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First Ever Climbing Trip - Summer 1997

Last August I went on a two week climbing trip to Colorado, with my friend Victor. It was a neat experience, to say the least, despite of the lousy weather, of some long hikes with BIG packs, and of a partner that was pushing us a bit beyond where we should have gone as a team.

We met in Denver, Victor having come by bus from Dallas, which is a very unfortunate place to live if you're a climber or a mountaineer. This was to be a big factor in the days to come, as he was very hungry to climb any route with snow or ice on it, and I had virtually no experience with ice or steep snow. We passed by a few climbing stores in Denver, which was a waste of time, as such stores are rather plentiful in Boulder. Victor eventually got a pair of boots he was very happy with, from Boulder Mountaineer. Driving into Boulder, I was struck by just how many rocks there are to climb around there. We would quickly find out, however, that the abundance of camping there is inversely proportional with that of the rocks, and had to drive out pretty far from town until we finally found a campground. If you have friends in Boulder, keep them. If you meet someone from Boulder, make friends with them. Of course, you could just not go there in the first place ... I think some locals would actually like that.

The plan for our trip was to climb around Boulder for a while, head out to the Estes Park area, and then go to Rocky Mountain National Park and climb Longs Peak via Kieners route.

We climbed at :


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