The CragBaby

Prior to traveling through Ireland in 2006 I posted up on the Irish climbing forums in search of climbing partners, hoping to hit up a couple of the crags on my visit. Dave (who I reference as H.I.P. #2) was living in Wales but had seen the post and inquired why none of his friends had yet to respond. A couple of them then reached out to me and we arranged a way to meet up and climb in the Burren over one weekend, that just happened to be a weekend when Dave was visiting from Wales.

The H.I.P. nickname came about because as we were climbing in the Burren the weather included the usual drizzle and cloudy skies. The rain would have definitely stopped me from climbing back home in Utah, but the whole Irish crew was somehow super psyched on the wet holds. That evening the rain and wind really picked up and I quickly hopped into my down sleeping bag as the Irish team happily sipped tea in the torrential weather.  Whew… so much more hardcore than I. So from there on out I started to call them the Hardcore Irish People (or H.I.P.’s for short).

My friends Neal (H.I.P. #1… the number difference being solely because I am able to chat with Neal more regularly) and Dave (H.I.P. #2) continue to impress me. I joined H.I.P. #1 in Thailand where he just kept on sending project after project, redpointing his first 8a and continuing to be super psyched the whole time. Then this week on H.I.P. #2’s blog he posts up this entry on his first E7 (8a) . What the hell is he even holding onto on this climb?! And how in the hell is he placing gear?! You really must check out the whole post .

I seriously have no idea how he is staying on the wall with that foot and hand hold.  And I love this line, "Ignore the crap ropework… was more concerned with staying on!"

The first mono in a sequence of mono pockets. Whew… hardcore Irish people! If I read his post correctly, I believe he hit the redpoint on this climb. Congrats, my friend!

The other day I came home from work to see a postal package sitting on my doorstep. I couldn’t remember ordering anything online so assumed it must be for Shaft. I picked it up and saw the name of a long time friend written in my hand writing, yet hadn’t been in touch with this friend for many years for the sole reason of simply losing touch due to geographical location changes. I took a closer look at the package and noticed that the postal stamp said August 3, 2005!!!! I continued to examine the box and saw that it was sent from my old apartment, where I had lived the past three years, and that the return address was correct. Yet somehow it had just never quite made its way home until now.

That evening I called my dear friend and chatted with him. We laughed at the postal package and figured it truly had been approximately three years since we had last spoken. We quickly exchanged our past couple year life summaries and made plans to catch up for dinner for the full update after I returned from my Squamish vacation. On the way home from Squamish we exchanged some texts confirming our dinner appointment in a week’s time. And when the night of the dinner rolled around I thought I should confirm again and sent two text messages, only to not hear back from him this time. His lack of response was a little out of the ordinary as he usually was quick to respond, but I figured his plans must have changed and that we needed to reschedule.

The next day one of his siblings surprisingly called me at work to inform me that my friend had been missing for the past week and that the family had shown up to our dinner meeting place in hopes that he would appear, to only be sorely disappointed.

Over three weeks have now passed since my friend’s disappearance. The family has filled out the missing persons report, pulled his financial and cell phone records and yet have been unable to discover any trace of him. I have called him daily since I was informed of the news only to repeatedly hear the message that his voice mail box is full.

Dear friend, if you happen to see this, I sure do wish you would come home. Your postal package continues to patiently await.

Last year I received the best postal package from my friend H.I.P #1 that included his own personal boomerang that had accompanied him in his travels. The Boom then accompanied me through my climbing adventures (for instance in Joes Valley ) and was of course included in my recent trip to Squamish. Here she is smiling across the Canadian border. This pic is for you H.I.P. #1.

I recently had the chance to fly out to New York for the weekend. It was my first time to go to New York in the spring and it was substantially more enjoyable than my dead of winter and middle of summer trips. In fact, I actually loved New York and for the first time in my life thought I might enjoy living there.

I crashed up in Brooklyn at my friend Josh’s house. It was extremely kind of him to offer up his place, which was perfectly located for easy access into the city. This picture was taken when we were enjoying an excellent brunch at Miriams.

My Seattle-based friend Warren suggested I catch up with his friend and avid NYC tour guide, JP. JP was seriously hilarious and gladly showed me around the most interesting sites of Union Square: the man selling the carrot slicer, the sock shop with a very diverse sock offering, the gym where JP enjoyed running on the sidewalk racing the folks on the treadmills, a comfortable couch outside of a furniture shop, but mostly the fantastic Japanese restaurant with a cotton candy machine. Good times!

I was able to meet up with my good friend Robb for drinks at Floyds, catching up on life while watching endless games of Bacci ball. He then joined me on Saturday for my walk across the Brooklyn bridge and strolling through Soho.

The busy, busy street in Soho.

After meeting up with my business friend Sam, I caught up with Justin for a quick drink

Later on Saturday night I hung out with a bunch of friends from SXSW including Alex and his wife, Orian, Charlie and his girl Meredith, and a couple of Charlie’s other friends I didn’t get the time to really get to know. A handful of us then headed to Yuri’s for a party, but I am not used to the late night lifestyle of New York and so didn’t stay very long. The next day I gathered all my stuff together and flew home in the early afternoon.

Wow, who would have known?! I love NYC!