It’s that time of year again…

Once again, April 16th is approaching.  I don’t think about this day, or the people I knew, nearly as much as I used to.  Back in 2007, and for a few years after, I felt that I should try to remember it everyday; almost in honor, so that the memories I have of my professors and friends would stay bright and sharp in my mind.  I was afraid I would forget, and what that might imply.

My initial reaction to the events that day was to (1) run away from the place that I loved, but wasn’t sure I recognized anymore, and later (2) find something productive to do with my life and try my hardest to succeed at it, in lieu of the many wonderful people who never got the chance to see their dreams (lives, really) come to fruition.

Looking back on that brings to mind something someone near and dear to me once said…Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.  Turns out, you can’t run away when what you’re running away from is yourself.  I thought I needed to put all my effort into being successful, and studying, and doing something that mattered because other people weren’t lucky enough to get the chance to do so.  Now, I know that what matters is spending time doing things you are passionate about that make you feel like you, and cherishing the people you love.  This year, on April 16th, I will be thinking of the many people I love, am lucky to know, and am lucky to have had pass through my life…all while spending the day doing something I love, climbing.

 

On my mind.

First off, before I forget, in the non-climbing world…I read a few things that have been on my mind lately.

1. Time does not heal all things, it just covers things up.

2. Underneath anxiety is something even harder, and it is not enough just to know what that something is.

3. Turning toward pain and suffering in a loving way is a precondition to turning toward meaning and purpose.

The first one…yes.  Life doesn’t have a timeline, and neither does processing life’s events.

Okay, now onto climbing!

At the gym last night, managed to strain a pulley (I suspect, anyway) while hanging from two-finger pockets, I heard a small *pop*.  Ahh! Hopefully some ice will help speed up the healing process.

Last week, after a looooong night of traveling and flight delays, I somehow managed to send a pretty dynamic V3 I’d been trying lately!

Not the send go, but a bit before.

This past weekend, Meg and I took full advantage of the warm weather and lack of snow here on the Front Range.  Saturday, we drove out to the 420’s in the Poudre Canyon (pronounced poot-er, emphasis on poot, for all of you non-Coloradoans.  Yes, it’s a fun word to say.).  Turns out, just because it’s 60+ F and sunny in FoCo doesn’t mean it can’t be 15-20 F degrees cooler up the canyon.  But, we got on some fun problems – both of us made progress on Scarface (V6!) and The Puffing Stone (V5).  We met some new people out there who happen to go to our gym and got some pretty good beta from them.  A good day all around.

Meg crimpin’ hard on Scarface.

Me thinking about it, ha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, we decided to head to Boulder and checkout the Satellite boulders at the base of the second Flatiron.  This proved to be a bit of an adventure – after two hours of hiking (or wondering around?) we finally found them.  Thank you, chalk.  We worked a really fun, and hard, roof V1.  Our butts still hurt from this.  Nothing like a roof traverse with one heel on the whole way.  

Alright, that’s all for now folks!

Goals

I’ve spent a fair amount of time this year thinking about things I’d like to do…and only now did it occur to me to actually write (definitely just typed ‘right’) them down.  So, here it goes…

2016 Climbing Life Goals

• Do my first sport lead
• Climb V5
• Sport lead at least 5.10
• Learn to be okay with falling! And maybe try to like it.
• Travel abroad
• Do that 12-miler trail run I signed up for.  I think I’ll pass on setting a time limit for that, ha.
• Be more like Franke from Grace and Frankie because, well, she’s just plain cool.
• EDIT: eat more veggies.

Okay, I think that’ll suffice for now.

Climbing and stuff

Post-Hueco climbing and stuff…

Last Monday we had some pretty decent weather here in FoCo (and by decent I mean 40 and cloudy…though it started out as sunny).  So, Meg and I decided to take advantage of it and continue our outdoor climbing sesh streak with some bouldering at Horsetooth – the Piano boulders.

Per usual, we warmed up on some V0’s and 1’s, then moved onto some moderates (or hard stuff for us, ha).  Worked a V3 with a super big move from bad feet that I have not managed, yet!  Then we moved onto this super fun V4 traverse pictured below – both of us made some decent progress with pretty different beta.

As a bonus we got a great view of the sunset!

I could dedicate an entire album to Horsetooth sunsets and landscapes.

Today, we had another decent day…c’mon, mid-to-upper 30’s isn’t so bad! We made it down to Flagstaff mountain this time and worked a V3 mantle that was pretty stout – the beginning of which had some great, flowy moves.  Towards the end of our day, we ended up working a pretty long V4 traverse – to be continued!