Climbing Again!

I often don't know how much I need to climb until I can't or don't for some reason. For the last two weeks I've been dealing with a sinus infection from hell, but antibiotics have cleared it out. On Thursday I got to finally go climbing after more than two weeks off--not only was climbing with JD, dD and Kennan fun but I felt like a wrap of gauze had been removed from my brain, the rest of life just lit up. I fell off things I can laps on when fit, but it was a great day out! Got home, timed a scotch between antibiotic doses and slept like a rock, just wasted from the "easy" day out.

On Saturday Andy, Kennan and I went into the Real Big Drip, a fantastic Ghost route I've always wanted to do but someohow never have. Just driving into the Ghost and hiking into the climb brought back all the reasons I love to go climbing, most of which actually have little to do with climbing. It's just getting outside with an objective and moving around in winter, hell yeah! I had to try hard on the Real Big Drip, just pumped silly from the get-go, my body still isn't firing on all cylinders, but I really wanted the on-sight and somehow pulled it out of dead forearms. The crux first pitch doesn't have as much ice as normal, so you're looking at a pretty good fall getting to and up the first 20 feet of detached weird ice, but at least it would be clean air! The second and third pitches are also fun, but we stopped after the third as I was worked and so was Andy so we bailed. The ice on the upper pitches looks more fun up close than it appears from far away, it is indeed a Real Big Drip.

Today Kim and I went classic skiing up at Shark, the sun was beating down like it starts to in March--you can truly feel the power of the sun returning this time of year, each day is longer and I can track the progress of the sun as it climbs higher and higher over the mountains in the Canmore valley each day. The snow at Shark was perfect, it's funny how the best snow conditins for skiing are in the spring, when we're all starting to get burned out on winter. dD made a comment on the way into Hafner the other day about how we "push the seasons," or try to do everything too early. We mixed climb in November before it's really fully ice season, then come March we're thinking rock in the height of the best snow and ice season... It's true, but today we grooved on the deep snow and sun while the Chili dog beast sprinted around like a mad coyote, I think dogs know it's going to get warm again soon and it quickens their spirits also. Today there was light in the sky until almost eight in the evening, meaning there is now way more daylight than dark, yeah!

So, even though it's still really winter for another day or something, happy spring!!