I could've sworn this was going to be a climbing blog...
Way back when, it was all we wanted to do. Now it feels like, when we write, it's about bullshit, injuries, or not climbing in world-class destinations. We still live on the road (mostly) and we still climb, it's just different now. I'd say we're transitioning into a more mature relationship with climbing.
For one, the injury thing is a big thing. I don't mind a fun run up an easy route, but I have trouble staying motivated if I'm not feeling continuous improvements in strength or technique. To paraphrase Wolfgang Gullich, the trouble with getting strong is that it's easy. Getting strong and staying healthy is, as they say in Spain, the dura dura. What this means is, our shoulders are niggling, so I'm taking it back to the basics and doing a round of the Workout From Hell . Vikki's doing PT, and she wrote a great series of blog posts for Touchstone's blog detailing her shoulder-journey, soon to be published. We feel much better, although it sucks to think that we'll always be "injured."
For two, the month of March was total madness. Las Vegas > Bay > Eugene > Portland > Bay > Santa Barbara > Las Vegas > Salt Lake City > Ketchum, ID > Bay > Santa Barbara. All by car (thanks, mom, for letting us borrow the Prius, saving tons of monies! Incidentally, I can't wait to drive the F-250 right up to the Keystone XL Pipeline and use the proboscis to suck up some of that sweet, sweet crude).
Still, we've managed to climb a few things hither and thither. When the weather was good in Vegas, I went out bouldering a couple of times. On the way from Portland to the Bay, we spent a night with our close friends Evan and Jess ( Evan, of brown-pant-near-miss fame ) and got in a route at Smith Rocks, topping out Zebra Zion in the dark as a full moon rose above the Marsupials. The sky stayed blue for a few days in Santa Barbara, affording us a trip to the Brickyard.
At this moment, we've just gotten to our home for the next three months near Santa Barbara. I'll soon be out of the grim conditioning phase of the Workout From Hell, Vikki oughta be getting better too, and projects await in the coastal mountains of central California. And when summer rolls around, we have three months in Yosemite Valley to scrape ourselves and our shiny new #4 Camalot to the extent that we will look like climbers once again.
