Roadtrip Week 7: Rifle, Colorado
Friday, October 3rd, 2008After my first six weeks of vacation in Utah, I officially hit the road heading to Rifle, Colorado. I had been to Rifle a couple years back and completely gotten my ass kicked. At the time I was working on 5.10′s and 5.11′s and Rifle was definitely NOT the place for someone working on such grades. This year I am a bit stronger and so was excited to see if the climbing felt any better.
Beautiful Rifle canyon.
Screamer on one of the “do-able” 5.10 warmups, which were very few and far between.
Well….. unfortunately…. it was still ridiculously hard. I am working on low 5.12′s in Salt Lake, which means in Rifle I am working on 5.11′s. Also, the Rifle ‘word on the street’ is to stay off the polished 5.10′s and 5.11′s…… meaning I was once again scared to death. Sigh. I only climbed 4 days but honestly just wasn’t having any fun. I couldn’t get into the grove of the Rifle climbing technique (basically nothing pulling downwards and the bolts being spread out), I was scared to lead anything, plus, there was some stuff going on at home that was affecting the experience. I was so discouraged I almost drove home from the road trip and hung up the climbing shoes for good. Thankfully, I decided to cut my losses short and left for the Red River Gorge, Kentucky.
Scott on the stunning Feline route.
Perhaps I need to go back to Rifle if I ever hit the 5.13 level. Sigh.
