Category: Climbs

December 25, 2022 / / Climbing

“I’m skeeerd” I say. A twinge of over the top whininess tries to mask the actual fear behind my humor. I don’t climb a lot of overhangs, so, in addition…

December 24, 2019 / / Climbing

“Do you think the Creek has changed?” Matt asks, from his perch on a pointy boulder. Above him cracks of all sizes soar upward from the black, varnished stone into…

September 27, 2019 / / Alpine Notes

As per usual, nothing quite went as expected. From the start we opted for the “easier” option of not schlepping sleeping bags or cook stuff up to the cirque.  The…

July 28, 2019 / / Climbing

“I’m willing to bet that the drive and the walk will take more time than the climbing will, even with three of us.” Above us lay 200 feet of granite…

September 25, 2018 / / Alpine Notes

“Lets run the Petzoldt”, I joke as we regroup from our last down.  Anna is the quarterback and in this pick-up game of football, that makes the rest of wide…

February 10, 2018 / / Climbing

“What does one have to do to get in your blog?” John asks as we rope up below the Red Rock classic, Black Magic. I think for a moment.  “I…

January 21, 2018 / / Alpine Notes

Editor’s Note: I am missing this so much right now. I have made eight trips to Patagonia over the past decade, and have been there for the past six Januarys. There…

August 23, 2017 / / Climbing

I can feel the vertical crease between my eyebrows getting deeper the longer I squint upward.  My partially closed eyes are not due to me ooking into the sun, but…

July 23, 2017 / / Climbing

1st August 2016 — “Well it’s your lead” Megas says as we deposit our gear at the base of Index’s Inner Wall. Above us two classic lines split the immaculate,…

March 22, 2017 / / Alpine Notes

Eventually, in the parking lot, gear and people sprawled everywhere, Jim came clean. “Jared, I need to tell you something.” The wry, maybe it was sheepish, smile on his face…

May 7, 2016 / / Alpine Notes

It started the same way and ended the same way.  Driving in, the road was still rough.  Walking out the beers were still in the river.  The day was still…

March 24, 2016 / / Climbing

Editor’s Note–This is continuation of a post I wrote about a trip I took down Labyrinth Canyon in April of 2013  Find the first part of the post here. “Well…

February 23, 2016 / / Climbing

“Man that line is awesome” I say to no one in particular.  Of the king lines we have seen this one has by far drawn me in the most.  Guarded…

August 25, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

Doubt, fear’s twin brother, confidently raised it’s beastly head today. It came as I stared upward at the imposing chimneys. It was there again as I followed my partner’s lead…

March 26, 2015 / / Climbing

The steep, hot, unshaded hillside was untrailed, but at least it was covered in pimpenellas, a dry seed with burr like tendencies that got all over clothing, skin and hair.…