Get After It

"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Sir Winston Churchill

This holds true for a variety of situations, especially climbing trips. We invest a lot of time and energy into the planning and training for a climbing trip and if I’ve learned anything from past October trips it is to be ready for the weather to throw a monkey wrench into your plans. Let me explain: almost every year I take a trip out to the Front Range of Colorado to climb and hang out with my friends that still live there. Last year, my main objective was a climb in Eldorado Canyon SP that was intimidating for me. I thought I would wait till the second half of the trip so that I would be acclimatized and settled in, which was stupid. The first half of the week was great, and then unseasonably cold weather came out of nowhere and ruined the second half of the week. I did not get to do the climb I wanted in Eldo. I was pissed at myself and swore I would never put off a climb I wanted to do for any self-defeating reasons, like ‘uhh, I’ll wait till I’m rested’ or ‘lets do it tomorrow, I’m a little tired’.

So that brings us to the present and another October trip to Colorado. Guess what, the forecast showed the weather for the first half of the trip to be great and the weather for the second half to be unseasonably cold. So, right off the plane we headed to Boulder Canyon to climb what the D’Antonio guide book claimed was the best 5.9 sport climb in the canyon, called Wrinkles in Time. It was great, albeit a little soft for a 5.9. The second day I headed back to Eldo to do a link up of ‘Emerald City’ to the second pitch of ‘Over the Hill’, a sustained 5.9 link up, one of the best climbs I have done so far. As forecasted the rest of the trip’s weather was less than optimal with mixed rain and sleet. Which wasn’t great, but I felt liked I had accomplished something and could relax for the rest of the trip. We did get out again, I took my girlfriend Lauren up her first Flat Iron climb. We climbed the Royal Arch in near winter conditions; the cold zapped my camera batteries, so I’m sad to say I didn’t get any pictures. We also went up to Jones Pass on our last day and skied above tree line in what ever tele-mark gear we could throw together.

So let’s review. The moral of this story is not to procrastinate because the weather doesn’t care about your plans. Get out there and get after it……NOW!!!

JW