Mount Antero

Two days ago, I climbed Mount Antero, the tenth highest peak in Colorado at 14,276 feet.  One of the peaks in the Sawatch range between Salida and BV, it's named for a Ute chief who ruled one of the local bands a long in the 1800s.  The mountain is also well-known among rock hounds for the huge chunks of aquamarine and other precious gemstones you can find there - there's even a huge piece of aquamarine from Antero in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science!

I climbed with Hagen, a buddy from Runners, and his dog Maggie - we got an early start but still walked for 8.5 hours and just about 16 miles to get to the summit and back.  It was a really nice way to get out and do something other than sit on a raft or in an office, and the day couldn't have been more beautiful.  I'll let these pictures testify to that.

We took the dark blue route on the left side of the map (courtesy of summitpost.org).

Hagen on the 4WD road that goes almost all the way to the top.  We hiked up this road most of the time.

Getting to treeline.

Looking north just above treeline.

Hagen in front of Boulder Peak with its cool red color.

Our pretty state flower.

Shortcut: we decided to head up this gully instead of follow the road around a bunch of switchbacks.

More beautiful wildflowers.

Looking east into the Arkansas River Valley from the road.

Our route.

Hagen, tiny in the surrounding landscape (looking south).

The end of the 4WD road, and the summit in sight.

Maggie romping in the snow.  She never seemed tired.

Yours truly, on the summit!

Looking north from the top.

Looking southwest from the summit.

Looking east from the top.

Northward view of Mount Princeton (14,197 ft).

The summit team!

My favorite view up there.

All photography copyright Kendall DeLyser.

whitewater fun.

So this past weekend was FIBArk in Salida...a.k.a. the craziest weekend this little town has ever seen.  For those of you not in the know, FIBArk stands for First In Boating the Arkansas, and is essentially a big four-day river and music festival.  Lots of rafting and kayaking events, as well as live music in the park downtown every day.  The town normally doubles in size for this event.  This year, since the water is abysmally low, there was less of a turnout, but still a good time.  I was working during the days, but at night I did get to go boogie to some great tunes: Friday night was The Motet playing the Talking Heads, and Saturday a group called Fishbone graced us with their presence.  Both bands were high energy, as was the dancing crowd, so it made for some fun.

In other river news, I've now gone on five commercial trips and am getting more comfortable with it all the time.  My best boating story so far:  On this past Thursday I took a wedding party on a half day trip (I had five of them in my boat, including the bride and groom, and my buddy Rob had the other five).  As soon as they got in my boat, one of the guys named Tony asked if we could flip for fun.  Definitely set a good tone for the day.  I decided to try to flip them in a rapid called Siedel's Suckhole (sounds ominous but at this water level it's pretty straightforward...however, at high water it's a whole different ball game - and these are River Runners boats in this video!)  Long story short, we didn't quite make it because we were trying to avoid another boat and would've flipped right onto a rock if we'd carried out the plan.  Abort plan, abort.  We were a little disappointed after that, thinking we were in for a good ride and all, but then came Twin Falls, the next rapid.  Again, at this water level it's pretty straightforward.  Or so the groom thought:

We started out fine...

...then we got a little sideways...

...and then he went for a swim.  And I was laughing.  AND it was caught on camera.  Winning.

So yes, I swam the groom.  And yes, I got him back in the boat just fine, laughing about his adventure.  The best part was how he bobbed up and down with his legs above water for a couple seconds, and then how all his buddies were stoked about the fact that he swam (in Tony's words, "He's the one we wanted to get in the water today because he's too uptight about everything.  That was AWESOME.")

Indeed it was, Tony.  Indeed it was.

I did it!

Guess who's an official guide for River Runners!  I checked out on Thursday and have had trips every day since (only two days, but still).  Here are some prize snapshots from the past few days, courtesy of AVDI:

On my checkout day with Ryan (white helmet).

The faces in this one are great.

Gettin e'erbody wet.

an update on things in the south

Hi all,

A quick post to celebrate a couple cool things.  First, HidroAysén is on hold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Colbún, the Chilean power company that's part of the megadam project, called for an indefinite hold on its environmental impact assessment, saying that it wasn't worth continuing to work on it if the Chilean government couldn't muster more support.  Read about it here.  Now Colbún and the Chilean government are in talks with the King of Spain to see what the next step will be.

Second, our friends at the Matador Network, who came through Val Chac this past summer season, have released a teaser to their upcoming documentary about the future Patagonia National Park and HidroAysén.  In it, you'll see lots of shots from our people and land in Val Chac, which is always fun (at least for me, because I recognize everything).  Check that out here.  Yippee!