.  She mentioned she had a master's in journalism and english and wrote children's books for a living, while she did seem a little bit dissoriented at times; I believed what she told me as she seemed sincere and relatively trustworthy.  She told me she grew up in the Golden area but had lived back on the East Coast for most of her adult life, and recently came to take care of her aging father at a Denver area nursing home/hospice, and after he had passed on a few weeks earlier, had no money left after his heavy medical expenses, and no family or friends to turn to for help.  He car had been stolen last week, and she didn't know where to turn or how to find an apartment.  She said she lived on a modest fixed income, but was unsure how to start looking for an apartment in the area as she had trouble getting around.  As we neared the motel she started to become really upset and shaky and told me she really needed a place to stay but was twenty bucks short of being able to pay for a room for the night.  She asked me if there was any way I could help her out; and at first I lied and said I only had a few dollars on me and I was on a student budget with little money to spare;  while the second part was true, I had just gone to the ATM to get some cash and had forty bucks in my pocket.  After seeing how upset and in need she was, I decided to give her the money.  She seemed really really grateful and made me give her my address so she could pay me back as soon as she got some money in the next few days.  She seemed sincere and I believed her.  She told me she was a Christian and she was praying for a miracle.  I told her I didn't believe in god but believed in being kind to others.  She said she respected that and didn't blame my dislike of organized religion and much of its inherent hypocrisy.  It was pretty funny actually, as she left she went to say "God Bless You" and stopped midsentence and said "sorry.....what I meant is your kindness will be rewarded and best of luck to you in everything."  I smiled nd went on my way.... weighing whether I had been fleeced by a crafty old homeless lady or helped out a good, honest person who just happened to be down and out.  I'm banking on the latter, and regardless I think got twenty bucks worth of feelin good out of the deal so If I don't ever hear from her again, I don't think there will be any good feelings.

"If You want Others to be Happy, Practice Compassion.  If you want to be happy, Practice Compassion."   -The Dalai Lama.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Sarah Palin LA Times Article

A Thought this was a very good OpEd Piece which was in the LA Times Recently:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

Weekend Happenings and whatnot

Thought I'd ramble a bit about my weekend and what's new. This past Friday was the first day of the big annual Denver Gem & Mineral Show [http://www.denvermineralshow.com/], down at the Merchandise Mart near I-25 and I-70, which has become the second largest such gathering in the country. As a rabidly obsessed geologist and mineral collector I wouldn't miss it for anything; and after sleeping in until a rather ungodly hour Friday morning due to an interesting night at the Ace Hi Tavern the previous night, I headed down to the show around noon. The theme this year was "Minerals of Colorado" and the exhibits were fantastic and quite varied; Collectors' Edge Minerals of Golden, CO and the American Museum of Natural History had the two best cases in my opinion, but there was fantastic material everywhere, from the arcane and obscure to the showy and expensive, and a little bit in-between. Some Photos of the 2007 Show Exhibits and Happenings give you a feel for things: http://www.denvermineralshow.com/2007/gallery_2007.htm The theme at last year's show was minerals of the Leadville, Colorado Mining District, and I helped design and set-up the following exhibit for the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum: http://www.denvermineralshow.com/gallery/2007/2007_2021.jpg
Anyways the show was quite fun; didn't buy anything but ran into lots of old friends I hadn't seen in forever, mineral dealers, collectors, scientists, ect..

Friday night I went up to Rock'N and Jam'N in Thorton to do some pulling on plastic at Colorado's best Rock Climbing Gym with by buddy Luke; I hadn't climbed at R&J in forever and it was a great time, I even sent an extremely over-graded 5.12a which was a nice ego boost nonetheless haha. http://rocknandjamn.com/
Later that night I had plans to meet up at La Rumba in downtown Denver with a Boulder friend for Lipgloss, Denver's best Dance Club/ Hipster-esque bar, all alone on a forgotten part of 9th street south of the main Denver Bar scene. Long story short I basically got stood up which sucked, don't know if somebody just got cold feet at the last minute or what, but it was pretty lame. Ah well.... probably my fault really. Anyways, I ended up salvedging the evening as it happened two of my good friends were over by Coors Field, so I met them over there for a Guinness at pretty authentic Irish Bar, which was fun.

Saturday I headed down to the South Platte near Buffalo Creek to go climbing with my friend Luke; orginally we had planned on climbing a route called "Two Jew's Blues", a supposedly super classic new bolted slab route, which went in at 3 long pitches of ~10a. See the Mountainproject Beta: http://mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/buffalo_creek/105759813
Well, either I am extremely rusty at slab climbing, or that route is a wicked sandbag, becuase as Hank Caylor might say, I was "Shaking like a dog trying to pass a peach pit" [Crude i know haha...] after the first few bolts, trying to smear on what felt like micro dime-edges and chossy little exfoliated crystals and flakes that threatened to send me plummetting cheese-grater style to the slab below. Long story short I opted for a fun but grassy-looking trad line to the left 50 feet, following a broken crack system up towards the top of the dome. After 4 or so hours and 3 pitches of mixed bolts, adaquate to scary gear, and the occasional VA moved [Vegetation Aid; if pulling on a grass clump in the crack], we topped out on a beatuful chunk of south Platte granite with some of the finest views I've seen. I was actually quite happy with our little adventure; even though leading a possible F.A from the ground up with no beta can be a bit nerve-wracking [to say the least!], the satisfaction of putting up a new, fun line on all-natural [OK, mostly natural] gear is hard to beat. Thinking about assigning our route a 5.9 Pg-13 grade, and definitely only one star haha. As for the name: "The Taming of the Veg." Think that says it all. :) It's on Little Scraggy Dome by the way: http://mountainproject.com/v/colorado/south_platte/buffalo_creek/105746298

Afterwords we rewarded ourselves with sushi at Uokura, Golden's Best Sushi place and in my opinion the best in the Denver Area. If you google the place you will see a few nasty reviews; don't listen to these haters haha... some people are impossible to please. I've been to a decent number of Sushi places in Denver and Uokura is by far the best. Worth a visit for sure.

Sunday was day II for me at the Denver Gem & Mineral Show, and the last day of the 3-day event. This time I went over to the Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show; another show held the same weekend but organized by my fiends Marty Zinn of MZ Expositions, who run's most of the major Mineral and Fossil Shows in the U.S. The nice thing about the Holiday Inn Show is that you have a high concentration of quality dealers in a small area, and the show is very easy to navigate and get around; not to mention free! After some intense deal shopping, I settled on a fantastic Brazilian Aquamarine crystal from the Maxixe Mine in Minas Gerias State, which was for sale in Brazilian Dealer Alvaro Lucio's room, and had been reduced from $300 [Still quite reasonable] to 50% off on the last day of the show; I ended up getting it for $130(!!) which definitely made my day; it's a sharp, terminated crystal weighing close to a kilo(!), which, while contacted slightly and not totally gemmy, is still a fanastic deal for a big, fine gem crystal. After my fortuitous purchase, I headed back to Golden for some food and some HW time.

Monday, September 8, 2008

One Two, and it Don't Stop...

so.... I promised I would come back and update this page a bit.... and now I am. So there. Anyways; this past weekend was fantastic, feeling super blessed by good people and good experiences in life lately; everything is falling into place nicely it seems; a far cry from my situation a month or so ago with my jaw still wired shut and not knowing where I would be living, what my classes were, ect... It seems my life in the past year ago has been utterly chaotic and unpredictable, but in a supremely satisfying way somehow.
Last Wedneday I went down to Clear Creek and went for an afternoon swim since the weather was so nice; which was wicked fun, there's this awesome rope swing abovew one of the deep rapid pools that some kids have rigged up that I played around on for a while, I felt like such a little kid running up this mud bank and swinging way out over the creek and then "Bam" hitting the water at what felt like mach 10 haha, freezing cold and alive. An older women walking by herself stopped and watched me for a little while and I felt good for both having fun and making making her day a little cooler by helping her remember what it's like to be 21 and without many worries haha. Anyways I got cold and wet and a bir scraped up on rocks but it was super rad.

A litttle bit later and still drying of from the creek, I met up with my buddy Ian over at North Table Mt. for some climbing, and ended up redpionting [climbing with no falls/takes] two sweet routes I had struggled on last time; a 10.c roof problem and an 11.a slabby face climb. Ian got on the same routes and had a great time. He is one of the coolest people I know; a real-life Chris McCandless from "Into the Wild', he's an arborist by day but has become totally obsessed with climbing which is sweet; he climb's crazy highball bouldering problems and free solo's gnarly shit. He's also an ex- Mainer [Holla!!] and gets all my weird New England provincialisms which is cool. Both wicked fun and rewarding to finally get 'the send' on those routes. Also led an awesome trad dihedral which was a nice change from the usual "outdoor gym" vibe at North Table. We got back to the parking lot right around dark and headed over to Woody's in Golden for the all you can eat Pizza Buffet and a pint of ODell's Rasberry Wheat. Also ran into John and Dylan who ended up sitting next to us at Woody's, which was cool; it is really good to be back in Golden surroundec by badass people I haven't seen in a while.

Friday I met up with my friend Blake, a badass Durango archirecture grad student downtown, for some North Table Mountain basalt... unfortunately the weather didn't fully cooperate, and we bailed at about 11 in the morning after a few good routes [I finally redpionted "Flying Carrs", Woo!!] to head over to Coors Lab, where I can into Doyle, Aki, and Alec. Blake is not only a burly climber but an accomplished tele-skier as well, as you would expect a Durango-ite to be; so I'm looking forward to making some turns with him this winter. Of course I had to give Alec a hard time at Coors Lab since we had been drinking together about 12 hours earlier downtown.... mke and him had gone to the bars downtown the previous night [Thurs.] for his friend's birthday, which was a great time and more fun than I've had downtown in forever. We crashed at her place in South Denver that night and headed back to Golden early in the morning. Met all kindsa cool people and had a great time. Of course as any good night downtown should; the evening ended with drunk pizza at Mario's playing old-school Pac-Man. Holla! haha.......
Anyways so I headed back home Friday around noon and took a well-deserved nap for a few hours. That night me and Gracy hit up a really good house party at Tony's place behind Manny and Bo's right down the street from me. Played an amazing game of King's Cup, and then after a last-minute Keg Stand [and two bottles of Andre Champagne :)], we headed over to Andrew O's house to hit up another very good house party, where I ran into lots of people I hadn't seen forever. Partying.... drinking... climbing.... life is good haha.
Saturday Gracy, his friend Steve, and myself went to climb Grey's and Torrey's Peaks, 2 of the easier Fourteeners in Colorado [Peaks over 14,000 feet]. As I could have predicted, it was a complete mobscene; I don't think I've even seen so many people on a hike, never mind a Fourteener; I mean there were little kids, old people, Texans, dogs of every size/shape/color, these ladies dressed in Victorian-Era dress [you think I'm joking.] The weather was impeccable and the views fantastic, but the sheer number of people kind of spoiled the experience a bit; I tried to make the most out of it my setting a pretty brisk pace and not lingering on the summit(s) too long; but even so the crowds were a bit overbearing. Ah well; a beautiful September Saturday on Colorado's most popular 14er's, live and learn I suppose haha.
Saturday night was the party at my house which was.... good..... ok it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, some poeple kinda bailed on me; but no worries/hard feelings, most importantly it was an experience to test the ice the neighbors, who I have decided either are extremely cool, have a high noise tolerance, or just didn't want to call the cops. In all seriousness though I don't think we were being excessively loud, it was pretty mellow overall.

Sunday, I went to Starbucks in the morning [shameless corperate mongering I know....] to get a Latte and a pastry of some sort and steal some decent wireless reception as our house won't be connect to Wi-Fi until Thurday-ish this week. In the afternoon; after scoring a sweet $5 table/chair from the neighbor's garage sale, me and Eric Hunter went up to the Jamestown area west of Boulder to look for an old abandoned gold mine that was reported to have some uranium. Not much luck on the Uranium, but we did find some really cool skeletal quartz crystals and pyrite, and the ruins of a pretty sizable mill with lots of interesting tailings to look through. Afterwords; we hit up one of my favorite Restuarants in the world; the Southern Sun in South Boulder, for some of the lovely brew and a sandwich. All in all a pretty awesome weekend.
Peace,
Phil.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

New Stuff.... And Stuff.

YO! So it has been forever since I have been on here. Excuses, excuses, I Know, but well, real-life intervened for a month and I'm afraid while my committment and attachment to the lovely cyber-world are strong, I had to take a sanity leave of abscence there for a little bit.

I've been goood.... just as crazy busy and frantic as ever, but enjoying life quite well and experiencing all kids of good new stuff, I definitely feel blessed lately to be surrounded by good experiences and good people in my life; much love to everyone and the universe!!

That's all for now..... I'll be back on soon to ramble on about random tangents and whatnot. Peace kids.... -Phil.