Part 3
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Greetings!
Iāve been waiting to write this with the hope that I would either have sent something meaningful or roped a guest-writer in to write something interesting. It is the end of September, and neither of those things have happened! There are some more exciting things coming down the pipe (influencer voice: so stay tuned!), but this edition is more or less of a rambling catch-up: I went on a lovely climbing trip at the end of August with my girlfriend Hoai-Nam, and have since been engaged in full-time school for the first time since I was seventeen.
If youāre reading, I hope the change of season has been treating you well. Hereās a list of things that I have found delightful:
Iāve joined the swaths of retirees and bought a cruiser e-bike. I feel guilty when I think about how delighted I feel passing cyclists with little effort on a big hill.
Side note, Karma may have taken this into account: I ate it on my bike the other night. I flew, and thought I broke my wrist, but did not. I now pass the cyclists solemnly.
School has actually been (mostly) delightful. Iām in my third year of a Bachelorās of Social Work. The courses are very focused and the professorās seem to be mostly concerned with making you a badass social worker. That is exciting and inspiring!
My girlfriend and I got a Corgi over the summer. That has been delightful (again, mostly, I did have a panic attack at the crag when she didnāt stop barking once, *raises shoulders and cues inaccurate New York City accent* But hey, what are ya gonna do?)
My friends. Too corny for you? I donāt CARE!
Fred Againā¦ās Boiler Room session. The soundtrack to my life lately (I think āStrongā was playing when I fell off my bike).
Okay. Back to the spray.
As I said, I was putting off writing this in the hope that I would tie up one of the many loose strings of my life into a nice bow. ThatāIāve learnedāis not the phase that I am in! If anything, Iām just adding more strings. Fine by me.
One of those strings is Blackbeardās Tears, a mega, single pitch tucked away on the Redwood Coast, at a crag called The Promontory. My girlfriend and I drove down from Squamish and met up with my friends Carlo and Connor (you use: namedrop. Itās not very effective.)Ā I met these two in the spring and really enjoyed sharing a day of climbing with them. Blackbeardās was more of the same. I learned a lot about the craft from climbing with both of them, but mostly just enjoyed hearing the different perspectives of two very different people in very different stages of life and climbing. They were great company.
Ā
The setting of Blackbeardās is a big part of the lineās majesty. It overhangs the Pacific Ocean, and despite being nearly roadside, the vibe feels quite remote. Thereās no service, and you get the feeling that few people beyond the Arcata-faithfulāwho were very kindāspend much time at The Promontory.
I re-learned a valuable lesson on Blackbeardās about expectation and possession in climbing. Basically, I surprised myself and sorted out all the moves faster than I anticipated (it is more of an endurance route, so this actually doesnāt mean too much) and hastily switched into redpoint mode: shit got serious! When I found myself at the crux, far, far too pumped to even ponder executing the sequence, I was disappointed? In the matter of a week I had gone from thinking āitād be great to do all the movesā to pissed because I didnāt send the hardest Iād ever tried in a weekāridiculous! Iām quite excited to ponder these teachings for a year and return to The Promontory next summer.
After a week, Hoai-Nam and I headed to Donner Summit, which was also awesome! The short approaches accommodated her recovery from a concussion, and we got to catch up with a few friends (thanks, Lisa, Cory, Erik, and great to see you Emily!). I also find myself re-learning, again and again, that climbing performance is anything but linear. In the span of a week I had one of the best climbing days of my life and one of the worst. Iām certainly less susceptible to the brutality of that swinging pendulum than I used to be, but I still have a lot of identity wrapped up in climbing and climbing well. Hey, what are ya gonna do?
We drove across the state of Nevada listening to Neil Gaimanās American Gods and spent a night in Salt Lake City with my dear friends Danny and Ashley. Theyāre eccentric folk, and Iām always excited to hear what antics they have been up to since we last spoke. This time was no different: Danny is now a budding amateur mycologist and Ashley is volunteering for an organization that reintroduces Beaver into previously lost habitat (Iām probably explaining that quite poorly). Theyāve been putting up with me since I was nineteenāa whopping four years agoāand I love them. I caught a flight out of SLC the next morning to buckle down for school at the centre of the climbing universe: Kamloops, BC; SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YA GONNA DO? SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME.
It has been a strange month. Strange, but good. Some friends here have made the transition easier, but I do feel isolated from my larger community. Nothing Halloween in Indian Creek canāt solve!
Thanks for reading, and remember, you only get so many Octobers,
Nat