While climbing at Broughton Bluff one day with a friend . . .
Gary R. says to me after attempting a new route that he was projecting:
"I would have on-sighted that if I hadn't fallen off!"
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We were at the crag climbing our favorite power routes, and during a brief rest session, we stopped to watch two guys climbing another route nearby.
The lead climber says down to his partner, "gonna fall, take", and the belayer is so fast on the yank that he enthusiastically and quite literally rips the lead climber right from the wall.
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On a boulder somewhere in Oregon:
My friend Tymun (who is shirtless that hot July summer day) pulls onto the vertical rock face from a sit-start with every single tendon of his back muscles flexing. I turn to everyone and say:
"There folks, you have the ultimate definition of definition."
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Yosemite Valley bummer moment:
I had turned down an opportunity to assist Ron Kauk when he asks if I can belay him on a project up in Tuolomne . . . because I'd promised my wife we would go hiking that day.
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Smith Rock, Oregon
Several pitches into a rock climb route I'm "resting" at an undercling plate and looking up at the crux just ahead. It's going to need a much larger cam than any on my sling. This contemplation is cut short when the plate suddenly ceases contact with the wall and I'm arcing backwards on a 20 foot fall. The fall takes enough time that I can throw the hold off to the side - away from my belayer. I decide that was enough for the day, and we bail.
