I gave Chris a ride back to his house in Flagstaff, Arizona in the middle of june. The weather had turned warm, and we had to stop a few times near Needles, Ca. to let the bus cool off.
Once we made the climb from sea level to 7000 feet, it cooled off alot, and for the next three weeks I stayed out front of Chris' house and hung around Flagstaff.
The mountain biking was great and there were several climbing areas to choose from close by.
Only ten minutes out of town was one of the nicest little sport climbing areas I'd seen, La Petit Verdon, aka "The Pit".
Sandy limestone is the most common rock in the area, but you can find Basalt at Paradise forks, just an hour out of town.
I spent my birthday here, waiting for my climbing partner in Taos, NM to finish a busy period at the Hostel there.
We visited "Jacks canyon" during my stay here and I ended up tweaking my left wrist climbing an .11d.
Although most of the climbing here was sport, we made an effort to diversify with the hard trad routes of Paradise Forks and even an A2 soft sandstone adventure on Pumphouse Wall.
After three weeks, I was getting anxious to get on the road, and decided to leave early and make a stop at Enchanted Tower near Datil, Nm.
The weather had been getting hotter and my plans to go south, through Pheonix, to Tuscon to climb at Mount Lemmon were cancelled.
It worked out O.K. though, since Chris was between jobs and Flag was nice. Just before heading out, a friend of Chris', Rob, invited me on a weekend trip to Mt. Charelston, Nv.
I had climbed there my last day at Red Rocks and loved it, so I accepted. The result was two days of hard limestone and a redpoint of "Gun Tower" .12a.
Two days later I left for New Mexico...
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