Time
after time, I seem to be swept away with the changing of seasons and find
myself riding the flow of action, lost in the moments. This winter was no
different, with an early start in the Wind River Range leading into a blur of
Hyalite Daze: from my first day back (unexpectedly catching
The Matrix with Kyle Rott), through countless more of guiding, shooting and
posing down...the blur of – wake up, coffee, grab the kit, make the drive, link
up, more coffee, maybe some food, approaching (run, don't walk - it's much warmer),
x,y,z...darkness; load the truck, warm up, make the drive (no hurry on this
leg), dump the gear, dry the kit, sleep like the dead; wake up dreaming and do
it all over again…
A
few special days & moments come to mind:
The sense of something magical in store: as Kyle and I reconnected and began our seasonal
journey
– the knowing of a brilliant partnership from the beginning, the notion
cemented as I see him following our first pitch together and reveling in our good
fortune to catch this climb in such wonderful conditions
– a fine start indeed.
Rejoicing in late-day sun:
enjoying
traditional parking lot brews with long-time homie Jay Beyer and new friends,
after knocking out another successful shoot with the master of light.
Sending the pants off Expanding Horizons with Monkey1 (that's Kyle, btw) and Caroline Treadway behind
the lens: revisiting test piece routes seems to have been a common theme for my
winter season, and this was perhaps the most special. While much of the
lower portion of the route has changed, I was thrilled to find ice conditions
very similar to that of the first ascent.
I
can still picture Alex, the day after establishing the route, wild-eyed and
grinning somewhere between Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat, motioning with thumb
and index finger closer and closer together, "You gotta dyno and stick
this super-thin verglas – it's wicked!! You should definitely check it
out!" Yeah – I should check it out – yeah… I did check it out shortly thereafter, and
surprised myself, on-sighting past the crux climbing and onto the WI3 finish,
only to bumble a tool, watching it drop, plum-line through space, and consequently
hanging on an ice screw in order to recover the tool and finish the pitch.
Returning
after more than a decade, my expectations were low, but the stoke was high – I
fully credit Kyle and Caroline for the send, with their belief and encouragement quietly pushing the rope up from below. Facing the dire consequence of a 60-foot
run-out, I felt calm, in control, and an ocean of confidence washing over me as
the soft words “you look super-solid”
drifted from Caroline’s fixed line, some 200 feet away…
Sharing the last day of
the season, climbing in good style, with mi amigos: I could prattle on endlessly in praise of my
partners – Kyle’s on-sight of Come & Get It, his flash of The Succubus, or
his cool, calculated and ever-strong send of The Far-left of Jeff’s Actual Other-right (yes, inside joke…),
where I watched through the camera as Monkey1 transformed from journeyman to
master – dancing with danger and flirting disaster through a maze of detached
and creaking icicles: cold, brittle and worn by hard sun…I can recall echoing,
“you look super-solid.” Or there’s Marko’s un-dying loyalty to his
friends and honor to his commitments – never have I found a more reliable
human.
To
finish my season in the company of these two was an honor and a pleasure; to
finish my season with a first ascent and gang soloing was icing on the
cake. After countless years of
eyeballing a short mixed line right of Genesis 1, the stars finally aligned to
bring the perfect weather pattern and allowed ephemeral passageway. We established Sarah Jessica Parker in fine
choss-monkey style: timing perfectly the
morning temps, climbing on-sight, protecting shattered and re-frozen stone
naturally with tiny offsets, beaks, Spectres and small cams – floating with
peak-strength past the gently overhanging terrain.
