Thanks for the Mountains

Credit for the pretty mountains header image goes to "pguler," whoever he or she is. Found the image on Digital Westex Image Gallery.

Ack! What Happened to the Orange and Green?

Gentle five readers, you may be looking with trepidation upon johnfulwider dot com sans its gorgeous Orange and Green color scheme. Never fear, it shall make its return in somewhat different, but still shockingly handsome, form once my long-overdue upgrade to WordPress 1.5 is complete.

Red Rock Canyon and First Flatiron

Chris, Devin, Jon and I took a great early-season climbing trip to Colorado the weekend of March 4.

Day One was some challenging slab climbing in a new area near Garden of the Gods called Red Rock Canyon Open Space. I led three 5.9's, which felt like 5.10's owing to the almost complete lack of hand- and footholds. Jon, our calendar boy for this update, took more than 30 minutes to lead a 5.10b and cried like a little girl most of the time. We all had a great time doing the running dyno start to a small jug on the last route of the day.

Day Two featured my first climb of the First Flatiron, a 1000-foot face that took us eight pitches. Free soloists were passing us constantly, but we stayed roped up. It got a tad chilly on the summit ridge, with sustained wind speeds of 30mph+. I'd do it again with a lot less gear on a much warmer day.

Here's a slideshow.

Colorado Climbing and Snowshoeing

We went to Colorado after Christmas for our annual snowshoeing trip and managed to get some outdoor climbing in as well, owing to the fantastic 45-degree weather. I got to use the Black Diamond nut set I opened just days earlier, which made me giddy as a schoolgirl ... umm, that is, happy as a clam.

Here's a slideshow.

Have Your Cake

My friends Heather and Brian got married Dec. 22. In this photo, they have not yet succumbed to the temptation to smear each other with frosting.

Blue Mounds Climbing October 2004

My photos of three-fifths of the Nebraska contingent's October Blue Mounds trip are now up. More personal details will have to wait until this graduate student has time to write them, likely in 2007. Until then, this trip report on MinnesotaClimbing.com has all the news about the trip most people thought would be too cold -- but actually was perfect.

Great Study Music, for Free

My definition of great study music: Loud enough to drown out the people around me at the coffeehouse/student union/bar, no words. This makes your standard orchestral classical music (or at least the Beethoven and Handel to which I listen) inadequate, as there are too many quiet passages even in compositions like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The solution: harps and hammered dulcimers. And it's free anywhere you've got a WiFi connection.

The provider: Magnatune. (Motto: We Are Not Evil.) It's an online source for paid music downloads and free audio streaming that splits album revenues 50-50 with the artists.

The artists: Cheryl Ann Fulton on Welsh triple harp and Jamie Janover on "innovative" hammered dulcimer. Tasty tunes.