Sometimes I feel like my family doesn't really understand why I climb outside every weekend. And it is hard to explain why I would want to spend so much time in the car and away from my comfortable home and friends, why i would want to have cuts and bruises and dirt in my fingernails.

It's hard to explain until you see it.

My brother visited the red to climb with me last weekend. it was fantastic to have a chance to really "explain." To show him what it's like to climb in nature. and here he is:

A friend named Tonya agreed to climb with us, and she had two friends with her. We went to a crag called Pebble Beach where I had never been before. Everybody but Dan and I seemed familiar with it. It was mostly a trad crag (with some fun-looking mixed and sport routes) and there was only one other party climbing there. We got to follow Scabies (sport), Big Money and Zambezi Plunge, and then I led Razorback, but not cleanly.



The next day my partner p and his girlfriend a came down. Dan had to go because there was ice in the mountains, so we three said goodbye and went to Fortress, where we climbed Calpyso II and then p climbed Bedtime for Bonzo.
It's gorgeous, as you can see. I'd like to climb it too, but we ran out of daylight.