dawg days
July 16, 2026
Wow! Long time no write! It's july and I haven't made a blog post since april, despite having a pretty eventful two months of endless summer shenanigans and whatnot. Although I'm really homesick for the easy access and amazing climbing of the New River Gorge, I've grown fond of my new home in Fort Collins. It's LIKE the New, you can climb right next to a raging river and then jump in a lake... but way worse... but I have a job here! Money! I've been work/ living behind ascent climbing studio three to four days a week, then driving up to estes during the weekdays to guide/climb. My guiding season was short lived and it's over now, but the four weeks I was double dipping with my two jobs, making a thousand bi-weekly AND still having all the free time to climb, it was amazing. I've also been spending a ton of time in the Poudre Canyon right above Fort Collins, where there are decent sport climbs along the windy road with very short approaches. All of the climbs are by an amazing river, which I have been dipping and dunking in at least twice a day in liu of showers. And further into the canyon, there's an amazing free campsite with a great view of the valley. It's been great vibes, just me and my dawg, and I think I've got this vanlife thing figured out now :) .
Lately my main partner has been this hot emo guy named Nate I met on mountain project. We really clicked at our first meeting, and have been projecting sport together ever since, like every other day. I don't think I've ever been able to climb with one person so consistently, and it's only gotten more frequent since Nate was fired from his job. Just two unemployed chuds! I guess the one weird thing about him is that he always complains about how much he hates his girlfriend and wants to leave her and move into a van and yada yada. But he never takes any steps towards that desire of his, and seems trapped in a sort of mundane life in Fort Collins, kinda like how I was trapped at my shitty job and parent's place in Charlottesville two years ago. What a nightmare! I like Fort Collins a lot, but it is too surburban for me to stay long. I think if I end up dating someone here I'll fall into the adult trap and end up with a kid or something. I plan to be here over the winter, but next summer I must make my escape! FoCo is good for now, but I don't see myself here long term.
May was my first month of full time van life, with a lot I had to learn, especially as I had just adopted Pippin. It's been a hot summer, smashing all the heat records, but luckily I get to take Pippin to work with me, and he's had a blast hanging around the nice air-conditioned office. The first notable event of May was my friend Liz, who I met during Creektober last year, visiting me all the way from California to climb. Unfortunately, she decided to visit the one week that entire summer that it poured nonstop, all day and night, in the front range. It was so gross outside, and my van just felt constantly soggy as me and Pips tracked wet mud all over the floor. We tried our best to climb, but only managed one and a half days out in Clear Creek. But on those days, Lani cooked us two spectacular crag meals, beef bulgogi and shrimp scampi. It ended up being two great days of eating, which is way better than climbing anyways. I need to climb with more asian people! I need more crag meals!
I've been doing a lot of adventuring with my new Ascent buddies. I haven't had the best track record of being friends with coworkers in the past, mostly because they've all been really boring annoying ugly people, but typically dudes that work at climbing gyms are pretty fucking cool, or so I've heard. One weekend I went bouldering in the Red Feather Lakes with Sam, Eli, Mia, and Eli's bouncy poodle, who Pippin was obsessed with. The next week, me and Mia decided to get our multi-pitch on at Eldorado Canyon, where we attempted to climb the classic Rewritten, but ended up getting super lost on the ascent, climb, and descent! I think we ended up on The Great Zot (?) to Zot's Face (?), with two awesome roof pulls and an airy finish to the summit. It was pretty great, whatever that was! That was a nice suprise, but the two hour long bushwack and loose scramble from the summit was considerably less fun. The next day I climbed Handcracker Direct (5.10a), which went by so quickly we had time for like five more climbs. Polar opposite experiences for a great week at eldo!
Besides Poudre, the next closest crag to Fort Collins is Vedauwoo in Wyoming, a bunch of strange round rocks piled on top of each other like poo poo, with some infamously sandbagged offwidth fun to be had. Me and Nate had tried our luck there on Friday the Thirteenth, a hand crack with two roofs that should've been within my ability, only to get severely humbled on the Voo's slopey edges and flared cracks. I couldn't make it up the last 5.11 roof the route threw at me, and Nate could barely climb anything, so I had to return next month with a vengence. On the fourth of july, I returned with some coworkers and new friends from Ascent, and put up Pooh's Corner (5.9), Climb and Punishishment (5.9+), and Hung like a Horse (5.11a) the latter of which is probably the hardest trad climb I've ever finished, with a killer overhanging jam roof and an offwidth exit. It was crazy hard to place gear on loose, overhanging cupped hands. And that off-width right as you pull over the lip... what can I say, the Voo got me fucked up!
Every tuesday through thursday these past two months, I've driven up the Estes Park to guide for KMAC and climb in the Rockies. I've guided a lot less that I thought I would, probably like four times total, all christian summer camp institutional days, but it is what it is. Any shift I get schedualed is basically just an excuse for me to camp in the Lion's Gulch Trailhead parking lot, climb about, and see Estes at it's craziest, feeling very happy that I do not live here anymore. Before and after my training, I went to Wizard's Gate with some KMAC crew, and then tried my hand at Andrology (5.12b), a super rad sport climb at Jurrassic Park, probably my favorite at the moment. I did my first alpine climb, the Culp-Bossier on Hallett Peak, with Mountain Project man #53. We woke up at 3am to drive to the Bear Lake trailhead, hiking in as the sun was rising to Hallett, which is the really sharp high point you can see from Lake Haiyaha. There was still snow on the ground, and it was gorgeous! I did not have the most fun on the climb though, the hour hike to the base tired me out because my partner was walking fast and getting annoyed at my slow pace. I didn't eat enough previously because I have been struggling to affort groceries this entire month, and it really effected my energy on the climb, although I was still able to push through at a reasonable pace. My climbing partner was very agro though, and even fully screamed at me for accidentally stepping on his finger. It was really scary, and all I wanted to do was finish the climb as soon as possible and get down! We ended on a good note, skinny-dipping in Lake Haiyaha at 2pm in front of like 300 tourists, making it back to the van in about 11 hours. Wow, alpine climbing is very intense, and I'm not sure if it is my thing. Now that I have had time to reflect on this experience and how I can improve, I've decided I would try alpine again. Just not with a man!
Two more fun days out: I drove the steep, gravely, and very windy road all the way the the Monestary, and infamously hard and beautiful sport crag near Estes. Me and Pippin explored the gorgeous meadow views at the campsite, and then hiked an hour to the crag with Mae. It was an amazing walk with constant up's and down's, river crossing and rock hopping. The rock texture at the Monestary was unlike anything I've ever experienced, 'pebble-pinching' being a very accurate term for it. We got on two classics, Stolen Land and Tabula Russa. There's some amazing sport 13's and 14's across from these climbs as well, but that's for another day. And I think I smelt my brakes burning on the way down the mountain, so maybe the Monestary will have to wait.
Most recently, me and Carter did the Golden Staircase! It is a challenge created by some KMAC guides in the Crags area near Lily Lake to climb fifteen sport pitches in one day, including five 5.11's! Carter's partner had dropped out the afternoon before, so I had to rush to drop Pippin off at daycare as soon as they opened, drive to Estes, hike, climb all the pitches, descend, and drive back to FoCo to pick up Pippin. I arrived right at 7 when they closed, what a full value day! The routes were fun, although steaming in the hot sun, and I ended up leading all the 5.11 pitches in a row. That made me very tired, but luckily Carter picked up the pace and led the last three pitches up the Upper Great Face. Besides the part where we got lost in the 'Enchanted Forest' and ended up skipping like five pitches... oops... we had a very efficient and successful day. I can't imagine doing more pitches than what we did, the Golden Staircase really sapped all my energy. I'll have to work on endurance if I ever want to big wall! Luckily, I have some alpine days coming up to work on my general fitness, planning, and route finding skills, and along with some hard sport projecting with Nate, maybe a wyoming road trip, I should be set for the rest of the summer. Honestly, it's been so hot I also wouldn't mind some front desk time, grinding for that ca-a-ash. I need a nice savings cushion, 'cause come October I'll be heading to Yosemite, so stay tuned for my first time in the Valley. I'm so psyched!!! :)