Ouray Ice Festival, Ouray, CO

Lafayette, CO - Has everyone finished their taxes? Do you have time to sit down and casually flip through a ton of photos? Great, because I just posted a ton of them!

This set comes from the 15th Annual Ouray Ice Climbing Festival held the first weekend in January in the south eastern corner of Colorado. This event is one of the largest ice climbing festivals in the world and is a major fundraiser for the Ouray Ice Climbing Park. Not only that, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

This was my third year coming to the event. And although I hardly climb during the course of the weekend, I do love taking photos, hanging out with friends, watching the competitions, hot springing, eating cheap lasagna, and drinking lots of Fat Tire beer.

As usual the climbing competition was incredible.  Only two climbers made it to the top within the 20 minute cut off time.  The first guy, Sam Elias, made it with only 2 seconds to spare.  However, it was Colorado-based Josh Wharton, who took the number one position again this year by  topping out with the speedy time of 14:42.  Here is a link to the results:  http://ourayicefestival.com/competition/competition-results.  And here is a link to a video of the winning climb:  http://tinyurl.com/y2k7jge.

Sam Elias starts up the Competition Route 

Ice Climbing Competition

A few more photos

                

 

As far as the photos go, my main challenge each year is getting a different perspective. There are only a few view points where you can take photos from and it is sometime difficult to do something original. I think I did alright this year. You be the judge.

Here is the link to the slideshow (72 photo in there this time):

Ouray Ice Festival, Ouray, CO

Casper Mountain Hut Trip, WY

Thomas, Joshua, Tommy, Zorra, Jessica, Tessa, Esther, and Suwei at Joshua's Casper Mountain Cabin

Lafayette, CO - I'm still like 3 months behind on my posts. I need to take less pictures!

This set comes from a trip Suwei and I took over New Years. This one started out with Tommy and Jessica rolling briefly through town around the end of the year. They didn't have a whole lot of time, but we did managed to finagle a dinner out at Sherpas before they had to hit the road again. The next stop on their tour, however, was just up in Casper, Wyoming where they had planned to drop in on yet another friend.

Turns out that friend, Joshua, had invited them and Tessa up to his family's cabin on Casper Mountain for New Year's Eve and we were welcomed to tag along. So we did.

In Casper we met up with Tommy, Jessica, and Tessa who introduced us to Joshua, his parents and another couple, Thomas and Esther who were out road-tripping on their way back to California. All but the 'rents piled into two cars and while Joshua's group searched all over town looking for a sled (a failed mission as they were all sold out), the rest of us promptly got lost. By late afternoon we had all regrouped atop the mountain and were ready to take on the grueling 1 to 2 mile hike to the cabin. It was quite chilly when we arrived, but it didn't take us long to settle into the very rustic and very cozy (once the wood burning stove was lit) cabin, where we promptly set about liquoring ourselves up for the New Year. Actually we had begun that process about half way to the cabin. As soon as the wind kicked up, the rum came out.

The Hike In

We Made It!

Anyway, we spent two great days up there kicking around in the snow and hanging out with a nice group of folks. Thanks again to Joshua who put the whole thing together and let us use his place.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Day Sledding with the Makeshift Wheelbarrow Sled

Hiking out

Here is a link to the slide show and some more photos and comments:

Casper Mountain Hut Trip, WY

Christmas in California

Hiking in Sam McDonald Park, San Mateo County

Lafayette, CO - In two days, Suwei and I are headed out on another road trip. We are going to California again, this time via Park City, UT and Tahoe. We are hoping to get in a little skiing in along the way and maybe take a few decent photos. I think we are both looking forward to meeting our new niece, Veronika and skiing with our old niece, Victoria (well... not that old).

In the meantime, I have some photos to post from our last trip to California over the Christmas break. This set is mostly a random collection of parks and beaches that we visited between dinners out with friends and family. Sorry for the over processing, I'm still working on learning Photoshop!

Confused Hike, Sam McDonald Park, San Mateo County 

Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz, CA

Wilder Ranch State Park, Santa Cruz, CA

Christmas Dinner with the Family (photo by Eng-Shien)

There are a few more photos in the slide show. Just click the link below.

California Christmas Trip

Red Rocks Road Trip

Lafayette, CO - So, as usual, it's been awhile since my last post. This time I have a pretty good excuse. Besides skiing a ton, I also had trouble with my computer's hard drive. Luckily I had every thing backed up like a good computer geek, so no data lost, but it did take forever to load all the programs back up and get everything working right again. I'm still having some licensing problems with Photoshop and need to figure it out next week.

In any case, I'm back up and running and have some more pictures to share. These photos come from a road trip Suwei and I took over the Thanksgiving holiday back in November. We drove out to Las Vegas and met up with our friend, Jenn T, to do a bit of climbing out at Red Rocks. On the way we stopped in Fruita, CO to do some mountain biking in the Bookcliffs area.

The next day we drove to Moab and rode the Baby Steps trail just north of town. Afterwards, we hiked out to and took a bunch of photos of the sunset at False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park.

Next we went to St. George, UT and I spent a day mountain biking out at Gooseberry Mesa while Suwei was holed up in a hotel trying to get some work done. And finally we went running up at Snow Canyon State Park where Suwei whooped my arse.

We found Jenn at LAS the evening of the 24th and the next day we all headed out to Red Rocks looking for something fairly easy to climb and warm. We picked The Great Red Book (5.8), one of the few trad routes in the Callico Hills area of the park.

Thanksgiving day, Jenn and Suwei ran the Six Tunnels to Hoover Dam Turkey Trot, a 12k run near Lake Mead. Feeling not so ambitious after the run, we spent the afternoon cragging out at Panty Wall also in the Callico Hills area. Kelly, a good friend of mine from when I used to live in Las Vegas, came out and climbed with us that afternoon and even joined us for a nice Thanksgiving meal at the Red Rock Casino that evening.

Mountain Biking in Fruita, CO

Baby Steps Trail north of Moab, UT

False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park

Gooseberry Mesa, UT

Picnic Spot in Snow Canyon State Park, UT

The Great Red Book (5.8), Red Rock National Conservation Area, Las Vegas, NV

Six Tunnels to Hoover Dam Turkey Trot

Cragging at Panty Wall in the Callico Hills Area of Red Rocks 

Friday we climbed Johnny Vegas (3 pitches, 5.7) with the intent of continuing up another climb on Solar Slab, but changed out minds at the top of JV when we realized how slow we were. The short November days didn't help our plight. Saturday we wandered from one climb to another looking at the crazy long lines at the bottom of everything, and decided to hit the coffee shop instead. It wasn't the most intense climbing trip, but we love Red Rocks and had a bunch of fun in spite of our lameness.

I think Suwei wants to plan another trip out there this spring if anyone is interested. We are hoping to pick a time of year when it gets dark after 5 pm.

Jenn Chilling with the Locals in a Summerlin Coffee Shop

Also, I wanted to write a quick note about these photos. I have officially retired my tried and true Cannon Rebel. When we were hiking down in Buckskin Gulch I noticed the auto focus going a little wonky. The camera still works, but it's become a bit difficult to use.

Anyway, after the Buckskin trip, Suwei's brother, Eng-Shien, lent me his old Nikon D300. This road trip was the first real chance I had to use it. Most of the mountain biking photos in this set were taken with Suwei's point and shoot Cannon 710, but all the other were taken with the new Nikon. It's a sweet camera, much nicer than my Rebel. But, I still have a lot of learning to do. No fear, however, because I'm also teaching myself a bit more about Photoshop. This month I learned about Lightroom presets, which are little tricks that are great for making not so good photos look artistic. I'd love to hear what you think.

Here is the link to the slideshow.

Road Trip to Red Rock NCA, Las Vegas, NV