A much needed break for climbing

So for my first trip out this summer I had quite an adventure! The weather wasn't so cooperative but its the reason for the adventure so I won't complain...actually it was an amazing time with really good friends!

The first day was the MOST ;) We headed out to roadside crag to do some trad. Aaron wanted to get on Andromada Strain a 5.9++ trad route that is one of the Red River Gorge classic routes. The weather started out perfect. So we took a look at the route, Aaron decided he didn't have enough pieces to do the route but he was confident he could make it so he headed up the route inching his cam up for 35 feet before he could place it securely, it was a tad intense :)
Aaron working his way up this crack, you can see his hands are taking a beating... Needless to say, he got the onsight, first try, a very awesome achievement. Next up was Kadile... and then the thunder started...thats ok, I still have a turn to go :) So Kadile finishes very excellently and its my turn and now the rain. So I climb it as quickly as possible, meanwhile Aaron is getting a little wet from the rain that has come...minutes later the storm is directly on top of us and we need to get moving so I come within a few feet of the top and have to come down. I am lowered in a full on waterfall created by the storm and Aaron quickly rappels down after me. We all get under this cave by some boulders to wait out the storm...completely drenched! Then we see that in his hurry to get down, Aaron forgot one of his cams. He is determined to retrieve it and heads back out into the rain to get it. He can't even bring his glasses because it was raining so hard he couldn't see out of them! So he headed back up to get his cam and then climbed down just in time for the storm to pass. It probably only lasted 30 minutes from start to end but it was a crazy 30 minutes :) After all that, his hands took a real beating, the life of a crack climber :) Its hard work climbing with all this gear. The rest of the day turned out nice and we headed out to the Great Wall in Muir Valley. Here is Kadile working hard for his 10.c onsight Good friends and climbing, dream life ;)


Sunday was rainy so we didn't climb that much but Mon was perfect so I got out on Super Dario at Eastern Sky Bridge an 11a that wore me out! And Aaron worked on a 5.12a crack that was insane. We tested out some gear and he took a 25 ft fall on a piece and almost landed on me....good times :) Everyone is safe and we can't wait to do it again.

Peace.