Restlessness: Avon calling!

Here I am in Avon, CO, where I used to go with my family 2x a year to ski when I was little. The place has changed a lot, but still has the silly statues and lots of roundabouts that cause much consternation. Unfortunately, however, the lovely green pines are not so green anymore, due to the pine beetle infestation. It is beautiful in the summer though - I've only ever gotten to see this area in ski season. I'm surprised at how green it is!

The flights were uneventful, aside from getting an amazingly clear view of Yosemite valley and the meadows - so beautiful!

I picked up my rental car from the Denver airport and was rather surprised to find it was a Prius. "Cool!" I thought...until I tried to turn the damn thing on. Ok I found the power button, and I pushed it twice...things are looking up...lights on the dash turn on, sounds are issued forth. But I can't figure out how to put it into drive! After pushing many buttons, cursing, turning knobs, trying to call the one person I know who has a Prius, my friend Sunshine and her friend Jeff to ask for advice, and cursing some more, I try to find someone nearby to help me. Then I couldn't get the key out of the ignition. "GIVE ME THE FUCKING KEY!!" I yelled at the car. It wasn't very constructive.

Anyway, I found a nice young man to show me how to start the car and I was off on my way to Denver to collect Sunshine and get some food. We made it to Avon, checked in to our hotel which is under some heavy duty construction, and navigated the maze of posh hotels in Beaver Creek to find parking and my parents...and a life-sized volvo SUV made out of legos. Whatever. Fortunately there was a reward for all of this trouble, which was a sushi dinner courtesy of my parents. Sweet!

Tomorrow I want to hike to the top of the mountain. I'm really into mountains lately (have I mentioned that to anyone lately? yes? ok then). I have a whole list of things I'd like to do and see!

So let's go back a few days to a trip report for Tuolumne for the past weekend. I drove up Friday morning knowing that Drew wasn't going to make it, so I made plans with Lucho for Friday afternoon...turns out he had to bail too. So I did what I normally do under these circumstances, which is deluge everyone I know with voicemails and text messages so I could see if anyone wanted a partner/didn't mind me tagging along.

No one was coming up until late Friday or Saturday, so I found a nice little spot near Tenaya lake and took a nap after finishing the book I was reading: The Last Season (I recommend this by the way). I woke up around 3:30 and decided that I was a worthless turd if I didn't do something, so I hiked up to Cloud's Rest. This is an awesome hike! Apparently no one starts around 4pm, so I was pretty much alone on the trail. I did run into a nice European fellow who had hiked in from the valley and was bivvying on top. He had all of his water in a bear canister and consequently nowhere to put his food so it would be safe from the marmots. Weird. Why would you put water in a bear canister? I don't know. Anyway, he took a picture of me that is embarrassing, so I'll just post pictures of the view and some pretty flowers I saw along the way (a pink monkeyflower and a Tiger Lily), which won't burn your eyes out.

Saturday I met up with Patti and two of her friends to go back to South Whiz Dome. We hiked up the back and I hung a toprope on Blackout. Ran a lap on that and then two laps on Shadow Warrior. Shadow Warrior went pretty well until the middle where it gets really really thin. Not my specialty. I'd like to go back though and maybe figure out a sequence. Patti did super well on all routes, and put my energy level to shame by running two extra laps on Blackout. She was PSYCHED!!!

In the afternoon, somehow I spent about 6 hours in the store parking lot. We were waiting for Townsend and Kevin to get off of Heart of Stone so we could all go do something together, but when they came down it was late and we were all knackered so we went to the Tioga Pass Resort for dinner. While waiting for a table, Townsend told the most amazing levitating-shit-on-a-wall story I have ever heard about Kevin. Apparently Kevin normally has really impressive BMs while climbing, but this time it was a bit loose, there was an updraft, and Kevin, his parter, and the rope were doused. Amazing. They bailed. Wow. Who can trump that story?

On Sunday Townsend, Patti and I went to East Cottage Dome and did a few knob climbs in between light rain showers...I was happy to lead a few knob pitches and felt like I was getting the hang of climbing in Tuolumne. Patti got into some strange funk where she thought that she couldn't climb the knobs, but she crushed anyway. In the afternoon I met up with Rob and we went over to Private Property where I got properly worked, Rob Miller-style.

I wasn't sure if I would do anything on Monday, but I enjoy hanging out in the area alone or with people, so I stayed the night outside of the park and drove in Monday morning to check out the weather and see if it looked like rain. It was suggested to me that I should go up Tenaya Peak, but after checking it out, I decided that I did not want to do my first solo in sketchy weather. So back home to unpack, check out Batman:the Dark Knight with my superhero-movie-watching-friend Bjorn and a few other folks (believe the hype - it's awesome!), pack back up, sleep and catch a plane to CO.

Phew! Here are a few more photos of the weekend: