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A Girl’s Best Friend….

• July 2007
• Uncategorized

I did the 2 am wakeup in Boulder on Saturday morning, and got a front row parking spot at Longs Peak in Estes Park. Hiking by 3 am, remembering all the turns and scrubby trees along the trail. God, I love the Diamond.

The hike went pretty quick, because I just had a set of aluminum crampons and a shorty ice tool in my pack, along with a light rain jacket, a 12 ounce water bottle, three Mojo bars and a few iodine tablets. Oh! And my camera, of course!

At 5 am, dawn was breaking, and I met Igor and Leo in the talus field below Kieners. Igor is from Russia, and Leo is from Ukraine. I am always desperately impressed by people from Russia, because they speak Russian. Anyone who can speak Russian is pretty much a genius in my book. Whether they are from Russia or not. They still get full credit.

Igor and Leo were there to climb Kieners too. A little while later I looked down from Broadway Ledge, and got a glorious morning light view of them climbing up the snow on Lambs Slide.

After spending the previous day at the Drop Zone, surrounded by people, airplane fuel, and propellor noise, I felt so content and at home in the landscape of white and grey and green and blue. Perfect, clean air, the sound of gentle wind and bird noises–no people anywhere near me, just pink granite and white snow.

I’ve never actually done Kieners before, but always wanted to. It seemed like the perfect first trip back to the Diamond and a good way to get a little conditions check–climb up the south side, and come down the north. I think I may have ended up doing it “wrong”, because after crossing Broadway, I got into the Notch Couloir for a bit, and the snow was so nice that I climbed up it for a while before heading out right to the Staircase up to the summit.

Climbing that last few hundred feet of rock up the Staircase, I was overwhelmed by memories of years past, finishing a route up the Diamond’s face and climbing up these easy steppes to the top of Longs. So many adventures, with so many good friends. Those memories kept a huge smile on my face, feeling the pure happiness of touching the rock, breathing open air, remembering each feature I was scrambling over.
I was on the summit at 6:30 am, the whole place to myself, with open space and Rocky Mountain views all around. I decided to go down the North Face, rather than the Keyhole. I didn’t have a rope, but figured I’d be fine with my ice gear if it was too snowy and icy. It turned out to be mostly dry, easy downscrambling, and then I met two more climbers, at the base of the Cables, Charlie and Christian. Christian is from Germany, and Charlie is from Estes. Europeans everywhere!

I headed down the boulder field, and looked back to see Charlie and Christian climbing up the North Face.

How wonderful, to scamper around the Diamond on a beautiful Saturday morning, meeting friendly climbers at every route, with picture book views of climbers on every face. This is absolutely one of my favorite ways to climb and experience beautiful places–cruising around alone, covering lots of ground, staying on the move. It couldn’t have been a nicer homecoming. Or as it turned out, it could get even nicer….when I got back to the parking lot, a friendly white-haired ranger asked me if he could save my spot for someone when I pulled out, and then asked me how far I had gotten. I told him I went up Kieners, and he was delighted. “You did a great job!,” he told me earnestly, “that’s wonderful!” Those of you who know my feelings toward Yosemite rangers will understand how tickled I was. What a sweetie! 🙂

I was driving back towards Boulder at 10 am, planning to stop in at the Drop Zone and see if I could get a jump in…..