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The Horsetooth Hang '08 was a BLAST!
The first part of the day, I had to hunt down someone with an extra harness and belay device. Then the team had to head off in a van down to the Piano Boulders. Unfortunately, no one showed up to climb the entire time we were there since everyone stuck around the main area and taking a van to get to somewhere was too much of a hassle for most people. So, we ended up doing a ton of trash pick up (which was much needed).
Before I go into what we found, I should tell you that there are prizes for picking up particular items. One prize went to the most unique or entertaining trash item; Robert stumbled upon this hilarious kid's flashlight which was an actual curious george whose hat would flip off to reveal the light, pretty darn amazing! Another prize went to whoever managed to pick up the most glass shards. At the Piano Boulders, we managed to pool together enough to fill an 8 gallon jug half way, easily a hands down win for Hilary and Adam who were then awarded with a new crash pad.
Enough about the Piano Boulders and on to the Nipple Wall! First off, this place was impossible to track down! It was so far North that I ended up going in circles and getting incredibly lost before finding Clark and our site manager with his two tiny kids flying up the walls. Here I actually ran back to base camp to find Evolv and borrow some shoes to climb in myself! I then found out that I've lost considerable arm and finger strength, completely beat after cheating the entire way up a V9
Then finally a group of guys came and had a mini competition on the pencile route where I was very impressed from the creativity of these guys to make it to the top. Kenney had some serious battlewounds from a previous climb, which made them even more badass.
After forgetting my hat and nearly letting the Evolv guy run off with my ID, I realized that my ride to the after party had bailed on me (though it was really my fault since I was running so terribly late). So I've successfully hitch hiked twice before in my life and figured I could give it another go to make it to the party. After the van dropped us at the cars, I asked a couple guys if they were up for it and found out that they had biked there but were still amazingly up for the challenge! I hopped on the seat and Will biked standing up the ENTIRE way to Hodi's! I said he was a brave soul and he said that his legs were probably going to be furious with him later.
The party was awesome with free pizza and New Belgium brews, an exclusive party in Old Town just for the Hang. Some stuff got raffled (the massage I came home with) and thrown into the crowd (5.10 hat) and goody bags were passed out the volunteers (all the other stuff). There was a slide show of a trip to Switzerland that was sponsored by 5.10, Organics, and other companies that really juiced me up and made me realize what an awesome climbing community I now live in. The great appreciation for the beauty and preservation of the outdoors was overwhelming and even though I was insanely jealous that these four friends had this awesome time in Switzerland, I felt honored that they were from my part of town.
After the festivities and last call for free beer, I headed out with Nick and Matt to check out some of the local bars and ended up at Lucky Joe's where we had some STELLAR guiness stew. Sorry there weren't any more photos to post, but I hope you can envision the night from my whimsical storytelling.
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