It seems to me that writing only about the very specific goals I achieve from my master list of bedroom-wall-pasted index cards is a narrow assignment indeed. And it turns out that this silly blog has improbably become one of the primary routes of communication between me and a few family members, and it also turns out that several friends I did not even know were reading this blog have told me how much they enjoy reading this blog. And so I am doing things that are not specifically goals or things, but are still adventures and I still want to tell you about how I am spending my weekends.
SURPRISE! I SPENT ANOTHER WEEKEND CLIMBING MOUNTAINS!!!
For Eric’s birthday, my friend Emily and I made him take us climbing up routes that he had climbed before and were entirely too easy for him and were probably pretty boring, but they were hard and exciting for us. Happy birthday, Eric! We don’t know how to lead trad routes, so you’ll have to do it for us.
This is Emily! I met Emily in my climbing class this spring and we basically bonded immediately and we now have visions of someday leading on trad and not needing dudes to do it for us anymore.
I was extremely concerned about climbing this chimney at the start of the second pitch, having watched a few people ahead of us struggle with it. I tried to get up as quickly as I could before my nerves kicked in, and then when I knew I was getting close to the hard part and needed to really focus, I looked down and I was standing on top of the hard part. (It is better that in this moment, I did not know that the hardest part of the route was yet to come.)
Aaaaaand here we are at the top, no big thing. In the background is Silver Star Mountain, which we completely failed to summit during our graduation climb for our class back in May when it was covered in snow and avalanches.
Emily had to make a long drive back to Seattle on Sunday evening, and we were all feeling a little rough on Sunday morning anyway. We did a day-hike to Easy Pass. Which was not easy. But we had beer.
Emily headed back to Seattle, and Eric and I spent Monday climbing SEWS together. Historically, Eric and I have avoided climbing alone together since his response to stress is to get very quiet and focused, and my response to stress is to talk basically non-stop in an effort to distract myself from how terrified I am, and oh, climbing is inherently stressful. We had some concerns. There was no need. This climb was RAD.
Happy birthday, Eric! You’re the best.
Well, you’re pretty good.
This has been my favorite weekend of the summer so far, and this has been an extraordinarily wonderful summer. Thanks to Emily and Eric, who are two of my favorite people, fun to talk with, fun to drink with, fun to climb with. Good weekend, everybody! Let’s do it again some time.
