An Obsession That I Have!!

As many of you already know I have this little obsession with climbing. This post is to give you a little update on this obsession. Earlier this summer Jess and I had a few good friends Jeff and Sarah Norris leave to work in South Africa for a year. Before leaving Jeff and I were having a conversation about climbing and he challenged me to try to lead climb a 5.12 before he got back which will be around July 2009. At the time I thought that there was no way this would be possible. Even today as I am writing this post I still think that this is a long way off, but I am going to try. Since moving to Colorado the hardest routes that I have lead were 5.10c's (Blackman's Burden at Shelf Road and Mighty Thor at Garden of the Gods), and I didn't even lead them cleanly. On Thursday October 30th that all changed. I lead a route on the East face of Gray Rock called Beat Me Up Scotty 5.10d with no rests. It was a big milestone for my Colorado climbing career. This is a super fun route with a very distinct crux section between the 2nd and 3rd pitons. Even though this route isn't sustained 5.10d climbing it's huge that I made it to the top cleanly. Next up Diesel and Dust 5.11a just a few climbs down from this one. We shall see how it goes!! To be continued.......