Exodus Ending

Our time wandering in the desert is coming to an end. Since Jan. 6, Cam and I have been chasing the sun in hopes of warmer weather. Our next destination marks a few changes. One, we are headed to cooler weather for the first time. Two, we are in search of longer climbs. With the exception of Cochise Stronghold, Cam and I have been focusing on harder, single pitch climbs (or boulder problems). It is now time to take all those gains in strength and technique and apply them to the big stone. Yosemite National Park, the birthplace of big wall climbing and the single most influential climbing area on the climbing culture of North America, if not the world. Needless to say, my psyche is at an all-time high. In many ways, the entire trip leading up to now has really only been training for what is to come.

Our final hoo-rahh in the desert was an amazing ascent of the North Face of Castleton. The North Face has to be the best climb I have ever done. The aesthetics, exposure, sustained difficulty, and location are beyond description. To top it off, we ran into an awesome couple on the summit. Mike, a fellow Mines alum, and his wife Jen completed the mega-classic and incredibly sand-bagged Kor-Ingles route on the south side of Castleton. Our two groups paired up for the raps in order to speed things up and decrease the cluster. Noob-0saur me, dropped his belay device on the final rappel of the descent. Mike and Jen graciously gifted me a belay device to use for the final rap as well as the remainder of our trip. Not only that, but they shared "victory beers" with us back in the parking lot. I am super thankful for their generosity and look forward to putting my new belay device to good use in the Valley.

Well, enough with all the text, you guys want and video. So here you have it. And Yosemite here we come.