The list of 101 things takes physical form as a grid of index cards taped to my bedroom wall. Occasionally, my boyfriend will stand over there by the window, looking at the cards and sweetly searching for something he can help me check off. One of the cards says, “Climb outdoors,” and well, if there were anything Eric could help me do, that would be the thing. So we went to Leavenworth, WA for a sunny Saturday along with my good friend Ben, who happens to be the person who got me started climbing indoors last year.
Here’s Ben, climbing a thing:
Here’s Eric, not dropping me:
Uh, it turns out climbing outdoors is very different! And because photographs taken from the ground are inevitably rather unflattering, here is the progression of my butt up a 5.7 route, hooray:
Thanks to Eric for not dropping me and setting up some easy routes on top rope for me and generally just being an all around great guy, thanks to Ben for acting as documentarian, and thanks to both Ben and Eric for teaching me how to do a drop knee from 25 feet down.
