The beginning

Finally, it is all coming together. After months of dreaming about the van, loaded with all of the things I need to climb, surf, relax, and enjoy life on the road it is reality. Driving, driving, driving. For the first week it was all I did. First a little "out of the way" interview in Canmore, Alberta. hoping to have some sort of job security to come back to for winter in Canada. After a short and sweet dinner/interview in Canmore I make my way to Squamish over the next couple of days to pick up my right hand lady, Leah.

After greeting eachother like excited little girls we set out for one last Squamish climb before we got down to business and finished all of our last minute errands. We set out early the next morning for City of Rocks, Idaho. At the border we did our best to smile sweetly at the patrol officer. "How many of you are in there?" he asked while trying to peer into the back windows of the previa determined to discover a hideaway. We gave him our story and our purpose puzzled him, rock climbing is something not everyone understands, so he flagged us over to homeland security. After a brief visit with an officer we were sure of as the "new guy" and some funny questions we were released into the US. The next few days were a driving saga not much to report from the interstate.

When we finally arrived at the City of Rocks info center two days later we were greeted with a darkening sky, rain and promise of more on the way. Leah and I made an executive decision over sandwiches in the parking lot and decided to keep the momentum going and drive to Moab, Utah to escape the rain. The next day we arrived in Moab in one of the heaviest precip. storms I have ever seen in the desert. Yet another forced rest day. We used it to gather supplies for a three day trip to Indian Creek, land of splitter sandstone cracks. The beauty of this place never ceases to amaze me, the rain brings a breath of fresh air to the area and the green seems to jump out of the landscape. The sun came out for us on our first real climbing day (it finally happened) where we met a group from the American Alpine club at Supercrack buttress. They were more than accomodating and were hosting an event where international climbers came together for a week of hosted climbing in Indian Creek. This means, after we both lead a nice warm up, we have more top ropes than we need to feel the familiar Indian Creek exhaustion we have been seeking.

Over the next two days Leah and I made our way to the top of a tiny tower and did some single pitch cragging until our hands bled and our beer and ice supply dropped to a risky level. So here we are in Moab on another rest day. The sun is out and doing errands in town is difficult however our bodies tell us to rest as there are more days in the sun to come.