Hiking through a storied canyon on a rainy day with a bunch of climbers is like taking a meeting of sex addicts to an adult film convention: there’s ogling, audible frustration, and a general sense that this is an unhealthy, unproductive day. We were at Eldorado Canyon, south of Boulder, a nexus of early free-climbing in the 1970s. Look! There! It’s Your Mother, the route from the cover of Time, the one where Colin Lantz hangs leisurely in neon pink.
After a little futzing around on the Gill Boulder, we called it a day, and made plans to hit the Third Flatiron in the morning. Just a few miles from the University of Colorado Boulder, the iconic Flatiron formation spikes up at a 50-degree angle from the city.