Obliterating the Safety Net

Ok, you guys will like this one. I certainly did! It has been exactly one week since I sent out the last update, and I feel like I need another week just to detail how much fun I’ve been having and how much I’ve learned about people, life and business!

I’m tempted to start in the middle with me looking out of my 19th story room in the Marriot in downtown San Francisco, but let’s just start in the woods where we left off then graduate to the city.

July 7, 2003 – Monday

After finish up some really good pecan pie and earl grey tea at the Tioga Pass Resort and letting a nice but unprepared guy from Australia borrow my sleeping pad, I strolled to the back towards my friend Abbie’s trailer where I’ve been staying. I had butterflies in my tummy. It wasn’t because of the pie and it wasn’t because me and Abbie are “play pals” (we’re not). It was because I was kinda scared and really excited about our plans for the morning. Seeing the mountains around me bathed in the half moon light, and the sky packed with a multitude of stars, breathing the pure cold mountain air, all served to make me feel so grateful for the gift of life. Knowing that in the morning I may well be tempting that gift definitely made me take special notice of this beautiful night.

I made sure to savor my breakfast of sweet granola and milk and good coffee. We got our little group together. Each of us had filled our chalk bags and camel backs, packed a snack and our climbing shoes. See, today we were leaving the ropes at home. No ropes, no rock climbing gear, no back up plan. Nothing but our skill developed over years of practice and our ability to keep fear from taking over while we move precisely up over a thousand feet of beautiful granite.

The climb is called Cathedral Spire. It is a beautiful white face that dominates the skyline once you hike the uphill hour to get to it. The air up there is pretty thin. I’m guessing the base of the climb is around nine thousand feet, with another vertical thousand to the summit. We got to the base and stretched and joked around a bit. There were a couple of parties hiking up below us with huge packs full of ropes and gear so they could do the rout too. That was our sign to get climbing. Climbing shoes on, chalk bag open, smiles on our faces we made the first moves up onto the face of the rock.

The climbing was relatively straight forward and we covered ground quickly. Occasionally we stopped on a ledge to drink some water, laugh at a joke, take some pictures, and just enjoy the trees and other climbers getting smaller and smaller. There were a couple of sections that required some thought and planning. Mistakes are not an option when your feet are smeared on a little nubbin and your hands are searching for some small anything to keep you on the rock with nothing but 800 feet of air between your legs. This my friends is living. All the other nitpicky things that dominate our daily lives don’t exist when your mind is filled with nothing but the move above you and the consequences of a mistake. Experiences like this really put life in perspective.

After this climb I hugged my friends good bye and hiked next to an impossibly clear river back to my bike. Somehow the river wasn’t quite so beautiful on the way up. Somehow I didn’t realize how gray the granite was until I compared it to the gleaming white of the occasional snow piles. Somehow the smell of the pines escaped my notice before this climb. Why do people do drugs to amplify their senses? Just go solo a big ass rock and live through it, ride that perfect wave, hit that set of turns just right with your back tire stepping out just enough on the exit, or whatever it is that takes you outside of your comfort zone. It’s so easy to live life complacently, but that’s not living. Get the fuck off the couch and do something! Life’s to short and precious to accept mediocrity!

PS. All you Salt Lake pals, I’ll be home in a day or two. How about a big get together?