A year in Tucson and a few other areas

Tara and I moved to Tucson about a year ago, so I could attend grad school.  We've been on a number of adventures, some of which were photographically documented.  The photos are in some semblance of chronological order...

One of the first trips we made was to climb elephant head.  This was a pretty mild climb, but turned into a fairly long day after we got off route.

Elephant head in the evening light

A flower

We were able to simul-climb most of it...until I got off route.  Then it turned into moderate run-out climbing that was pretty scary.

Tara checks out the view.

In the fall Mike Records came to visit with Andalyn and we did some climbing on Mount Lemmon.  Lemmon has become a go-to climbing location for Tara and I, but we rarely get any good pictures.

Andalyn leads something scary.

The setting sun made for some nice colors on the last climb of the day.  Mike leads up a 40ft hoodoo.

Another day on Mt. Lemmon.  Tara approached the end of pitch one on Chimney Rock.

Over Thanksgiving and Christmas, Tara and I visited Colorado.  It was chilly compared to Arizona, and we got to stop and see some nice areas on our travels there and back.

Tara enjoying below zero temperatures.

Saguaros are amazing critters.  This one is large!

Tara and Xoe enjoying some camping in Northern New Mexico.  It was 19 F on this particular morning.

We checked out Aztec Ruins National Monument.

A kiva.  I really enjoy exploring old ruins.  I'm not sure why.

Winter in Aztec

On our return trip we spent a wintry evening and morning at Bandalier National Monument.  Falling snow on old ruins is quite possibly a metaphor for something.  It should be at least.  Regardless, wandering through falling snow is one of my favorite ways to spend time.

The structures had several stories at one point.

Tara is trying her best to push me off a cliff at the site of this kiva.

The main settlement in the half moon shape found in many ruins in the southwest.

We went to San Carlos, Mexico for a long weekend.

We made a trip down, historic Rug Road.  We used this opportunity to access the South Rim of Aravaipa Canyon.  We were able to drop into the canyon down an cattle track.  The canyon is beautiful, and would definitely be worth a longer trip to hike the length of it.

A Gila Monster!!!

A saguaro patch.

Tara and dog exploring a side canyon leading to Hell Hole Valley.

Columbines

Aravaipa Canyon.  Where desert meets riparian corridor. 

Xoe investigates a slag pile along Rug Road.  Mining history is also neat!

An exploded safe!

We made a relatively quick trip to Cochise Stronghold.  We climbed in the Sheepshead area.  This is a fairly popular back country climbing area, and as such many of the more popular climbs have bolts in sections of long run out, which is not common on many back country climbs.  The climbing was still pretty frightening.

Our first climb, Ewephoria, was a 5 pitch 5.7.  Tara is approaching the end of  P1.

Tara surveys scene at nice place to rest.

Tara leads the third pitch.

After an absurd runout, Tara reaches the end of the third.  At this point she ran into issues setting up the belay, and it took us a long time and a lot of frustrated yelling on my part to get everything figured out.  I think the yelling helped...

Late afternoon sun high on the Sheepshead.

The top of pitch 1 on Consolation Prize on the Carnivore Pinnacle (5.8).

I thought the last bit of this climb up an easy-to-protect crack had some wild exposure, and was therefore...terrifying.  Tara doesn't seem to phased.

Post climb, wandering around Cochise Stronghold.

Consolation Prize goes up the obvious crack to the left of the huge chimney.

A neat area to check out.

We did quite a bit of biking in the desert. Especially in the winter and spring when the temperatures are pleasant to manageable. 

Winter evening in the desert is really something special.

One of our early adventures was 7 Cataracts Canyon.  This canyon has a lot of cool rappels, oftentimes down waterfalls.

The bottom of one of the coolest rappels.  It goes right through the waterfall in the background.

 Over spring break, I made my way to Alaska for some exciting skiing, and to visit one of my best friends, Mike Records.  Those adventures are chronicled on his blog, here, here, here, and here.  Check out the posts, we got into some good stuff, and thoroughly kicked my butt.


Then, back in Arizona, Tara and I had another full throttle back country climbing day in the sun.  The East Buttress of Table Mountain is a pretty full day.  The approach is a bit over three miles with a bit of desert bushwhacking to round it off as you approach the wall.  Then a climb, followed by a bushwhack back to the trail, then three miles out.

The cacti were blooming!

Tara gets to the top of P1.  Unfortunately, this awesome crack only exists on the 1st pitch.

The second pitch consists of slab climbing protected by three (or two if you climb too high and miss the third one) ancient 1/4 inch bolts. Oh, and a piton!  One the scariest pitches I've ever lead.  Thirty feet runout on a slab traverse protected by a rusty piton had me close to crapping my pants.

  Tara works her way through the last scary moves into a gully.  The rest of the climb is pretty straightforward.

After learning the river we planned on canoeing down didn't have water, Tara and I spent a nice weekend paddling around Patagonia Lake.

Trying to kill some fish.

It got hot earlier this summer, but nothing cools you down like some T-Pain... That temperature was scorching!

Earlier this summer, we escaped to Colorado to enjoy the weather, flowers, and scenery.  We put up two "new" climbs while we were there.

Flowers in Staunton.

 We ended up putting up a variation of the Chimney Route on Chimney Rock.  The last bit of the climb requires very wide gear which I don't have.  I figured we could find a way up anyways.  It took a bit of exploring, but we managed to get up.  We climbed the first pitch of the Chimney Route, and then made an easy traverse right...all the way to the south side of the formation.  At this point, there were a few options and we settled on a bit more traversing followed by a finger crack in a corner that lead to another crack system.  I would say this route went at a stiff 5.7, maybe 5.8.

Tara enjoying the greenery, and wandering up the pleasant 1st pitch.

 The other route we put up, is also a variation of an old route.  I spotted this climb last summer, and when climbing it found a number of old pitons!  Some fell out when I touched them, but others were holding strong.  The pitons continues up the book that the red line below initially follows, and then requires a bit of flaky face climbing to finish out.

I had been looking at the roof traverse pictured below, but was too wussy to attempt it the first time, so continued up the corner.  This summer, I made the traverse, and then climbed the bushy gully on the right.  The traverse was pretty neat, very exposed, and scary.  The moves weren't too hard, but there were a couple of tough moves getting from the roof to the gully, putting the climb at a hard 5.7 or 5.8.

On our way back to AZ we stayed the night in Kiowa National Grassland.

We had a lot of other adventures, but these are the only photos I could scrounge up.  This makes a nice year in review though.  Great memories!!