Tis the Season

I've been thinking...there is no climbing in FL whatsoever. It blows, I love getting out there, being high up trusting my life to a thin rope and a few metal objects jammed in cracks and a person, usually Rob. Maybe not the best person to put my life in the hands of, but so far so good.

The seasons are changing (its crazy I can actually tell that because I hardly know what seasons are being spoiled in So Cal most my life), but the season of climbing is here. Right about now climbers are leaving Hueco Tanks, J Tree, Moab, and heading to the Big Walls. Yosemite being the prime place to test ones Huevos, climbing thousands of feet above the Valley floor, looking down on all the pitiful tourists in their motorhomes, taking showers, eating fast food. Although the Valley is set up for all this, the thrill from challenging gravity far above from where most visitors to Yosemite will ever venture, is still there.

What is the draw? To know that tourists are watching you with binoculars from below saying..."that's crazy" (and I still do that), or bragging rights being able to say you've done something very few people will ever be able to do...NO, the draw is the purity of life felt as you escape everything. Being in the "zone" as you meet mother nature head on. Scaling her obstacles, battling the weather she throws at you, whether the heat or cold, being absolutley free from everything caused by life. Up there the only problems in your way are what you have voluntarily created for yourself. And when up there, there is no easy way out. Trust me, last time on Leaning Tower Rob and I tried to take the easy way out and we suffered. Life lesson? Maybe...but the fact is Rob and I are heading to the Valley, natures theme park, the greatest place I have yet discovered, to tackle, to conquer, to finish what was started on our first trip. From now until July, my mind is set on prepping for what will probably be my only climb this year.

I will return to Leaning Tower. I will climb Leaning Tower. I will strangle the ring tailed leemer which ate our breakfast at the base last time (hes still there from reading other peoples writing), there will be no turning back, no giving up. If a rope breaks, I will proceed, alone if I have to, to the top. This wall has haunted me in my dreams since my first time on it. It mocks me. In order to move on in life, I must climb this. But the scary thing is, once this is done, I want to do it solo....and then it will just get worse from there. The bug will reappear and bite me with a vengeance.

But I will be happy.