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.