Nate Stephens

Multi-Pitch Climbing
in Estes Park CO

August 2019

Well that was amazing.

Thursday
I left Thursday afternoon with the goal to get to Omaha. Ended up falling behind schedule because the roof top tent on the Woolly Bear fell off on the highway… very lucky that it ended up landing on the shoulder. Had to turn around, drag it off the highway and figure out how to get a 110lb+ tent back on the top of the trailer. Muscled it up and drove on the shoulder to the nearest parking lot to assess the situation. Spent the next 3 hours in the dark bolting the tent back to the mounting bars (which involved opening the tent on the ground..), and then getting it BACK on top, to attach it to the Thule rack system. Totally took me by surprise, the tent has never been changed from the factory install… going to email Taxa and see if they’ll replace the cover that got chewed up when it slid down the highway. Ended up sleeping at a Love’s gas station that night, and not the nice free campsite I was planning on staying at outside of Omaha…

Friday
Woke up early the next morning, drank a protein shake for breakfast in the parking lot and hit the road. Bought some ratchet straps as a backup for the tent mounting system… was paranoid most of the trip that it would fall off again. Drove in to Estes Park around 4:00 and settled in to my campsite in Roosevelt National Forest about 30 minutes south of Estes. I love staying in National Forests for a few reasons- it’s free, and the people tend to be more quiet and respectful. After setting up and settling in I walked over to my camp neighbor a couple hundred feet away, a guy on a BMW GS1200 who was alone as well. We ended up getting along really well and spent the night drinking beer and talking about motorcycles, past adventures, future plans, etc. It was a ton of fun to learn from him, and share my own stories.

Aside from the tent situation, the Woolly Bear totally nailed the dirt/rock road that led up to the campsites, and was a great base camp! It was wonderful to sleep on an actual “bed” and have plenty of water, cold food & drinks, and a great cooking area. I’ve also been really appreciating the Jeep lately…what a beast! I’m pretty sure in any other car something big would have broken by now. After 50,000 miles of hauling gear, people, pulling a trailer through the mountains, having a bed/drawer system installed in it, MANY insane 4x4 trails, being yanked around by a bobcat/skidsteer, flooded in rain storms, etc… it still just goes! Amazing. <3 (also woah, it’s been in 21 states already!)

Saturday
Next morning was another early one, met Seth at 8:00 in Estes Park to sign a waiver and start learning. We went to Performance Park, a really cool little park area in Estes with a bunch of bolted routes on a 30-40’ rock formation/cliff. First we went over the basics of sport climbing outside, gear, etc. Started on a top rope 5.7 slab route which was a lot of fun. Easy, but a good introduction to what real rock feels like, and how to follow the route. It’s totally different than gym climbing because you can wander around and get off route pretty easily. Really cool to plan ahead a few moves and see what’s possible to use. When we were both at the top we went over setting anchors, clove hitches, rappelling, and third hands (or Kleimheists).

After that we moved over a route to a nice slabby 5.8, which I led! Really fun going from bolt to bolt, setting quickdraws, and then clipping in. Moved on to leading a 5.9, 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, and then top roping an 11.b. We fell into a routine of me leading up to the top, setting an anchor, and then coming down. Seth would then climb up and clean the route, removing all of the quickdraws and the anchor at the top. He would rappel down, and we would move on to the next one. Totally a ton of fun, and a great way to learn what it’s like to climb on real rock. EVERYTHING looks like a hold from the bottom, but when you’re up it can be really tricky to find useful pieces! A lot of what we did was slab, so putting your big toe on a tiny pebble sticking out and trusting that with basically no good handholds other than tiny crimpy things was amazing. Learned very quickly to trust my feet and put more effort into proper balance than hand holds.

After 4.5 hours or so we went to grab lunch together at a place called Nepal’s. $12 for a buffet… loaded up on noodles and chicken stir fry. Had a lot of fun picking Seth’s brain about his company and climbing plans. There was a really cool craft show going on in Estes over the weekend, so spent a couple hours wandering around that, talking to people and enjoying the weather.

Sunday
The day of the big climb! Met Seth at the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead at 7:00am to pack our gear and start the hike to the crag. The hike was about 2 miles carrying all of our water, snacks, 70 meter rope and gear. The second mile was almost all steps up to the base of climb… wore me out at elevation! 10,000 feet means 50% of the normal amount of oxygen. Wild.

When we got there we met 2 other climbers who were also doing Pear Buttress. We let them start first while we got our gear ready and tied in. The climb was amazing…Pear Buttress is a ~600 foot, 3-5 pitch trad route, so Seth would lead, setting protection (cams, nuts), get to a good spot and build an anchor. I would start climbing, cleaning the last anchor, and collecting the gear as I went. I’d get to the next belay station, clove in, and we’d repeat up the next 150’ or so.

I absolutely loved it. The combination of physical challenges, mental determination, piecing together the puzzle of the climb, and remembering the knots/techniques was just so fun. Had a great feeling of accomplishment after each pitch, especially after getting up and over the roof section at the top. Lots of cool exposure, holding on to the bottom of a rock, dangling 600’ up from the ground.. Really exciting and very rewarding! It’s a really new and addicting feeling of accomplishment.. totally awesome.

We got to the top and hung out for 15-20 minutes, catching our breath and enjoying the view.

After rappelling about 70’ we hiked down the rest of the climb off to the side. Caught our breath again, organized our gear, and hiked back to the trail head. Wrapped up around 1:00PM. Post climb meal was two double cheese burgers, a side of mac and cheese and fries from “You Need Pie”. So good. After the climb I soaked my feet in the river, walked around Estes Park for a while, and then packed up camp and headed home at a leisurely pace. Made it to a Walmart a couple hours East of Estes and passed out for the night.

Monday
Drove the rest of the way home, no surprises! Time goes a lot quicker with a phone loaded up with podcasts and audiobooks…