A Refreshing Climbing Blog from Across the Ocean

This guy in Wales has a climbing blog I aspire to: many pictures, few words. And isn't "Advanced State of Refreshment" a great title for a blog about climbing? He also has a climbing shop. So if any of you happen to be in North Wales, stop by.

Devil's Tower, Chapter Four: Durrance, part 2

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.

Devil's Tower, Chapter Three: Sundance

The very first bit was that lovely dancey balance-shifting sort of face climbing that I love so much. That lasted for about 10 feet. Then the meat of the climb required wide angle stemming for, say, the next 100 feet or so. You know, the hip-popping calf-cramping variety. My mantra up the crack was "I'm so glad I'm not leading this, I'm so glad I'm not leading this." Not that there was ever any chance I would. I felt so tough, and relieved, when I finally crested the huge ledge where we united with the Durrance party.

Devil's Tower, Chapter Two

The clouds parted before us as we drew near the Park entrance. Soon we were at the base of the Tower, racking up. 5 can be an awkward number, especially when dealing with post equinox daylight hours and starting after 11 am.

We broke up into 2 parties. Lindsay, Joel and Mark swapped leads up the Durrance Route, while I followed Peter up Sundance. The two routes converge a pitch or two from the top.

I liked this plan for a couple of reasons. One, I had wanted to climb with Peter ever since meeting and climbing briefly with him at Skeletal Remains a few years ago. Two, I had this whack notion that I didn’t want my first climb on the Tower to be the Durrance route, because everybody climbs it. The thing I forgot to remember is that sometimes everybody climbs certain routes because the routes are really cool.