This week I flew to Boulder, CO to visit my friends Mike and Katie. The plan was to spend some time hanging out, some time working remotely, and some time climbing. I arrived in Boulder late Monday evening and was met by Mike and Katie.
I spent the first morning getting some work done; getting a head start on some data-analysis in preparation for my upcoming thesis committee meeting. With the beautiful sunshine and nice temps Mike and I took the afternoon to get warmed up for our planned foray in the mountains. We headed over to a rather chossy outcropping of rock which is unsuitable for rock climbing. There we set up a rope and practiced drytooling (climbing rock using ice axes and crampons). It’s a bit tough getting used to, as you lack the tactile feel on the rock. Unfortunately the sections of rock were somewhat short and you could only do a few moves before reaching low-angle terrain. But, it was a nice little outing.
Wednesday was a designated climbing day. We opted to “go small” and do some cragging around Boulder, particularly because I was not yet adjusted to the altitude. But our first order of business was to head to the Ham Radio Outlet store in Denver to pick up a small hand-held radio to take into the mountains for use in the event of an emergency. We made the trek across town and picked up a suitable radio.
On the way back, disaster struck…
