Poudre Canyon

Last weekend Bri and I made a trip to Poudre Canyon to check out the 420 boulders (around 1hr 45min north west of Fort Collins).  I have spent the past 5 or so weeks in CO and so far the Poudre may be one of my favorite places I have visited.  The vibe is great, house size granite boulders scattered through the forest with the most enjoyable approach... if you are into hiking for about 10min on a large flat trail otherwise not so much.  The rock quality is incredible and it offers grades from v0 - v13 with the mass quantity of the problems landing somewhere in between those two marks.  To top it off there is a free guide online compliments of the NOCO website.  (NOCO does an amazing job at organizing events, driving new development in colorado as well as managing relationships between climbers and other organizations to secure future climbing at established areas, so check them out.)

At first we were skeptical  about how much climbing was actually going to be done because rain had filled the canyon on our trip up to the 420's but by the time we reached the gate to the access road the sun was out, the wind picked up and the temps were around 56..  PERFECT!   We started off at the Hanks boulder and I managed to do pretty much everything on it quickly.  My favorite by far being Hanks Lunge v5*** on the back side of the boulder.  I managed to do a v11 2nd try called Private Property.  Bri and were both psyched to see more, so we headed back to the main concentration of boulders and began to climb anything that caught our eye.  At this point in the day it was getting very late as earlier we waited at a Shell gas station for awhile to see if the rain would break.  Time was against us.   Bri managed to do some quality lines and really push herself on her new project Scarface v6.  I am sure it will go down the next time we are out.  

I got on so many classic lines and looked at so many more that I didn't have a chance to get on.  I cant wait to get back out and climb in the Poudre.  A must go if you are in northern CO.