A Quick Sunday Night Post Announcing the Arrival of a New Team Member

Hi, Voyeurs. I'm going to have to make this pretty quick, because I'm pretty tired after another great day of climbing here in Kentucky. Brian flew in on Saturday, and after a quick errand run in Lexington, I grabbed him from the airport and we headed down to the crags.

As you can imagine, he hopped off the plane and was really excited to get out and climb. We headed to Left Flank, a wall that is quickly off the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway and has a short approach. I got on basically the best 12b in the world, a long, stunningly pretty route called Mercy, The Huff. Brian worked on a 12d called Stunning the Hog, and stunningly didn't do it. I'm blaming the fact that it was late in the afternoon, he'd been on a plane all day, and he was trying to finish the route in the dark. He's still pissed about it, though, so I bet we'll be back there.

Today, he and I climbed down at the Solar Collector/Dark Side, two crags that couldn't be more different in terms of sun/shade aspect. I'll let you make the distinction. I'm still working to get miles on easier routes, but am getting a little frustrated that 12a here is still feeling down right hard. Oh well, I'll have to be patient.

Mike left this morning, which was a bit of a drag. It's always easier to climb with two people instead of three, so from that standpoint things are perhaps a bit more convenient for Brian and me, but I will admit that I enjoyed Mike's company. He was a fresh perspective, and I'm hoping we'll cross paths again soon. Blaming him for departing would be far from fair, though. He's climbed here, he said, 21 of the previous 28 days, and has some people he needs to get back to in DC. Family and a lady-friend are powerful magnets.

I'm off to Midnight Surf tomorrow for some more climbing. The forecast continues to look great, and I'm hoping that those weathermen are spot on. I'm planning a big rest day on Tuesday, and I'll try to get a better post then.

The one other thing of note is that I'm growing what can unarguably be considered the worst beard in the world. I like the idea of not shaving for a couple of weeks just to see what things would look like. After about 14 days, I'll honestly report that they are, in fact, bad. Whatever, though. I don't have to see clients, I'm not trying to impress any girls out here, and I like the fact that any time I look in a mirror, I laugh. (You guys probably thought that was already the case.)

Ok, I'm going to bed. Hope you all had a nice weekend.