El Fin

I have returned home to my parents’ house in the Bay Area for Christmas, thus ending the adventure.  While the return is somewhat anti-climactic, I have found that there is a bowl of Christmas colored M&Ms that sits by the door and is mysteriously refilled every time that I empty it.  I may stay.

Here are some stats from the trip:

Total mileage: 11,823

Total days: 106

Total states: 9 (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California)

Total crags/areas: 14 (Smith Rock, Trout Creek, Ozone, City of Rocks, the Tetons, American Fork, Maple Canyon, Joe’s Valley, Indian Creek, Rocky Mountain National Park, Eldorado Canyon, Flagstaff Boulders, Clear Creek Canyon, Bishop)

Longest stay: Indian Creek, 18 days

Longest drive: Littleton, CO to Incline Village, NV- 17 hours

Longest route: Exum Direct, Grand Teton

Highest temperature: 90 degrees- City of Rocks, Idaho

Lowest temperature: 10 degrees- Bishop, California

I left on this trip with high hopes for a grand adventure and I was not disappointed.  I left with two crazy puppies and returned with two loyal companions.  I left with a best friend and returned with a best friend; we don’t want to kill each other, we can still stand each other’s company, and I in fact miss her already after only two days apart.  I left with a mild allergy to splitter cracks and returned with a new affection for them.  I left without my greatest climbing partner, and returned still missing him as much as ever.  I left with a sense of adventure and returned with an even greater yearning for exploration.    

      

 I may be back home, but plenty of things occurred since my last post.  After leaving Bishop after our first ten days there, we made quick stops in San Luis Obispo and the Bay Area and then returned to Tahoe for several days of skiing.  Then it was back to Bishop for another four days.  This time we were fortunate enough to meet up with a bunch of great friends from school who had just finished finals. 

Psyche was extremely high as evidenced by the huge number of V-points that the group racked up.  Our posse reached 12 at its largest and made ascents of Beefcake V10, Beefy Gecko V11, Standing Kill Order V10, Queen Sweet Nectar V9, Disco Diva V8, Morning Dove White V7, The Hulk V6, Strength in Numbers V5, Molly V5, Pow Pow V8, High Plains Drifter V7, Atari V6, the sit start to Bowling Pin which probably has a different name V8, and many, many more that I can’t think of at this moment.  Almost as impressive as the number of V-points that were amassed, were the number of stars, as most of the ascents were classics. 

It was awesome to climb with good friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen for six months!  We finally convinced Ian that he could stop studying long enough to come to Bishop for four days and he impressed us all with his ability to climb V10 off the couch.  Alex was as psyched as always and amazed me with his ability to continuously pull down on burly moves throughout the day, spot like a champion, and be my bestie.  Eric quietly sent climb after climb, cruising through the moves with unparalled finesse.  Drew put down his long time project and arch nemesis, High Plains Drifter, in a beautiful display of effort and inspiration.  Trevor’s finger exploded and started to hemorrhage blood within the first hour of his arrival, but that didn’t stop him from pulling down hard.  Chelsea continued to hop on harder and harder climbs as her bouldering confidence builds.  Kent sussed out the beta on Molly and on the send he hit the finishing hold in an awesome dynamic upward surge, feet flying out, huge smile on his face.  Tiber was exuberant and possibly the most excited person in all of Bishop.  Sam was as impressive as ever, amassing a very proud ticklist and working inspiring lines.  Fabien was stoked, super encouraging and ever explorative.  Matt impressed me with his determination and made many notable ascents after some good effort.  And as for me, I was just excited to be in a beautiful place with beautiful people (I was also excited that the temperatures were double what they were on our last visit). 

We left Bishop and drove through a snowstorm back to Tahoe.  The next day we woke up to 24” of fresh powder and bluebird skies.  The next week consisted of skiing, eating, and movie watching.  We were stoked to get to watch the opening night of an ongoing competition at High Altitude Fitness (the gym in Incline where we worked this summer), in which the winners will be flown out to Hueco Tanks to be guided by professional rock climber Jason Kehl.  Not a bad deal.  The end of our time in Tahoe was slightly dampered by a huge storm that brought insane winds that whipped the lake into an ocean like frenzy, knocked out our power for 10 hours, and dumped rain onto our beautiful powder. 

My trip was amazing.  I love being dirty, living in my car, sleeping outside, playing with my dogs, climbing rocks and doing whatever strikes my fancy at any given moment.  I love the freedom of the open road, the unpredictable weather, the way that nature surprises you when you least expect it.  I love meeting people that make me laugh, people that make me say ‘wow,’ people that inspire me and move me, and plain, simple people that I can sit under the stars with and not say a word.  I love having time to stop and think, and have no obligations and no one to answer to.  I love the ways that God has blessed me, the way my friends have shaped me, the way my family supports me.  I love that I do not feel tied down, or worn out, or trampled on by the ways of the world, that I am not caught up in the routine, or the expectations of others.  I love that there are people in this world who understand that there is more to life than the car in your driveway, the degree on your wall and the money in your bank account.  I love people who quit their jobs to pursue something they are passionate about.  I love the way that I see beauty.  I love how much money we spent on chocolate on this trip.  I love that in a world that is often filled with despair, there are still people who know how to love.     

Peace. Joy. Love. Christmas cookies.

     

I would like to thank the following people for making this trip possible, providing hospitality, funding, meals, guiding, entertainment, gear, a Yakima SkyBox 16s, and much more.  Please forgive me if I didn’t mention you!

The Patton Family, the Kaes Family, Greg, Steph, the Checketts Family, Donell, Alan and Dana, Max, Dan, Kristal, Jason, the makers of the 2007 Honda CRV, Black Diamond Camalots, and Nutella    

And just because my trip is over, don’t think that my blog is over.  I will continue to write!

Bishop Video

Here is a short video I made of Eric bouldering in Bishop.  The high quality video was taking way too long to load so let's hope that this one will do.

Oh California!

We have returned to the land of immaculate granite.  In doing so I am reminded of a question that we were asked more than once on our trip.  “Why did you ever leave California?” Great question! California is home to some of the country’s, if not the world’s, best climbing.  We’ve got Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Bishop to name a few of the big ones.  Whenever anyone asked us where we were from, we would triumphantly answer, “California!”  Most people would then ask, where in California?  That question stumped us, as we didn’t know if we should answer our hometown, our most recent place of residence, or San Luis Obispo.  Most of the time we would just mumble and stutter and just say, ‘all over the place!’  Wherever we are in California, we are stoked to be back in the state!   

We are currently en route to San Luis Obispo.  We are reaching the 10,000-mile mark right…now!  Oh shoot!  That was super disappointing!  I was really excited to see the odometer hit 10,000 but it just reset itself to 0.  Rats.  Now, you may be wondering to yourself, ‘isn’t this entire country 3,000 miles wide? How is it that the furthest east you reached was Colorado, but you have driven the distance of our country 3 times?’ Don’t ask. Let’s just say we aren’t very efficient road trippers. 

We spent the past 10 days in the beautiful town of Bishop, California.  Sitting at the foothills of the magnificent eastern Sierras, Bishop is not only picturesque, but also home to some world-class bouldering.  It was awesome to spend so much time in the three main areas- the Happies, Sad and Buttermilks, climbing with great people.  We got to see Eric put down a bunch of projects including Center Direct V10, Beefcake V10, Lawnmower Man V7, Redrum V7 and Atari V6.  Quite an impressive ticklist!  I wasn’t quite as successful in sending projects, but I was able to overcome my constant fear while bouldering and send a highball V3 called Black Magic.  I was slightly discouraged by my lack of ascents, until I realized that I was trying exponentially more problems than usual, which meant there was a lot more room for failure. 

When all was said and done, I walked a way with a ton of exciting new projects!  I am super psyched to go back to Bishop next weekend and make some progress on them.  In the meantime we are making one of our abnormal, high mileage detours that includes a stop in San Luis Obispo to pick up my snow pants and say hi to friends, a stop in the bay for a quick hello to the family and a cocktail party, and then a stay in Tahoe for some skiing!  Wait, skiing?  I though I was on a climbing trip…  Well it was a climbing trip until we got tired of freezing temps and decided to switch sports temporarily. 

The weather was somewhat brisk in Bishop, with nighttime temperatures in the teens.  Every morning we woke up to find that our water was solid ice, our peanut butter was frozen and had to be sliced to put on bread, and even our poor bananas had freezer burn.  The sun set super early and it was pretty much pitch black out at 5:00.  Sitting in the dark in the freezing cold wasn’t too appealing, so we would head for our tent and sleep for 12 or more hours a night.  So that’s how we decided that after 87 days on the road, it might be nice to switch it up for just a bit before heading home for the holidays.  So we will be trying our hands at skiing starting on Sunday.   

We were fortunate enough to be in a beautiful setting and amongst beautiful people for Thanksgiving Day.  On Thanksgiving morning, we woke up to bright blue skies.  We headed into town to pick up some supplies then drove up the road towards Mammoth.  After a bit of searching we arrived at our destination – some natural hot springs in the middle of a snow-covered field looking at the gorgeous mountains.  We cooked up a delicious Thanksgiving dinner consisting of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, rolls, and apple pie.  We scarfed down our dinner (it was 20 degrees out, we didn’t want to linger) and crossed the snowy field and jumped in the hot springs.  We soaked our tired muscles as we watched the sun dip below the mountain range.  It was a lovely day. 

Climb on, rock on, ski on, dance on, party on!  

Let it Snow

We arrived at the Grand Canyon in the evening, set up camp and woke up the next morning to 18-degree temps and a big ugly crow pecking at our 5-gallon water jug.  The bird poked a hole in the jug and water trickled out and immediately froze.  Back to the tent!  Eventually it warmed up and we hiked along the rim of the canyon, which is truly quite a site. 

After we had our fill of walking around, we headed towards Flagstaff to see what we could see.  The drive there was absolutely beautiful!  It did not look like we were in Arizona at all, but rather Wyoming or some other place full of wide open plains, gorgeous mountains, and unending forests.  At one point we pulled the car over, let the dogs out of the back, and went frolicking through the forest. 

This is a video of the dogs playing in the snow, it was supposed to be at the end... but oh well

We arrived in Flagstaff, which we thought would be a huge city (maybe we only made it to the outskirts?).  It was small and cute and we found a local climbing gym and got beta on the climbing in Arizona.  We were not aware that there were so many options!  We hadn’t planned on staying in Arizona long because we wanted to make it to Bishop soon, so we were a little overwhelmed trying to choose one place for a quick visit.  After being in one place for so long, with all of the questioning of where and what next taken away, we seemed to have lost some of our road tripping mojo.  We sat in a coffee shop forever, Googling distances and driving times, and debating what to do.  Eventually we just decided to drive to Bishop.  We hopped on Historic Route 66 and headed west. 

View of the mountains from the Buttermilks

We made it to Bishop and slept in the back of the car up by the Buttermilks.  We woke up to gusty winds and headed to the boulders for a quick bit of climbing.  Our pads were literally blowing away beneath us as we climbed, and the weather forecasted snow for the next few days, so we decided to head up to Tahoe where we would have a roof over our head, and wait out the storm. 

Me on Ironman Traverse on a previous trip to Bishop

So here we are in Tahoe, watching the snow fall outside and paging through the Bishop guidebook.  Psyche is incredibly high, if only the weather would clear!  We have met up with two great friends, Eric and Scotty for the trip down south, and we expect to meet lots of other friends down there.  As for now, we are doing what we usually do when the weather keeps us from the rocks- eating!

We got quite a bit of snow last night

Back on the Road

(Sorry I am having some formatting problems with this one!)

Chelsea with Kermit

After spending 17 days in Indian Creek we are finally on the road again.  We are currently somewhere in Arizona, and headed for the Grand Canyon (Chelsea is driving in case any one was concerned about my multitasking).  Neither of us have been to the Grand Canyon so we thought it would be neat to check it out, and after nearly a month in Utah we are excited to visit a new state.

The Creek was amazing.  We both improved vastly not only since our last time there, but from the beginning of our stay to the end.  Chelsea not only climbed, but led her first 5.12, a beautiful splitter called “Swedin Ringle.”  The last few feet go from rattley fingers to tight fingers and once Chelsea practices that size a bit more she will be able to easily send the climb.  She also made great progress on her multiple trip project, “Coyne Crack.”

As for me, I went from a mild hatred of splitter cracks, to acceptance, to enjoyment.  I had an awesome time following Chelsea up many classics, and even led a few climbs myself. 

Because the Creek is full of splitter cracks that can be the same size for 100 feet, you need a LOT of gear to climb many of the classics.  Most people don’t have 10 of the same size cam, so it is good to make friends to climb with and share gear.  We were fortunate to meet many people on our trip, and reunite with people that we had met earlier on the road.

Chelsea on Swedin Ringle 5.12 (Photo by Jason)

 We met two great guys, Alan and Dana, on one of our first days of the trip.  They are from Washington and we spent many nights around the campfire roasting marshmallows and being entertained by tales of their travels in China, Pakistan, Nepal, South America and all over the States.  On one wet day when climbing wasn’t quite an option they invited us to go on a hike with them to try to find the 5 Faces- an ancient Anasazi pictograph in Davis Canyon.  We agreed and jumped in our car to follow them.  We didn’t realize at the time that getting to the canyon involved 8 miles of four wheeling over some crazy terrain.  We successfully navigated the road and hiked around for awhile but weren’t able to find the pictographs.  We bumped down the road in the dark back to camp.  Although we didn’t find the pictographs it was still an awesome day of hiking, searching, off roading and hanging out in good company.

Chelsea on Coyne Crack 5.11

Dan on Incredible Hand Crack

We were also graced by the hilarious company of Max and Dan, two guys that we had met in Maple Canyon.  They are also on a road trip, touring the West in a sweet teal minivan.  You can check out their blog at rocktheminivan.blogspot.com .  Max and Dan are reviewing gear for SuperTopo and we got a huge kick of hearing them discuss their gear.  We would listen to them from out tent while they analyzed the neck baffles, hoods, zippers and pull cords on the different sleeping bags they were testing.  We didn’t get to climb too many days with them because of a spell of bad weather, but it was great to be in their company for a few days.

A couple days ago, we were rounding the corner at one of the crags and we ran into Kristal and Jason, an awesome pair of people from Canada that we met in Joe’s Valley.  They are on a year-long road trip (making us look like pansies!), and you can check out their blog at ropeless.blogspot.com.  They primarily boulder so they have a similar style of crack climbing to me (lie backs, using face holds).  Jason and Kristal are two of the most exuberant, fun people we have met on this trip and we really enjoyed being in the company of people who love climbing for climbing, not for petty grade grubbing or any other superficial reason. 

Karl starting up Binge and Purge

The same day that we reunited with Kristal and Jason, we found Karl in our campsite!  We met Karl this summer while living in Tahoe.  He is from Reno and although we had only spent one day climbing with him before, we heard he was a notorious offwidth climber.  Offwidths are climbs that are wider than the usual hand and fist cracks.  They must be climbed very creatively by sticking your knees, thighs, calves and shoes in the crack and by stacking both your hands together or sticking in your whole arm or shoulder.  Needless to say, not too many people climb this size of crack.  However, Karl is extremely psyched.  We got to watch him on Binge and Purge, a  5.11 that left him shaking, quaking, bleeding, and smiling like a crazy person. 

Although the weather stayed relatively good, we did have a few days of snow and rain.  On those days, Chelsea and I hibernated in our tent and found creative ways to spend our time.  Aside from the obvious movie watching, reading and sleeping, we needed some other ways to pass the time.  We made turkeys and Thanksgiving decorations out of cardboard and paint pens. 

We also became very accomplished cereal killers.  In one impressive period of a few hours, we polished off an entire box of Cinnamon Life.  All 13 servings.  Our other victims included Marshmallow Treasures, Coco and Peanut Butter Fusion, Honey Nut Toasted Oats, Apple Dapples, and Oatmeal Squares.  None of them lasted more than 2 days after opening.  

Our movie theater

After spending so much time in the Creek, amongst climbers and cows, without cell service or toilets, it will be interesting to go back to civilization and the hustle bustle of a National Park.  I am excited to continue our journey and enjoy the weather while it is still good!

A delicious dinner waiting to be cooked!

A snowy morning

Star checking out the snow

The dogs napping

Indian Creek

Indian Creek.  Well, well, where should I begin?  When I first met Chelsea, she was always talking about this place.  Obsessively.  All she could think about was when the next time would be that she could return and try all her favorite climbs again.  She would show any interested party her pictures from the Creek, be it me, my dog or a nearby coffee cup that was wondering what the Creek was all about.  Surely, I would love this place too!  I mean it’s Chelsea and it seems that we love all the same things (except of course, for oranges).  I was so excited when we loaded up the car with a bunch of friends from Cal Poly and headed to Indian Creek for Spring break this past March.  That excitement lasted until I got on our very first climb at the Creek, Generic Crack.  I absolutely flailed.  I had no idea what to do and I could barely make it up 20 feet before giving up.  The problem was, that Indian Creek is all splitter cracks.  That means that the sandstone has one uniform crack running from top to bottom and the face surface is smooth and featureless.  I was used to climbing on holds- slopers, crimps, jugs.  When climbing cracks, however, you are not climbing what is there, you are climbing what is not there.  The object is to fill the empty space (the crack) with your fingers, hands, fists and shoes.  It seemed effortless for everyone else, but I could do nothing.  I resorted to lying back every climb I did.

It was implied that we would be returning to the Creek on this trip.  I don’t know anyone who loves anyplace as much as Chelsea loves the Creek, except for maybe me and an ice cream shop or Titan and the dog park.  So here we are, 7500 miles and 63 days into our trip, sitting in a beautiful campsite set amongst amazing red sandstone pillars.  The weather is perfect (although not for long) and we plan to spend a lot more time here.  My technique is improving, and against all odds, I have been making it to the top of every climb!  My spirits are high as I can see the progress I have made since my last visit here.  Because Indian Creek is in the middle of no where and blog updates will be infrequent, I have been keeping a journal of notes about what is going on.       

October 31, Day 1


Dropped my sports bra into the toilet.  Thankfully the toilet was free from anything but water.
Drive into Indian Creek, set up camp
Follow three climbs, no falls!

November 1, Day 2


Epic on a finger crack, hike back to the car for more gear
Burritos for dinner





November 2, Day 3


Feel a familiar sensation.  Hard to identify at first.  Ah yes, warmth.  We are climbing in sports bras, in November.  Quite nice.  

November 3, Day 4


Time for a rest day.  Crack climbing is very demanding.  Very productive day of crash pad repair, letter writing, hemp bracelet making, re-taping of cams, helmet decorating, tanning, chocolate pudding and mac and cheese consumption.  
Head to Alan and Dana’s campsite for roasted marshmallows and engaging conversation. 

My helmet is a unicorn

Chelsea's is a tiger

  



November 4, Day 5


Drive to the top of hill, discover cell phone signal
Find out Giants won World Series, yes!
Wish Shannon a Happy Birthday
Climb at Blue Gramma, where #dogs=#humans
Go to bed before the sun

November 5, Day 6


Drive to Canyonlands National Park and refill water jugs
Discover ice cream at little outpost store, 11 AM is not too early for an ice cream sandwich
Walk up and down to climbing areas, lots of people ☹, complete 1 climb
Hang out with Alan and Dana, inspiration strikes, although the subject of said inspiration is a secret until further notice

November 6, Day 7


Wake up early to attempt Coyne Crack
Chelsea rocks it
I follow it and enjoy relative success!
First Indian Creek lead- 30 ft 5.9+ yee yee
Talk with some cool guys from Spain
Climb a rad line called Battle of the Bulge

November 7, Day 8


Banana chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast
Try to lead Cave Route, fail, Chelsea finishes
Chelsea’s hands are all oozy, head for ice cream
Last day of summer?  Try to set up rain shelter for cooking and get our tan on while we can, weather report says snow
Get woken up by our friends Dan and Max, who we met in Maple.  They inform us that daylight savings time has occured and we went to bed at 8 PM not 9.  Darn.

November 8, Day 9


Rest day in Moab!

Goodbye Snow, Hello Joe

In our infinite wisdom and expansive knowledge of weather systems, we decided that heading 65 miles south would surely bring us better meteorological conditions.  True, there wasn’t much snow on the ground, and no, no precipitate fell from the sky during our stay, but Joe’s Valley was not what a Californian would call warm.  Temperatures dropped down to 20 degrees at night, the dogs’ water bowl froze, and the inside of our rain fly was covered in frost from the condensation from our breaths freezing during the night.

Fortunately, we came armed and prepared with footy pajamas, which we proudly strutted around camp wearing.  Chelsea’s jams sport rocket ships and I am rocking the sports balls model.  How could you go wrong when wearing a full body fleece suit? 

Despite the cold temps of the night, the weather actually warmed up to pleasant sending temps during the day.  Cooler weather means better friction on the rock and some climbers seek out cold, crisp days to send their projects.  We stayed in our sleeping bags until late morning, and when the sun was sufficiently shining we would wake up and go explore the vast boulder fields of Joe’s Valley.  Joe’s is on BLM land, which is a great, great thing!  It means that camping is free and there are basically no regulations, so the dogs had an awesome time running free, exploring and exhausting themselves during our stay.   

Chelsea and I don’t boulder too much, and if you were to watch us try you would probably understand why.  We spend more time sitting on our crashpads lounging around than we do climbing, and once we decide to attempt a boulder problem, we often make it partway up and then look down, wimp out, and down climb.  This is not to say that I don’t enjoy bouldering, because I do like it when the circumstances are right.  Circumstances are right when the following conditions exist: there are spotters and crash pads, good landings and short problems, my psyche is high, I’m not too hungry or thirsty, the temperature is 67 degrees, I’ve eaten pancakes for breakfast, I’m wearing the right shoes and my Prana pants, the rock is pretty and the problem is not too hard.  Har har.  I like to boulder.  Sometimes.

Anyway… in thinking about bouldering and climbing in general and how I love to do it, and how much time I am devoting to it, I also start to wonder why I climb.  In comparison to the best, my abilities are almost embarrassingly insignificant.  I was incredibly stoked to send a V5 in Joe’s, my third problem at that grade.  Angie Payne recently became the first woman to send V13.  Grades are hard to explain, and quite controversial these days but it does not suffice to say Payne climbs as hard as me +8.  No, that won’t do at all.  Maybe it would do to say that Payne climbs 8 times harder than me, or even exponentially harder.  Take the V5 I did in Joe’s, tilt it so that it is at a 45 degree angle with the ground, make the crimps even smaller, and add 8 or 10 extra moves and you might have something close to the Automator, the V13 that Payne did. 

Do I feel bad that I do not climb as hard as the best?  No, not at all.  I feel extremely happy that I can be stoked about the level that I climb at.  For me, climbing is a very personal thing- an escape, a means of dealing with the outside pressures of the world.  I climb for myself, for the pleasure that it brings me, and not to satisfy anyone else or anyone else’s notion of what climbing should be.  I don’t feel that I need to climb “hard” to be happy or to be successful.  Who’s to say what “hard” is anyway.  It’s quite possible that I had to try harder to climb that V5 than many people have to try to climb V10. 

In her interview in the October issue of Urban Climber, Angie Payne says,

“I realize that when climbing is all I have- if I were a professional climber 24/7- I’d really lose my motivation for climbing… It’s hard for me to think about making a living for the rest of my life from climbing because it takes the enjoyment out of it.  I have a much harder time staying motivated when I don’t have other things in my life to balance it out.”

On a much smaller scale, I am realizing that same thing on this trip.  This trip is about climbing and climbing is all that has been on the agenda.  However, I have noticed that I have gotten extremely lazy when it comes to climbing these days.  I take more rest days, do fewer routes on our ‘on’ days and have shied away at trying harder routes.  I didn’t really connect what was happening until a recent conversation with a non-climber.  She helped me realize that when there is only one thing that you have to do, you tend to want to do it less.  Obviously, this is not a have to situation, it is a get to.  I am extremely blessed to be able to be taking this trip, I am completely enamored with climbing, but I am also realizing that I need balance.  I have always wondered where the line gets drawn between work and play.  When you make your passion into a career for example, do you lose some of your enthusiasm for that activity?  I have always been passionate about animals and used to think that I wanted to be a vet.  After much pondering, I was able to discern that yes I love animals, but no I do not want to make a career out of that love.  When I switched my major to Recreation, I wondered if trying to make playing outside my job would make playing outside less enjoyable and more of a chore.  I worried that I might ruin it for myself. 

Now I am beginning to see that life requires balance.  If your life centers solely on one thing, the scale will begin to tip and before you know it you will lose your equilibrium and go teetering off an edge.  On this trip I am enjoying having time to finally sit down and read some novels.  It is wonderful to get lost in the pages of a book, not because you are literally lost in the nonsensical words of a textbook, but because you are on a journey through the eloquently written words of a talented author.  I am experiencing great appreciation for my friends and family because being away makes you miss them and realize that there are voids when they are not there.  I am discovering the way that nature makes me feel whole and yet very empty at the same time as I search for a way to fill the gap of someone who is no longer here.  Balance.

 As the editor of Urban Climber, Andrew Tower says, “It’s like we all forget we participate in the most insignificant activity on the planet.  We are rock climbers.”  We climb up rocks.  The hard way.  For no particular reason at all.  How serious can you really be?  :-)