A sweet video my friend Mayumi from Japan sent me:
Also, check out the new post on The Thumbs Up Project.
20.4.09
15.4.09
because it is there.
I appreciate life more today than I did a few days ago.
Two years ago Winston and I attempted to climb a 2000 foot rock face called "Solar Slab" in the Red Rock Canyon, just west of Las Vegas. The mountain denied us the summit and sent us rappelling down in darkness...without headlamps.
We have been talking about that piece of rock ever since. How we wanted to go back and take it down.
The Slab fell before us yesterday, but not without a fight. We started our climb at the crack of 10. We moved fast, but were held up by a father and son team climbing ahead of us. The mountain pelted us with violent winds once we reached the exposed upper 1500 feet. We reached the summit but our joy was put on hold. The winds continued to grow stronger, sustaining 25-30 knots with gusts well over gale force. Dark clouds lingered, snow began to fall, and night was fast approaching.
The rappel anchors (hardware drilled into the rock) at the top were impossible to find. We had to down climb a 5.6 crack to search for the anchors at the top of the 11th pitch. Super sketchy. We considered bivouacking on the mountain, but it was getting COLD.
Joy filled my heart when Winston located the anchors. Hope! For the next five hours or so we battled the wind, cold, and snow as we rappelled pitch after pitch. It seemed never ending. We checked and re-checked everything we did, knowing that our senses were dulled due to dehydration, hunger, frustration, and cold.
The ground never felt so good.
We arrived back at the truck at 3 a.m., only to find shattered glass where the passengers side window used to be. Seriously? Both of our laptops and our camera gear was sitting in the cab.
Somebody had been doing donuts in the gravel lot and sprayed Eleanor, busting out two windows on her starboard side, but leaving all our belongings. We taped up the windows and passed out. We would deal with them in the morning.
My sleeping bag never felt so good.
Two years ago Winston and I attempted to climb a 2000 foot rock face called "Solar Slab" in the Red Rock Canyon, just west of Las Vegas. The mountain denied us the summit and sent us rappelling down in darkness...without headlamps.
We have been talking about that piece of rock ever since. How we wanted to go back and take it down.
The Slab fell before us yesterday, but not without a fight. We started our climb at the crack of 10. We moved fast, but were held up by a father and son team climbing ahead of us. The mountain pelted us with violent winds once we reached the exposed upper 1500 feet. We reached the summit but our joy was put on hold. The winds continued to grow stronger, sustaining 25-30 knots with gusts well over gale force. Dark clouds lingered, snow began to fall, and night was fast approaching.
The rappel anchors (hardware drilled into the rock) at the top were impossible to find. We had to down climb a 5.6 crack to search for the anchors at the top of the 11th pitch. Super sketchy. We considered bivouacking on the mountain, but it was getting COLD.
Joy filled my heart when Winston located the anchors. Hope! For the next five hours or so we battled the wind, cold, and snow as we rappelled pitch after pitch. It seemed never ending. We checked and re-checked everything we did, knowing that our senses were dulled due to dehydration, hunger, frustration, and cold.
The ground never felt so good.
We arrived back at the truck at 3 a.m., only to find shattered glass where the passengers side window used to be. Seriously? Both of our laptops and our camera gear was sitting in the cab.
Somebody had been doing donuts in the gravel lot and sprayed Eleanor, busting out two windows on her starboard side, but leaving all our belongings. We taped up the windows and passed out. We would deal with them in the morning.
My sleeping bag never felt so good.
7.4.09
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