Devil's Tower, Chapter Four: Durrance, part 1

Lindsay, Joel and Mark swapped leads up Durrance. All three were climbing strong and good energy swirled about them.

Missing the Hills

Just got an email about the upcoming coalition meeting. Sounds like folks are getting ready for the new season and route repair. Maybe discussions about which routes to do, which ones shouldn't be tampered with, yadayadaya...sound about as fun as painting parking lines with a plastic fork, but I miss it. I want to be at the Gaslight being irritated or amused or proud. I want to be planning being out on the rock. I want to be out on the rock. I want to see the vista driving around the corner at Mt. Rushmore. I want to see my friends.

It seems an easy enough thing to accomplish for the apparently unfettered, like myself. It's my other wants that are causing me trouble. I want to make a living. I want to be near my family. I want to figure out something. I want to figure out what it is I need to figure out.

Geez. What a crybaby.

A Little Heat In the Shadowlands

This picture was taken almost 2 years ago by my friend Cindy. There are many good reasons to love Cindy, but just having taken this picture would be enough for me. I never knew I could look that hot. I imagine myself looking at this picture when I am very old and thinking, "My goodness, I was hot when I was a young thing in my 40's."

For best results when climbing in Spearfish Canyon, it's nice to have a ropegun with you. Brent was ours that day and got us up numerous routes. I can't remember the names of any of them. I don't think I made it up anything clean, but was extremely proud whenever I managed to claw my way to the top after a couple or a dozen hangs along the way.

Skip, Cindy, Tara, Brent, Adam and Shay were my cohorts. I am so glad this picture is reminding me of that day. What a pleasant memory. It lightly rained for a brief moment, which tends to slime up limestone a bit, but it went away.

And I love that three day feeling of jello arms that a good hard day of climbing in the canyon can give a girl.