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Red Feather

Posted on 20. Mar, 2009 by B3 in Red Feather Lakes

The Pa is the upthrust of rock in the middle of the photo, on the sky line. It is now home to several new problems, and potential for more.

Today was a gorgeous day in Red Feather with good friends. Brian and Pinto met me at 9:15 and we cruised up to Ft. Collins. Ben Scott slid out of work to enjoy a perfect spring day in Colorado. There was no one else in sight. The sun was warm and we made the 35 min hike across an open meadow following a faint horse trail up the back of the mountain. Ben stopped several times along the way to show us some really nice moderates, including a few harder lines he had completed in the last year.

Ben points the way to the next cluster of awesome granite boulders.

We made our way back to the Pa. Ben had tried to take a line out left, on his initial attempts. Brian and I had found a new sequence on Tuesday and today we figured out the specific beta. Brian has been in top form lately and quickly climbed the “easiest” line out the overhang. Ben gave a very solid effort and fell off of the last hard move. I repeated it afterwards and this is potentially V10. It was a great way to start the day off. Fortunately, the back of The Pa stays in shade throughout the day, and the polished granite seemed to remain sticky with the help of a steady breeze.

We moved to a nice variation, similar in nature to that of the Left and Right El Jorge’s. I got the first on this one, which seemed to be a grade harder, perhaps V11. Brian repeated it immediately after I climbed it. It has been such a great experience going up to Red Feather these past few weeks, having the place to ourselves and putting up really high quality and difficult problems, all in the company of good friends.

Brian Capps on the second ascent of a possible V11 on the Pa.

On the way down we stopped at a classic Ben Scott problem, Threat Level Orange V9. I was worked from training the previous day and having already climbed two hard problems and let Brian have at it. Despite attempts from Cam Cross, and other strong climbers, this great line remains unrepeated.