DMC Denver Takes On Clear Creek Canyon

Whether we're on hiking trails, snowshoeing through giant drifts of powder, or racing down mountain slopes on skis, having an active lifestyle at the Denver office is easy. Since DMC opened up the Denver office a little over a year ago, we've been having a lot of fun with rock climbing indoors, building up our climbing skills at local places throughout the Winter and Spring. We had actually hoped to do some outdoor climbing for our Spring 2015 All Day Company Meeting, but ended up doing indoor racing instead due to bad weather. We've been wanting to go for quite some time, so all of us were really excited to finally get out there and give it a try.

Since we had no experience with rock climbing outside, we decided to hire the great people at Denver Mountain Guiding to teach us how to safely get up and down the mountains, utilizing the DMC activity fund. For an easy introduction to climbing on real rocks, our guides took us out to Clear Creek Canyon, named of course after the Clear Creek river winding through it. 

Our group of six quickly found out that outdoor rock climbing presents both a bigger challenge and a greater thrill than indoor climbing. On indoor and manmade rock walls, footholds are strategically placed in such a way that there is an intended route for climbing. Climbing outdoors on a natural cliff face therefore requires a bit more diligence, thought, and strange contortions to scale the rock. As opposed to the usual belaying systems used in most indoor climbing places, where the climber is constantly attached to a rope at the top of the wall, we also did "sport climbing" at Clear Creek Canyon. With sport climbing, permanent anchors are fixed to the cliff face every eight feet or so, and the climber clips their rope into each hook as it is reached. This also is a bit more risky and exhilarating because there is actually potential for a decent fall. With our excellent instructors and climbing experience so far, though, we had no mishaps.

We had a great time overall, and some of us have been hooked and heading back every weekend for more climbing.

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