High on Krack

We spent the weekend in Squamish, B.C. which was just perfect and wonderful. The weather was warm but rainy the first day. We found a nice crag that had a high overhanging cliffs that left the walls dry enough to get in a day of some spectacular routes.

At the end of the day, everyone left for bouldering at the Chief, and Mac and I did a two pitch climb. That was a high point for me and climbing. I did my first multipitch, and it included a short bit of crack climbing. I hadn't done that yet.

Day two was just as spectacular. We found a handful of slab climbs and put a young climber on his first lead. He did just fine, though he had to overcome a bit of nervousness. In the afternoon, Mac took Sara and I over to a 5.10a five star classic crack climb called "The Zip". He lead the climb and put up a top rope for Sara and me. Crack climbing is addictive, and super exhilarating. I can hardly wait to do it again.

Thank you for nothing

The other day I read about this article and I was just stunned.

Can you believe this so called "tax relief"? If you make between 10 to 100 thousand you will save $2-$400 dollars. If you make over a million you will save $41977. Now, I'm not a super math genius or anything, but shouldn't that number be $4,198? Why is it that if you make ten times as much money you get a hundred times the savings? And that is on the high end, on the low end you make 21 thousand times the savings instead of one thousand times the savings. Is that right? Maybe my math is wrong...I mentioned I'm not a math genius right?

I'm sure that is helping our economy...Greedy bastards.

What makes you tick?

Lately, I've felt very crowded. I am not enjoying working indoors. Don't get me wrong, I have a great job that is not too demanding, pays well, and leaves lots of time to do other things. However, I want to be outside. I want to go spend a few months traveling (if only I could afford the fuel.) I would spend some time revisiting places I saw last summer, only camping around more and hiking. I'd go visit many of the places I didn't get a chance to visit.

There is this article in the February-March issue of Gripped and it is about a husband and wife, with their dog and cat, living on the road: "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. Reflections on Four Years of Climbing and Living on the Road." It's got some gross stuff, but only because modern conveyances are not readily available. Anyway, this couple spent four years (as you might have guessed from the title) out camping, climbing, meeting new people, and enjoying most of the things we neglect. There is this picture where they are at a open market in Mexico shopping for fresh food, and all I can think is how wonderful it would be if I could "afford" this kind of life. I don't know that I'd really want it all, but at the same time I fondly remember being at the Grand Canyon and a huge thunder and lighting storm was going on outside the tent, and while Sara didn't sleep a wink, the last thing I remember hearing was ... "You've got to be kidding me, you are not already asleep." Certainly not at that specific moment, but just as certainly within a few seconds ;)

Fortunately, I'm dragging Sara around outside. I've become a bit pushy and not really giving her much say, yet she isn't fighting really either. I take that as a compliment -- She could just put her foot down and be difficult, but really she just has trusted me to be extra safe and doubled checked my work. I say this hoping that we'll get our first multipitch adventure in a couple weeks. Speaking of which, I have some research to do...

Finally! Climbing outdoors.

Well, Sara and I finally got outside to climb. We went to Vantage and had a wonderful time at the Feathers. The first part of our day was climbing on ropes placed by people we'd never met before -- Ilee, Lea, Salus, and Alexa and husband/boyfriend (sorry I forgot his name), and Jessica and Kari. I should have gotten emails or something...But I guess being random is just fine too.

Our crew totally bailed on us, so Sara wasn't too sure about going all three plus hours. Fortunately, we went the whole way because back at North Bend it was raining and snowing. I'm very excited about our trips coming up. Late May we are headed up to Squamish B.C. for some bouldering and hopefully I'll get to do a mulitpitch (Sara isn't sure about doing that yet). I'm really excited about that.