There aren’t a lot of places where it can be eighty degrees one day and below twenty and snowing the next, but the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains is one of them. In a divergence from my usual summer station in the Pacific Northwest, I found myself in Vedauwoo, Wyoming at the beginning of … Continue reading Dirtbag Date Night
“We’re on the run!” Wild eyed and grinning with adrenaline, N called to me out the window of his red Sienna minivan as we merged onto highway 211 leaving Creek Pasture. Snow flurries fell around our small caravan as we fled from the place all of us considered to be where we felt most at … Continue reading On The Run
Stingray and a season in Joshua Tree. Because the climb was more than just the climb, it was everything that happened in between burns. “Index isn’t known for splitters (perfect cracks). That’s okay, because I’m not much known for climbing splitters in the first place.” Almost two years ago I wrote these words in a … Continue reading The Desert Has Made Me: Stingray
The Life of a Hand Jammie "Closer to the skin is better," my friend Nick teased on more than one occasion as I strapped on my rubber Ocun hand jammies (protective and grip enhancing crack climbing gloves) for another perfect Indian Creek splitter. Each time I would laugh, roll my eyes, and insist that I … Continue reading Closer to the Skin
“I try really hard to realize it when it’s amazing, and even when it’s not.” Driving south from Squamish I listened to those words from my favorite climbing video, ’35,’ as I had many, many times before. It was Thursday, July 25th 2019. I needed to be in Seattle, but I didn’t want to be; … Continue reading Loss, Recovery, and Doritos
It's called the Big Show for good reason. I so vividly remember the first time I laid eyes on it: a freshman in college visiting Canada for the first time and a gym climber who could count on one hand the number of times I'd touched real rock. It was the most impressive and intimidating … Continue reading The Big Show
On the eve of the summer solstice I redpointed a climb called North Star that sits on the highest point of the Strawamus Chief in Squamish. While there were few actual stars to be seen with the moon almost full and the days so long, North Star itself couldn’t have been brighter that day and … Continue reading Stargazing
When I was in high school, my mom decided that my sister Lindsey and I might like to throw a pool party for our friends one weekend, so she reserved the neighborhood pool and told us to rally the troops. It was a great idea in theory, except for the fact that when it came … Continue reading These Are Your People
There's a great line by comedian John Mulaney that goes: "Growing up, I always thought that quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be." It always makes me laugh because the statement is weirdly accurate; I did worry about quicksand as a kid. In fact, just the other … Continue reading Quicksand
El Salto was the place where everything changed for me on my first trip south of the American border. One year ago I traveled here expecting the unexpected, but I never could have guessed how much it would change my life. Before that trip, I had been living my life in a very predictable way: … Continue reading Proper Nowhere
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