archive: july, 2006 - a day off climbing

July at the Red is quite hot. For some reason my partners and I chose a weekend in that month to camp there and try for a long climbing weekend. We sweated our way through Friday and Saturday -- I even got a trad lesson in -- but by Sunday we were cooked like strips of bacon. So we made like tourists and took the trails. We went to buttresses with astonishing views that one doesn't have to climb to.

See what the tourists get? I believe this place is called Half Moon. The photo is me, Eric & Doug.
This, I think, is Chimney Top, where (if I'm remembering right) tourists get killed by jumping the fence to a lower, slightly freestanding buttress without a rope, and then failing to jump back up. I felt quite sane in the confines of the fence. This is Doug, Kerry & dear Riley Dog. You can tell it was hot just by the length of Riley's tongue. We love Riley Dog.

That is me inside the Sky Bridge. Kerry & I took a nice scramble down and around the base of it while Doug rested the dog.