Back at The Highlander

Oy.
Back here at The Highlander cabin, backdrop to last year's RRG adventure, and psyched at the comfort. This place is a bit nicer than the cabin where we'd spent each evening of the last week. In the end, the cabin doesn't make or break the trip, but having slightly nicer accommodations makes a subtle difference. For now, it's just Brian (arrived yesterday), Josh, and his brother Seth. Nick and Robin should come down tomorrow after they took a day or so off and headed back to Ohio. That will tighten up the personal diffusion of space, but they add a sense of humor and smart conversation that is great.

These last couple of days have been unparalleled. The weather had taken a bit of a dive at the end of last week, but the weekend was cold, sunny and crisp...perfect for trusting the friction, believing in the eternal lightness of a sport wanker's soul, and really going for it. As an aside, I hear my buddy Andrew did his long standing project Living in Fear out in Rifle. Congrats! I'm assuming he had good fall temps out there in western CO, as well. It does feel so damn good to send...

With the posse here in KY, we've been like locusts on the prowl. We went out to The Sanctuary today, and all spread out to see the highest regarded climbs. Brian nearly onsighted Prometheus Unbound, doing it second try. I had two really quality burns on Jesus Wept, one hanging from the second draw on that second go. Josh and Seth both worked on the powerful and bouldery Triple Sec. The excitement that was in the air was really contagious. It was so easy to look out at the leaves falling off the trees, backlit by a fading sun, and think about how wonderful an experience it was. I'm so damn lucky. I get to do what I really like to do, a lot. I've got a big group of supportive people, have been blessed with youth and health and passion. As my buddy Rob has said, "we're gonna be shoveling a lot of shit in the next lifetime to make up for this one."

Yesterday was just as good. The Finkelstein's and I headed out to Funk Rock to get on two classic routes. Appalachian Spring is a beautiful hanging face up streaked, sculpted sandstone painted orange and black. Orange Juice, the other climb, follows a perfect line of pockets up an otherwise blank panel on a tall, proud wall. While we were working, along with several others, on these two climbs, we ran into our friends from from Maine; Pete and Jen. I've been absolutely loving hanging out with those two. I am startled at the depth of Pete's accent, and the speed at which it can send me into convulsive laughter.

Seth had been on Orange Juice previously on his climbing trip, and had the moves locked into an ironclad beta sequence. He encouraged me to try to flash it, and I figured I'd give it a shot. When I got to each crux section, he'd tell me how he'd done it and then belayed me as I climbed through each set of pockets and into the next rest. He had it on absolute lock down, and the vibe at the cliff was totally positive...Josh and Pete were hooting it up, Jen and another one of her friends were kicking back in the sun, and I had the moment of pure mental flow state. I didn't think about anything except the moves directly in front of me, and without much stress or hubbub, I was clipping the chains. That, Voyeurs, is exactly why I'm on this trip, and is exactly the reason I do this.

Abafuckinluba.