El Alpinismo

Ear plugs provided the solace I needed to drown out the chaos coming from my drunken roommates. I managed to sleep an hour and a half before Kurt Ross and I sped off to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some ice and mixed climbing.

Feeling slightly awkward being covered in spikes, it wasn't long before my ice tools felt like an extension of my upper appendages. Kurt and I weren't breaking any speed records, and enjoyed a beautiful day getting back in ice climbing shape with Long's Peak all to ourselves.

After a near send, we made a 5 mile slog back to the car, and drove back to Boulder. I spread out all of my wet gear on the hallway floor, and was missing something essential. I aggressively searched my car, and made a frantic call to Kurt to see if he had my camera. It was gone..

'I might have left it on the roof of my car,' I thought.. 'I can't afford to buy a new one, I have to go find it..' I quickly made a ham and cheese sandwich and started driving towards the unrealistic idea that I actually might find my camera (remember, still running on 1.5 hours of sleep).

I instantly slammed on the brakes at the sight of 4 elk running into the middle of the road. It was already too late. The words "ELK, CAR, DEATH" registered in my brain in the two seconds before I slammed into the full grown beast. The elk rolled off my car and continued to run away. I managed to calm down, and collect myself. "Ok," I thought, "my car somehow didn't get too messed up, I still have to find my camera".

Driving 10 miles under the speed limit, carefully looking through my newly customized windshield (which now features elk hair embedded in the glass), I saw something out of the corner of my eye. In complete disbelief, there my camera was, undamaged, 8 miles from the longs peak trailhead in the middle of the road. "WTF is happening !!!" I said out loud.

So... watch out friends, unexpected things happen in this world!!