I had just moved to Boulder, and my friend Doug from Seattle took the opportunity of me being down in Colorado to plan a 10-day climbing trip to the area. This was a great opportunity for me to check out some of the climbing areas in my unfamiliar backyard with a familiar partner. On our way back to Boulder from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we stopped for an afternoon session at Rifle. This was my introduction to sport climbing on steep limestone, something Washington didn't have. I'll be back! Below are some photos.

To break up the drive on my way back from a solo trip to check out the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, I stopped at Rifle for a day and climbed with a guy named Jason who had been looking for a partner on mountainproject. We climbed four routes. I was reminded of the geometric nature of the climbing at Rifle. I really enjoy it and hope to return for a longer trip one of these days!

I was climbing with my friend Linn for the weekend, but arrived a day early. I posted on mountainproject that I was looking for a Rifle partner and got a few responses. I ended up climbing with Cam in the morning and Taylor in the afternoon. All told I climbed 8 pitches, and onsighted or redpointed a few 5.11's (Cold Cuts - 5.11a, Feline - 5.11b, and Sleestack Love - 5.11d). I was particularly pleased with my redpoint of Feline, since I had toproped this route on my first visit to Rifle (in 2019) because I was to afraid to lead it. But it felt relatively cruiser today, on lead. A fun day!

May 24 (Sat) - We started off at Ruckman Cave, where I wanted to climb Choss Family Robinson (5.11c/d). Since this is a popular route, we decided to warm up on it. Linn and I both led it, deciphering which chalked up holds were useful and which chalked up holds were decoys. I redpointed it on my third go. For some reason I had thought it was 5.11b, so it was a nice surprise to find out it was a 5.11c/d. After this we moved over to the other side of the canyon to find some shade, and climbed Jail Bait (5.11c). We climbed both the left and right variations, and I chose the right one for my (successful) redpoint attempt while Linn chose the left (chimney) variation. After this we decided to do an "easier" route, so we went over to Rumor Has It (5.11b) at Sapper Cave. We quickly found out it wasn't easier and the bolts were a bit more spaced than the previous routes. We got the rope up with some shameless stick clipping and then we each enjoyed a nice toprope lap. Fun and techy climbing. Linn figured out the low crux while I remained perplexed. A great day of climbing!

May 25 (Sun) - We started the day off at Anit-Phil Wall, climbing an 11a there (Purple and Green), which we found to be a bit slippery and spaced bolting for our tastes, especially for our warm-up. So we moved over to Ruckman Cave, and climbed for the rest of the day there. I led Primer (11b) (made two stick-clips and then toproped clean), after which we both toproped nextdoor Pellet Gun (10d), a fun and techy climb. We then walked left to Red Dawn Wall and climbed Overstoker (10d), Red Dawn (11d), and The Communist (10c R). Overstoker and The Communist were fun trad-esque onsights, while the reachy crux post crimpfest on Red Dawn gave both Linn and me trouble. All were great routes but a bit uncharacteristic of typical Rifle climbing. Nine pitches of climbing for a nice mileage day at Rifle. Thanks Linn for joining me to check out Rifle. I'll be back and find myself a 5.12a project!