How do you tie that knot?

Tonight I went climbing with Matt. It has been a very long time since we roped up together. I would dare say it has been a month. We have been bouldering a few times, but it isn't the same. The weather has been beautiful, it's been rolling in the 70's all week. We decided today would be a good day to go hit up Bongeater. Bongeater is at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is a 10d dihedral. When I say we climbed it, I mean we flailed up it. Okay, so it wasn't quite flailing, but we definitely got worked. Since neither of us is even remotely close to being a 10d trad leader we threw up a TR on it. It starts out as a flaring crack that you pretty much jam in a foot and scramble your way up about 15 feet to a couple of blocks wedged in the crack where you can almost get a decent jam. Then you have to go over these block for about another 15 feet or so before the crack narrows into beautiful hand jams. After about 20 feet of hand width, the crack widens to ridiculous off-width which you just lieback. It is a cool climb and I definitely clawed, jammed, grunted, sweated, and even bled a little to get up. It was painful but as soon as you get back to the ground you think "hey, it wasn't that bad, perhaps I'll give it another go."

It felt good to rope up. It had definitely been too long. Even in that short time I became a little rusty and the rock felt a little foreign. What is it going to be like after a winter of no climbing? I don't know. It was a good time and it felt good to be back up at the rocks.

Winter is coming soon. I can't wait. Pretty soon the snow will begin to fall and daydreams will turn long trail runs to dawn tours and endless powder days. This winter will be fairly crazy. Jess is due at the start of December (beginning of ski season). I know I won't be able to ski as much as I used to, but I don't really care. It is going to be extremely exciting to have a baby!

I am not into resort skiing right now. Most of my ski days will be dawn patrols before work. I figure this should work out well since we will probably be up with the baby. Once the baby goes to sleep, instead of going back to bed, I'll just boot up and hit the skin track. I do look forward to the days I will get to ride with Jess. She is by far my favorite person to ski with. Since we don't have backcountry gear for her we will be heading to the resorts (probably mostly Beaver Mountain). On the days we can't get a sitter for the baby we will go snowshoeing with the baby. It is going to be a good winter.