FALLING!

D ,following in the very spot and same stance on Big Money 5.9 at Pebble Beach

The route was called Big Money. I was up under the roof ,about 45 feet up and way past my last cam. My arms were on fire from a long layback. You know, that deep burning in the muscles that are starving for enough Oxygen. I had already fallen off the route once and D caught me just fine, but man that last piece of gear looked like it was way below me and the fall would be twice that and more. I was breathing heavy and getting nervous, but I hung on to a big hold under the roof and managed to unclip a cam. I really did not want to take that fall. It just wasn't fitting in the crack anywhere. D and Tonya are below shouting encouragements. "Come on,stay with it!" Do I fight with it or waste more energy getting another cam from my harness? I shoved it in a horizontal on the right face. It looked solid enough, So I try to yell "Take" only my throat is so dry I sound like a frog. D pulls the rope tight ,the cam holds and I'm OK, and I can rest now. Whew!!! but those seconds when I'm hanging there wasted ,fighting gear and trying to keep my crap together in my head are way better than any amusement park ride.
several of us toproped the route and I discovered a great handjam right where I was in so much distress. why didn't I see that when I was leading? Oh well. I have the beta to get the send now, and I unlocked the route myself. If I get to climb this weekend I think Big Money might just be my destination.

Up There

I was watching something on TV and the leading character was sitting out on an eagle head gargoyle like thing on some skyscraper. It made me long for those high places. A ledge 200 feet above the deck, or a summit with a grand view, a mountain top, that would be sweet. Dwayne and I once sat on a boulder on top of a 2 pitch route for a long time. We stared at forest where no one goes and clifflines largely unexplored. We sat there untill we ran out of cigarettes, just talking and soaking up the Karma. the last time I went climbing, I sat on top of a route and just chilled awhile. There were too many people at that crag and I was hot and tired. You really miss things that were a large part of your life before. It only takes a visual to bring it all back.

old soldiers

When I was young I was digging around in some stuff somewhere in our house and found a patch. It was a bit tattered around the edges like it had been sewn on poorly and ripped off. It had an eagles head with its mouth open was all. I thought it looked cool so I asked my mom what it was. "That was your great uncle Pepper's" she told me and then she told me how when she was a girl, her and her sister stayed awake in the loft of thier log cabin and listened to her Uncle Pepper Martin tell stories to my Grandpa late one night after he came home from WW II. He was surrounded at Bastone by the Germans and lost most all of his buddies. The Germans demanded that they surrender and the CO sent back a message to German High Command that said only "nuts." Uncle Pepper drove the jeep that delivered that message.
When I was a teen I met my Great Uncle Pepper. My mom let me hand his patch back to him. I remeber his words exactly."I never thought I would see this again." It was quiet in the room for a minute.
It wasn't too many years later I saw the movie version of what happened at Bastone. It matched what I heard as a boy, pretty well.
I drove out to see my mom today. While we were talking on the back porch about relatives she asked me what happened to that screaming eagle patch from the 101st Airborne. Her memory is fading but I still remember lots of the things she told me when I was young.