Cory "The Kine", RMNP

Here is Cory gettin it done on "THE KINE" RMNP.

Trade Show

Last week, I attended the Outdoor Retail Show once again. I go every winter and summer to help out at the Evolv booth. Last year, I actually worked by meeting buyers from the Four Corners area to talk about new climbing shoes and how to boost sales. This year, Evolv was able to find a full time rep to run the entire area apposed to me only being able to run the front range area. Having to pay the mortgage really kept me from doing what needed to be done as a rep. If I was able to find a couple of more product lines along side Evolv, I think I could make a solid go at being a rep. I know I can sell, I know I can. I do shoe demos for Evolv, attend climbing events like the trade shows, comps, and fund raisers to help support the product. I manage the Colorado Team and always help promote the product.
The show was pretty fun. It is always fun to talk about climbing and shoes with psyched climbers. Evolv has a couple of new models this season, which are the K2's and K-Laces. They have revamped the Talon and Predator which looks freakin insane!!!!!!!1Getting to see friends that I haven't seen in a while is super nice as well as meeting Scott Milton. Evolv rented a house this show which was much cheaper than renting hotel rooms. The house was pretty f-ing pimp! We had about 15 Evolv team members and friends hanging at the house. The parties were fun, but actually mild. Partying with Lisa Rands was an experience I will remember for a while. The booth was really nice this show as well. Aron did a super nice job designing and building the entire booth. There were actual offices so that the sales reps could have some privacy with their buyers. There was a professional energy that I have not seen at our shows before. GOOD SHOW!!!

Kaos 2/ K-Lace

I just received the new Evolv Kaos2's and K-Lace. I personally like soft climbing shoes and these babies will feed my desires. I am not the heaviest guy on the block and stiff shoes are not as sensitive as I would like for the majority of climbing I do. For bouldering, the Kaos 2's will be a great soft, non aggressive, velcro slipper that will do amazing on slab and slightly over hanging terrain. The K-Lace is that and a bowl of cherries. The K-Lace has the same soft feel, but with the lace system, the heal seams to cinch down a tad better than the velcro K2's. Both shoes have perforated synthetic uppers that breaths amazingly. I can actually feel the breeze as it blows through my feet, awesome! . The rubber is the new EcoTrax rubber. The front 1/4 right at the toe box is new high friction Trax rubber, while the back 3/4 is the EcoTrax rubber. I feel no difference in the rubber compounds from front pointing to heal hooking. The shoes heal hook just as awesome as any other shoe in the line. All in all, I really like the shoe for slab to slightly overhanging terrain:)

Clear Creek Canyon

Danielle and I met our good friend Brian Rhodes up Clear Creek Canyon to do some sport climbing. I have been battling my elbow tendinitis for a few months now and sadly, it is not getting any better. I decided to take a little bit of time off from bouldering and maybe try some rope climbing.
We met Brian up at the Wall of the 90's. I have done maybe one roped route this year and was kind of psyched to do some fun routes. Danielle has been doing a ton of roped climbing because there are way more routes for her to work on than there are boulder problems to do in the front range. Her nursing program is insane and she can't get out as much as she would like, so I am happy to see her psyched on climbing once again. I wanted to hang with my wife, so rope climbing I did. Once there, we got on a couple of long 5.10+ which were really fun. After the sun came around the corner, we headed over to the Wall of Justice. The routes there are super steep and super fun. Brian flashed The Great Escape, 12c and his friend worked on the route for a short bit to iron out some of the moves. Danielle wanted me to go before her so I went to battle. I was pumped out of my mind three bolts in! I think I may have lost a little bit since I have backed off of climbing to once a week. I DO NOT do anything longer than a few moves at a time since all I do is boulder, so rope climbing is is a bit intimidating. The route started off with some great holds and then got REALLY steep to an ok block you match on and then bust a big move to another descent hold. I got pumped as shit at the crux and tried really hard to finish the lip turn to a couple of slopy moves over the lip to then barley clip the chains. Danielle jumped on the route and did really well. She worked the moves up to the lip turn and wanted to be lowered before the rain came in. Pretty much as soon as she touched down, the rain came. It was hot as shit before the rain, but as soon as the rain had ended, it got even hotter. It felt like we were in South America with all the humidity. We all packed up and took off. I had a really fun day climbing routes with my wife Danielle and our good friend Brian Rhodes. I was even more psyched that rope climbing did not seem to wreck my elbow nearly as badly as bouldering. I really love to boulder, but if I can climb routes for now and not hurt my elbow, I am happy:)

Fun, casual park day:)

Friday I had the day off of work and went with Danielle and Jacinda to RMNP. Jacinda is working on the Kind at Emerald Lake. The weather was a bit on the warm side, but we were out climbing and not working, f-yeah!
I have taken some time off of climbing because of my elbow, but really wanted to go up to the park and at leased get a good hike in. I brought climbing gear just in case my elbow was somewhat cooperative. Once we got there, the breeze was killer and Jacinda was psyched. Danielle worked with her to get her beta worked out. I decided to go around to the backside of the Kind boulder and play on all of the moderates. There were so many super fun moderates I have forgotten about around the talus field. I played for a couple of hours and made my way back to the girls. Jacinda was getting really close to doing the Kind, but she was spent and Danielle and I had to get back to the Nutter to walk her before she crapped in the house.
We all had a fun day with sort of warm temps, but no rain to chase us out for once.

Dragon's Den

My tendinitis has had me a bit depressed. The job if am currently doing is killing my upper body and there is nothing I can do about it. I go climbing to stay fit and to get away from everyday drama with work, the economy, etc. I need to work in order to pay the bills, but at the same time it has interrupted my outlets like climbing. I am at a loss. I have tried to find a new job closer to home, but have had little luck. I am being as open minded as one can be in these trying times. Now that I am a married man, there is a personal goal to keep this family firmly planted and do what is right. I NEED TO WORK. I guess if I were single and this job was killing me physically, I would just say f- it and just quit. Climbing is pretty damn important to me as well. It keeps me mentally sane and physically content. Now that I can’t really climb because of my work related pain, I just want to turn and run. Having responsibilities sort of sucks.
Friends tell me that I should just go hiking or try not climbing as hard. Sunday I did just that. I took my dog Peanut out for a hike to find some boulders that I have heard about called the Dragon’s Den. Peanut and I went up to Big Elk Meadow which is on the way up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a canyon that brakes off the main highway and meanders along a lush, overgrown patch of mountain. Once at the pullout, the hike is minimal. The trail fallows along a quite, slow moving creek that has sprouted a thick, green blanket of vegetation from all of the rain we have had this Spring and Summer. There is a mild river crossing that Peanut flies across with the enthusiasm of a bunny rabbit which I laugh at. We start hiking up the karn marked hillside for about 10 minutes until we reach the first set of boulders. The lines looked awesome, but the rock was a bit subpar. The rock is a combination of granite and sharp knobby crystals. Some problems are more skin friendly than others, but all in all, the climbing was fun. I found about a dozen problems that were worthy of loosing some skin. This was perfect because Peanut could run around and be a dog while I played on some moderate boulder problems trying not to piss off my tendinitis. There were fun roofs, jug hauls, arêtes and highballs to test my new Evolv XY custom climbing shoes. I found the area to be beautiful, peaceful, but limited. The rain arrived right on time and we were out. Once Peanut and I made it home, I checked the area guide on Frontrangebouldering.com and found that the problems ranged from V0 to V6/7 which sounded about right. There were some Gill problems which I was not aware of that put a smile on my face. I am always taken back to know that I have been on a piece of rock that John Gill has climbed before.
Peanut and I had a fun couple of hours before the rain came. If it wasn’t for the cloud cover, there would have been no way to climb at these boulders in July because they directly face the afternoon sun. We hiked back out through the overgrown vegetation without running into another soul the whole time we were in the area. I am not sure I would ever come back to the Dragon’s Den for no other reason than to show Danielle some new boulder problems and to let Peanut be the crazy doggy she is.

Tendinits

I have been fighting elbow tendinitis for the last couple of months, but now it is on fire. My job requires me to lift a fair amount of heavy material like doors and interior millwork. It really kind of sucks since this is the beginning of RMNP and Evans season. I was starting to feel relatively strong again since I blew out my finger last November. Now my elbow is hurting enough to probably take the month off and wait to see what happens. I was getting really close to finishing Whispers Of Wisdom. Whispers is the Midnight Lightning of the park and has one of the best highball finishes of any problem in the park. I suppose I will have to wait till Fall when the temps get cooler and my elbow gets better.

Tendinitis

Yep, it happend. I have contracted the Tendinitis virus. Trying to fight it, but I think it's winning.