Vedauwoo and a Home Invasion

Thursday we said goodbye to the Bauchiero’s condo and needed rest, and headed out to Wyoming. We also found one vehicle that was louder and slower than ours winding around the mountain roads.

At some point during the planning process of this trip, a small and little known (on the east coast anyway) granite massif called Vedauwoo (just outside of Laramie, WY) had been on the schedule. It was taken off due to time constraints, but since we were passing by it and it was recommended by a couple of people, we decided to stop by and climb there a day. We’re really glad we did, because it is awesome. It is a huge complex of massive boulders made of what seems a lot like razor-sharp aggregate concrete. We camped for the night below the crag, and actually made our first campfire of the trip (now only in mild forest fire danger territory). Though with the recent spread of pine beetles killing half of the forest here and in the Rockies, it looks more like fall (perhaps rethink the warning level?).

A grueling 5 minute hike from our campsite, we started off the next day on a chimney climb, more resembling a spelunking route. Polished holds, not deep enough to make legitimate chimney moves...it was a rough climb. After about 75 ft, the chimney turns into more of an offwidth crack with no footholds (not big enough for knees jams, not small enough for arm jams) that meanders into the darkness. Pete figured the chimney got about a foot and a half wide, while his body may only be a foot wide. Not a lot of wiggle room. After 15 minutes of sweating, wedging, and a good amount of cussing, Pete took to the right (back into the light) and got on the neighboring 5.9+ (runout and sandbagged), clipped a bolt, and politely asked Emily if she would finish the climb. Emily hopped on and blasted up the thing, sustaining and shaking off her first lead trad fall (or slide) like a champ. We don't consider it cheating when you finish on a route two grades harder.

The real route goes to the left (away from the light)

We moved over to a 5.7++ crack climb with a heinous offwidth roof at the end. We struggled up the polished out start and proved our definitively different climbing styles at the end. Pete chose what can only be called a heelhook-leg-jam-crotch-slide up and through the roof, and Emily a more controlled matched-hand-pull-up. Both were effective, but one much more efficient.

ouch

At the top, there is another set of squarely placed boulders with a number of cracks between. After Pete’s hour long business call, we got on the center climb, mixing chimney, crack, and guano-avoidance moves to finish through a conveniently placed hole in the rocks. Emily, cute as always, had to pose for the shot.

We fiddled around at the top of the boulders for at least a half hour looking for the rappel anchors, finally found them over an edge (of course, just to the left of the climb), and made our way back down to camp.

Home Invasion

This morning we woke up to find the Goose had been broken into! The culprit had left it's calling card: a shredded Cliff Bar and wrapper and a small pile of toilet paper made into a nest in the corner. So now we have a fully energized field mouse living with us. After removing all of our stuff from the Goose and doing a thorough search, we came up empty. Pete believes the varmint is still there, and turned the heat on full blast all the way to Cheyenne trying to smoke him out of his likely hiding place. If that doesn't work, the mouse traps should, assuming we don't lose a toe in them in the meantime. For the most part, all of our food is kept in a mouse-proof cabinet, with only the odd Cliff Bar laying around. And here, we were worried about bears getting in!

We are on our way to Estes Park in Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park for perhaps an easy climb before preparing for one last alpine start day on Long’s Peak, weather permitting.