A chance to climb with my son, Chris and his family: Andra,
Catriona and Gavin. At one point we had
3 generations climbing together. There
is something about climbing that makes the bond stronger. We had fun climbing one day and hiking with Cat
on another day. Good stuff.
Devils Tower is unrelenting and hard for the grade.
We want to get high too, but on chemicals produced by our
bodies. Adrenaline, endorphine (climbing drugs) and oxytocin (the snuggle drug). Nothing like a 14 hr day in the mountains
followed by 2 evenings of snuggling. Or
maybe 5 evenings of snuggling. Toke it
up!
All this is to say we went back to Notchtop. Spent two nights at the Ritz and got back on
the climb. Brenda was sick again, but
was determined to persevere. And she
did, sick as a dog, growling and cussing her way up it for 14 hrs, including
the gully approach, climb, rappel and gully descent in the dark. Gully thrashes are not trivial here, about 1 –
2 hours each way.
The climbing was spectacular. A couple of roofs and lots of air around you
as you get higher.
Throw in a bit of traversing and you can get a Rocky
Mountain High. Wow man! Can you dig it?
At 1:30 we were over ½ way up and I said “We’ve got this”. Arrogance.
May the mountains slap me goofy if I ever say that again. 6 hrs later we agreed this was a serious
route. We got back to the ground just as
it got dark. That just left the gully
descent. Then the bivy. Ah, the bivy.
It seems that Brenda’s illness was carbon dioxide poisoning
from burrowing too deep into her bivy sack because she was cold. That girl needs a new sleeping bag.
The next morning we hiked out. She waltzes down the trail with a big pack and
a smile on her face while I struggle to put one foot in front of the
other. The next day she hiked 11 miles
at 13,000 ft with Andrea and Brad. Check
that girl’s DNA. I think there’s some
mountain goat in there somewhere.
Now we’re on the way to Moab. Hopefully, we won’t get profiled at the Utah
border. After all, we are coming from
Colorado driving a Subaru…
And I always thought Devils Tower was made of mashed potatoes. Apparently not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates and happy climbing! BillyS