Wild Wild West
All morning I had been staring up at the wide slot chimney that would be my first pitch of the day. As we started jugging the fixed lines, my heart pounded. All I could think about was the unknown. My palms began to sweat and mouth went dry. I tried to block it out and […]
High Sierra Trifecta: Home Again
I recently took my friend Sam to the climbing gym for the first time. As we walked through the turnstile, his questions flowed like water. I tried to keep up by detailing climbing grades, styles of climbing, and the distinction between indoor and outdoor climbing. The wide screen in the corner was projecting a video […]
The Zen Master, Curious George and The Puzzler
We had just rappelled from the summit of the Rainbow Wall’s Original Route to the first set of anchors. Steve had joined us in a small cave 100 feet below the summit . It had been a long day. It was dark, the wind was howling through the canyon, and the three of us had […]
Fiddler on the Roof
The day had started out perfectly. The approach had cruised by and we were at the base of our route racking up just as the sun hit the outskirts of the canyon. It was late November, the temps were cool and there wasn’t a chance the sun would touch the canyon walls high above us. […]
Bowels of the Owls
It only took two hours of hiking up a ten-degree grade slope, with more than half of it by means of a “shoulder ride”, one sobbing fit, a lightning storm, and about 50 stops before we actually reached the start of our first attempt at summiting, as a family, the Twin Owls formation. After two […]
The Diamond – Long’s Peak
Sevve and I had been hiking for a little more than three hours and I was fairly certain I had underestimated our objective to climb the Casual Route on Colorado’s iconic Long’s Peak. Especially since we hadn’t even began climbing.
