Falls Wall

This morning we loaded up the 4Runner and dropped Dave off to meet friends for a climb at Falls Wall. The dogs and I hiked partway in with him but quit at the stream crossing. We had a busy day of porch time and gluten free baking to get on with.
Dave crossed the steam and hiked steeply uphill to where Conrad and Aaron were already climbing. The wall is at the end of Telluride's Box Canyon and features views of Bridal Veil and Ingram Falls in addition to Ajax Peak. 

They had a big day of climbing and enjoyed the sunny weather. We're hoping Telluride's monsoon season is coming to a close but there's no guarantee of that.

weekends are for playing

We finally hit a weekend where the only plan was to roll with it. The weather's turned from full on summer to July Monsoon season where rain and or thunderstorms roll in most afternoons. Our rain jackets are constantly with us and usually on by 2pm. On Saturday we cruised to town to let the dogs swim in the raging San Miguel and surf a few rapids then Dave hit the golf course with a few friends while I had a quiet afternoon with the tired pups.  I managed to hem a few pairs of pants and make this snazzy holder for my knitting needle stash, a side for my double pointed needles (dpn's) and a side for my circular needles. 

From Knitting

From Knitting

 

From Knitting

Today we grabbed the dogs, rain jackets and climbing gear and met Dave and Sally by Society Turn for a bit of climbing while avoiding the storms. You can see all photo's from this weekend here...

mountainfilm in telluride

this is the first mountainfilm that we've been able to share with a visitor and Sara dived into it head first. The festival still has another day to go but so far we've seen 26 flicks (anywhere from 4 to 80 minutes long each) on topics ranging from the climbing photography of Jimmy Chin to truck farms (seriously, only a guy from MA would think of a farm in the back of his dodge ram in Brooklyn)

We enjoyed some time down by the river between movies on the first nice weekend we've had all year.

And headed to town park for some movies under the stars with friends after the sun set with a few light sprinkles.

Rock on....

Saturday we loaded up into the 4Runner with both two and four legged friends and headed back out to Clay Creek for some more time climbing. The weather was immensely warmer and I'd guess that it was in the 70's plus radiant heat from the sun.


 I managed to start a hat during our drive and adventures on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It's fun to be back in knitting mode again especially since we've had a foot of snow fall just today...

hitting the (rock) wall....

We took advantage of the warmer weather and hit the wall this past weekend with friends. It was a gray day but relatively warm in the high 40's and some gusty but manageable winds. We haven't been out there in a long time... we scouted another place in the area last year but hadn't roped up there since late April, 2008. I have no idea why we waited so long to go back (oh wait the photos reminded me... it's too hot in the summers). It's less then 40 minutes from our house and just a short, steep hike to a bolted wall that has a number of routes rated 5.8 and up. We've only been to the gym once this season back in October so my paws were very tender and I only did two routes as I eased myself back into the game.
 
We had an equal number of four legged monsters as two legged people with Sam & Kaya, Conrad and Kiera and us with our two monsters. Sam hasn't climbed much before but took to the rock like spider pig- even in  his LL Bean hiking boots. Conrad's worn out more then one pair of climbing shoes in his career and lead the climbs for the day. 
The dogs were very well behaved and Mayhem had the only bit of trouble as he managed to get 4 small cactus plants stuck in his paws during the day...which meant that I got stuck a few times while removing them. He's very stoic and doesn't flinch in pain which is unlike Chaos who would have whined if he had been that unlucky.Back at the car we enjoyed a late lunch before heading back to Telluride and the winter weather.

the return of the river dogs and climbing adventures

It's still on the chilly side here in telluride but the boys are enjoying the San Miguel River with their friend Stella. Chaos loves swimming more then Mayhem but they both enjoy the time outside.

Dave's been scouting out new places to climb and we went up to a wall overlooking town this weekend. The weather turned south but it was good to go for a hike with the monsters and get back on the rock.

We put a pack on Mayhem with a small amount of weight in hopes of tiring the little man out. Chaos also has a pack but we're giving him a break since he's the big guy.

We even caught sight of this little guy in the tree... thankfully the boys didn't see or meet up with any of these quills.

The boys had fun and learned to stay off our climbing rope. It's important to not let it get too dirty since little rocks or grains of sand can break a rope down.

Also new on the homefront this week is the grumpy kitty's attitude towards Mayhem. She still yells at him for no reason but has been sighted hanging out near him.

bouldering after work

chaos wishing he had fingers....

me working past my fear of falling while jess shows no weakness

even in a place like telluride work can sometimes be stressful... so we head out bouldering after work with Jared and Jess. Their dog Stella and Chaos run around while we play on the rocks and get out some frustrations and have fun.

jared working the rock

We hit a nice spot not far outside of town. I prefer climbing on a rope to bouldering... I like the security the rope offers. On my little problem I found that my fear of falling (even just a few feet onto a thick bouldering pad) made me crimp my paw (hand) in fear. I wasn't able to move it at all or communicate my conundrum. After glancing through the viewfinder dave realized the my face was an unnatural shade of red and something was really wrong. I did manage to tackle the problem by the end of the night.... just not for a few more tries. I definitely earned my gluten free beer after that experience! It helped to take the edge of my aching arm muscles.

Dave's earned the name spider-pig due to his ability to latch onto the rock in an unnatural way... Jess and Jared have only been climbing this year and have really taken to it. It's fun to be able to go play with our friends while letting stress go.

a little drive....

so for off season i thought i would use up some vacation time and go for a little drive. We left Telluride two weeks ago and ended up back in maine. Dave came along for the first part of the trip and we went bouldering on our drive in Kansas, stopped in MA to see his parents and visit Fenway then hit Sugarloaf for some Reggae and time with good friends at sno dundah. Dave flew home then i hit the road with chaos to visit family in northern maine then will head to south carolina in a few days before making the drive west again.



Here's a little video of Elvis and Chaos playing this morning at a park in the county (super northern maine). My brother has a pretty sweet computer hookup and last night I played Elvis some videos of her cousins in Asia.

winter days... on the disabled list

Chaos has been loving his new toys! I am also happy to report that the turtle has lasted over a week. I knew the Planet Dog collection would since they are the most durable, fun toys ever. The turtle is from the egg babies collection and has small eggs that go inside and Chaos is suppose to pull out. The eggs all squeak and chaos has always loved pulling the squeakers out of toys so I thought he may like this. He is only allowed to play with it while we are home and has done really well with it.

We went for a moonlight snowshow with Steve and Jess for the full moon. We had Budo and Mako with the group... chaos stayed behind with Jared since he is not able to walk 500 yards let alone a few miles. He is healing... we graduated to the front half of the cast but it got wet and began to rub. I called Dr Taylor and she told us to take it off but then he had to take it easy. No more friends for him until things are more stable. Budo is gentle but also loves to wrestle... then he'll kiss Chaos until we make him stop. Chaos isn't using his foot much but that should improve soon. He has a few sore spots and his foot is getting used to not being constricted.

I worked 7 days straight over vacation week with some long days. At the end of the week we found a great diversion on the way to pick up Chinese take out... we brought Mu-nee kitty along for the 15 minute ride to town. Silly but her spaziness was full of entertainment! I think she was nervous on the way there since we told her we were going to trade her in for an entree.

We also hit the climbing wall with Jess and Jared. It was fun to be able to show Jess the ropes- literally. Jared had done it before but it was Jess's first time. She was able to make it pretty far up and also became a champion belayer. This is important since I do fall and she handled it like a pro... even while the wall guy was talking to her.

hippy games

the weather rocked this weekend so both days we drove outside of Telluride and did some climbing. the second day our hippy band grew from 3 people and 2 dogs to 6 people and 3 dogs. good times were had by all~ especially the puppy monsters