What it is

Hi all (/anybody!)

This is the first post on my climbing blog. I figure if I'm going to do this amazing thing every weekend until I'm dead or senile, it'll be nice to have a history to remember it by. For others, i hope it will be fun to read or at least look at the pictures. I hope you will come to understand why I think climbing such a um, crucial thing to do.

I'm a few years late starting this, so here's a short bio:

1. I was living in new jersey or connecticut when a friend told me about indoor climbing. i had been bemoaning the old-lady blubber that had replaced the skinny-but-muscular arms which, when i was younger, had carried me happily up trees and across rings and about anyplace i had a mind to go. (what was i doing when this replacement happened? why hadn't i been consulted?) i think she told me because i was threatening to climb trees in public places in new jersey, for which i'm sure one could be arrested. there are only two trees in new jersey, after all. i couldn't find a partner and was too scared to go by myself, so nothing happened except that a seed was planted.
   
2. I moved to ohio where i had a friend with an interest in climbing. (yay for robyn!) i started top-roping in a gym in the winter 2003 with her. i still don't hate gyms. oh, except the kind that make you belay with grigris. insurance be damned, i. detest. grigris.
   
3. Learnt to lead sport in spring of 2005 in the gym only. right around then my good friend/partner got pregnant and bailed. plus i broke up with my climber-boyfriend. luckily i made friends with a cool girl named patti who was new in town and fresh from a bad relationship (too) and we began to climb together.
   
4. It took a while, but i convinced patti to learn to lead. she was instantly better than i was. i didn't mind.
   
5. Patti and i had our first outdoor experiences at the red river gorge in the fall of 2005. it made me realize what i had been missing -- cardio, primarily. the hike in with the 20-somethings was HORRIBLE! (walk! slower! please!) i had never spent time in the woods, and i found it challenging (WHAT do you want me to do with this used tampon? and where is the sink?) and also breathtakingly beautiful. sport crags are too crowded to really be called nature, but even muir valley is a shock for a city girl. and there was a sense of real adventure -- not just in the climbing, which was definitely adventurous, but in just being there, far away from the rules of the city and the ideas other people have about behavior. i saw kids who were homeless except for a tent at miguel's -- god love miguel, camp for $2 a night -- and they came from all around the world. there were kids who didn't bathe as much as one had to in town, who made families out of their climbing partners, who swam naked in cold water to clean up. for these kids, climbing was the only thing. the only activity. it was a deep learning phase. i asked myself lots of questions about need versus want during that period. i think i appreciate my furnace now more, but i respect people who don't need that sort of thing much much more.
   
6. That winter i lost patti to a good job in colorado. i was really sad (so was her new, fabulous boyfriend) but i am also really happy for her -- she loves it there. before she left i found, somehow, two great partners. they don't replace patti, but they are fantastic in their own ways.
   
7. Began to learn trad in spring 2006 with both partners. one had some experience to begin with, but she wasn't able to stick to it. the other, who i guess we'll call p since he's kind of private, is an addict -- thank goodness. so am i.