Climbing in the Community Ditch - Part 1 of 2

A wonderfully fun summer adventure was meeting Josh and Andrea, avid outdoorsmen and great friends, at the Community Ditch Trail in Golden.  We have discovered that we all love to rock climb and we've been trying to find a time to do it together ever since Gage broke his arm.  After a 15-20 minute hike in from the parking lot, you come around this corner and a large rock face rests almost solely in the shade.  There is quite a variety of routes ranging from 5.7 - 5.12 here and apparently is not very much of a secret as it was packed with people.  We quickly set up on one of the open routes and got the kids climbing before they got too wild on us.  Here is Gavin heading up for his first ascent.

Josh has tons of climbing equipment, and Brent has some, too, so we had several harnesses between us.  

Gage is still a stellar climber, and we regret that we haven't had him in climbing lessons recently.  He has the focus and skills to be really excellent at the sport.  His ABC Climbing classes are in Boulder, which makes it so difficult these days as the kids get generally more busy.

How cute are they, honestly?  Gavin was quick to head up for a few more attempts on different routes as the day progressed.

Here is another attempt by Gage on his second route.  It was so great that most of this area was cool and well shaded during the afternoon.