If I don't write something tonight there will be no entries for September at all...
For the last three and a half weeks there has been little but work. But I fitted some good things into the end of summer before we started up again.
I added three more 14ers, two of them on August 19th. I climbed Grays and Torreys with my colleague (or rather, climbed Grays with my colleague, and then rushed up the neighbouring Torreys by myself). It had snowed two days before, and was still covered in the upper parts.
For the last three and a half weeks there has been little but work. But I fitted some good things into the end of summer before we started up again.
I added three more 14ers, two of them on August 19th. I climbed Grays and Torreys with my colleague (or rather, climbed Grays with my colleague, and then rushed up the neighbouring Torreys by myself). It had snowed two days before, and was still covered in the upper parts.
Here are the two from the bottom - Grays on the left, Torreys on the right.
We climbed Grays first - here is a picture of it I took later from Torreys:
My colleague was somewhere on her way down that zig-zag path at the time.
Below is Torreys, taken when we were still on the way up Grays. It's not a long trip across the saddle and up the final ascent, once you've made it to the top of the first peak.
Then a friend arrived for a long visit, just in time for the Democratic Convention. On the day we went out to see my favourite little corners of downtown we also got to see Denver looking as it might after an alien invasion. As well as the hordes of obviously non-Denverite Democrats and a notable increase in unwashed anarchists here for the accompanying protests, there were police in black riot gear everywhere, often clustered on the outside of vehicles like weevils or like blood-sucking ticks weighing down a mammal host. Below are some of my photos from that day that are specific to the Convention stuff - not all great photos, but as a record they will have to do. Photos of my favourite corners will come soon.
First, convention crowds and a demonstration crossing 16th:
Police in town:
Obama images were everywhere:
And the one photo I liked - boy and dog:
A day or two later we went down to Cherry Creek State Park in the south of Denver, and saw these pelicans:
On the 4th of September, just before our term began, I went with another friend to climb Quandary Peak. The most difficult one I've done yet - lots of scrambling as you go around or over rock towers at the top of this ridge:
And lastly...
Kasper (I think his name is) on the peak. I didn't know he was with us until we got to the top.
