Adventure Magazine December 2019/January 2020

CLIFF HANGER
CLIFFNICKING IN ESTES PARK
Words by Lynne Dickinson
Images by Steve Dickinson and Kalley Rittman
Most of us have watched Cliff Hanger,
my husband had not. So, the night before our
departure to Colorado to go cliff camping, he
decided to watch it – bad move. For those
of you who also haven’t seen the movie,
or simply have forgotten, it starts with the
iconic scene of Sylvester Stallone climbing
with his best friends’ girlfriend when she
comes unclipped from her harness. Despite
Sylvester’s incredible physique he is unable
to hold onto her and she plummets 1000 feet
to her death.
Fast forward a few days and we’re
in Estes Park, on the outskirts of Rocky
Mountain National Park, being clipped
into our very own harnesses, Steve was
undoubtably a little nervous.
To make matters worse, the day before
we had been driving through the Rockies over
the highest sealed road in the US stopping
numerous times to take photos and enjoy
the incredible scenery. Later that evening
Steve began to feel a little under the weather;
headaches, nausea, loss of appetite and
went to bed early. The following morning, still
feeling pretty dodgy we decided to check in
with the local pharmacist to see what maybe
ailing him. Seemed he had a dose of altitude
sickness and was prescribed some travel
sickness pills for the nausea, ibuprofen for
the headaches, a portable oxygen cannister
for his breathing along with a box of ‘concrete
pills’ and told to go enjoy the day.
So, we checked into KMAC, (Kent
Mountain Adventure Center) and met our
guide for the day. Kalley (pronounced Cali,
as in California) was the quintessential rock
climber, who despite growing up in Wisconsin
(not renowned for its peaks) had fallen in
love with climbing and the mountains. She
was passionate about the outdoors and had
made a life for herself doing the thing she
really loved, climbing.
" It just goes against
all logic and took every
ounce of mind over matter
to simply trust that we
were indeed safe, when
all instincts screamed the
opposite."
RIGHT: Cliffnic with Kent Mountain
Adventure Center and trying our
hardest to look relaxed.
Image by our guide Kalley
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