san juan mountain games, volume iii

in august, Melanie, Elle Tyler, Ben Tyler, and i went to the san juan mountains to play lots of fun mountain games. the fifth (and final!) mountain game that we played was chilling on the via ferrata outside of telluride. one parks on a switchback of a steep mountain road, hikes along a trail to some ledges, and then walks along over a big drop. where the ledges are not so wide, there are cables to clip into, lest one falls and dies.







at one or two points, the ledge fizzles out and one must scramble up to the next ledge up. loose rocks are loose.





there's a bench just before things get particularly fun. we stopped there to smile and giggle and then we kept going.





sometimes there's not actually a ledge. in those places, there are rebar rungs attached to the wall. that's what makes it a via ferrata (italian for something like "iron trail").







we felt mostly intense when we were done.

san juan mountain games, volume ii

in august, Melanie, Elle Tyler, Ben Tyler, and i went to the san juan mountains to play lots of fun mountain games. the fourth mountain game that we played was going for a hike near lizard head pass. we played word games. we saw flowers.

san juan mountain games, volume i

in august, Melanie, Elle Tyler, Ben Tyler, and i went to the san juan mountains to play lots of fun mountain games. the first mountain game that we played was a descent into the black canyon of the gunnison. i took a few portraits, but not really any landscapes or action shots that i liked.





the second mountain game that we played was being a ghost while pouring water into a bladder at a hijacked campsite while sam took handheld long exposures of us. there was a large family with sad dogs. they sort of pretended that they didn't know that they were hijacking our spot. we huddled in the back and had a small fire. the one time i scraped my undercarriage was trying to maneuver my car around their massive truck the next morning.



we went to yankee boy basin to play our fourth mountain game. it was a lovely place with some nicely persistent wildflowers. we walked up the basin as the sun rose.









the top of the basin is the south ridge of mount sneffels. the real fun of the fourth mountain game that we played was strolling up said south ridge. the south ridge of mount sneffels is only for people who want to have fun.





^^ see how much fun we were having? ^^







then we slid down a huge scree field, which felt less like a mountain game and more like some kind of mountain yuck. it was nice to not go up that way.

some reasons why i haven't made much progress on my dissertation:

the last ridgelings show. Tim Novak and a lamp and a basement.

Zach Ward's bachelor party. his brother and a victory cigar.

blanket fort and homemade donuts and movie night. spirited away. the royal tenenbaums.

just some things i saw while going for a walk on a landfill.

indian peaks wilderness area. Melanie and her parents and her sister Caroline. the day was clear and nice and we were happy.

rocks. ropes. outdoor films. meetings. fires.

it was the summer and people that i know and people that i like (and people that i know and like) did nice things. some of these things are scrambling up rocks







some of the things were climbing up rocks.







some of the things were having awesome movie nights in the back yards of cool people's houses. or just one house.







the final things were retreats with other people who are in charge of doing things with graduate christian fellowship at the university of colorado this year. we were in the mountains and made fire. nobody else would drink the beer that i offered them though sad face.