Some Gal Pals Climb the Old Man of Hoy
The four of us - me, Ellie, Sasha and Jami - set off from Glasgow in my brother's little car, which we liked to refer to as The Clown Car because of its miniature size. Jami had the idea to climb a Scottish sea stack to celebrate her getting her Masters from Stanford many months prior. Fran and Crusher had told me that climbing the Old Man of Hoy was a must given that its remoteness made you feel like you were climbing at the edge of the Earth, so everything had aligned for our adventure. I was thrown up on by some seabirds, we had about no food and booked a ferry which wouldn't let us drive our Clown Car onto it, which we were counting on. Despite this, things ran smoothly. We met Albert, who showed us around the island. We found a bothy to sleep in. We climbed the route before the rain came in with minimal rope shenanigans and we saw a totally spectacular sunset. I am not sure I would totally recommend climbing the Old Man of Hoy in a party of four with only one leader, but, if it's your only way to get up on top of that spectacular tower with your gal pals, then it is certainly possible.
Marital Bliss on Sunkist
Some First Ascents in the Red Canyon, San Rafael Swell
Mescalito and The Nose - Learning from Keiko
Some First Ascents in the Utah Desert
One week in late November, Keiko and Joe took Pete and I out for a sandy kind of Thanksgiving in an area surrounded by all kinds of towers deep in the Utah desert. After carrying multiple loads out to our spot, we looked around, chose our towers and established two new routes on two new towers. Other than a minor mouse invasion, it was nothing but giggles and pecan pie.
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Climbing that Big Rock they call El Capitan - Zodiac
After a month or so mostly free-climbing in Yosemite, Pete and I decided to do a couple of routes on El Cap. It was a pretty simple routine on the wall: haul, jug, eat, sleep.. Lots of time to ponder the vastness of the rock. I felt even tinier in the world when I considered how slowly I could move at any moment. I can't tell what was the more exciting moment: climbing over the lip onto the summit of El Cap for the first time or a bag of chips being dropped from high above landing in my lap. These are the real questions.
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A Windy Wall in Zion
Momo and I headed out to Zion after work on a sunny spring Friday and drove the ~9 hours to Zion. Momo inspired the youth to study astrophysics on route. We biked into the park with all our gear and started up Touchstone Wall. Turns out climbing in 50MPH winds is more about rope management than it is about climbing. To quote Momo: "every minute spent coiling a rope now is a gift to yourself later". We bailed after the fourth pitch with only the easier climbing left to avoid getting our ropes stuck. Gave myself a bit of a mullet-esque haircut on the way down (my hair got caught in my belay plate as I made the final rappel). But, again, to quote Momo, it "looks good".
The Leaning Tower
Jami, Eric and I had made some Google Sheet plans to climb the overhanging West Face of the Leaning Tower. It was Jami's first ever experience aid climbing and Eric's first ever big wall experience, so we were doing a lot of active learning and having a ton of active fun. Both Eric and Jami were total superstars with Jami doing the majority of the hauling and cleaning one of the most complex pitches and Eric taking his fair share of the leads. I took a bit of a whip back to the belay owing to not paying enough attention. Ending up back beside Jami, I asked her if she was okay, to which she responded: "totally... I didn't even drop my cigarette". Other than that, it was a relatively relaxed 1.5 day jaunt - the descent in the dark was probably the most intense part! We saw no other climbers, which was a dream given the popularity of the route. An absolute highlight was cooking and sleeping on the luxurious Ahwahnee Ledge, our laughter soaring out into the valley below - certainly the most comfortable night I have had on the wall to date!
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