June and July
Posted by markhwebster on July 31st, 2025 • 0 Comments • Full Article
I haven’t written in two months. This usually means I’ve been having lots of fun living life instead of writing about it. But life seems so short, and when I don’t write about it, did it really happen?
At the end of May my old buddy Cole and Taryn rolled in to Leavy and I drove over to meet them. I met Cole about 8 years ago up in Squamish. All of my partners had left (Marty, Chris, etc) so I had posted for partners on the Squamish climbers website. I was halfway to the border when Cole called me out of the blue. We climbed for 3 days and had a great time.
We’ve met every few years ever since in places like Vegas, Jtree, The Creek, Smith, etc. He and I climbed Midway Direct, Dog Leg and Classic. One evening I played guitar for the two of them on the deck of their Hotel room. There were very kind and cute, holding hands and clapping after every song. Cole also plays but didn’t that night. Taryn was very bubbly and a strong trad climber. Cole is a lucky guy.
I told them Paul’s Ice Cream truck joke one evening. They liked it.
Taryn: So let me ask you something
Me: uh oh here it comes
What do you mean?
Oh, I thought I was in trouble after telling that ice cream truck joke.
No, no, the opposite. Have you always been this funny? I mean, you’re a riot to hang out with. Have you always been that way?
Me: Wow, tough question. I guess I learned it from my family. There were 20 of us cousins and aunts uncles. Everyone was always joking around and laughing.
The kids used to decorate my unkle Ed’s bald head with lettuce.
Maybe we didn’t take ourselves seriously, I don’t know
For sure we all loved to laugh. I guess I learned at the feet of masters.
Did you grow up with a large family?
Taryn: No, not at all.
Me: Huh. We were always laughing. For Presbyterians we knew how to let our hair down.
We would have ping pong tournaments at Thanksgiving starting in junior high all they way up into my forties. My Unkle Ed was a master, but gradually as he got older and I grew into adult hood I started to be his equal at the table. The entire family of up to 25 aunts, parents, siblings, cousins and grandparents would gather around to watch and cheer. There was plenty of trash talking too, though as Presbyterians we called it something else.
City of Rocks over 50 meet up
I drove to meet old friends in Idaho around June 5th and met Joan in the morning. We did Bath Time for our first climb. The rap anchors were gone so we walked off down the back side where there are iron rungs. I’ve always belayed it in the past but Joan promised to throw me a line if I got nervous.
Mark and family were there and he led me up the nine to the right of Carols. It’s lovely and eats gear. The crux is far shorter than Carols.
I led Fred Rasmussen early on and discovered my Creek head game was lost. The weather was extremely hot. We would have welcomed a little rain as in previous years. Toward the end it did rain once.
I kept jonesing to get down to Lost World but that never happened. We did spend a day at King of Throne where I led a 9. We did the usual ascents on Elephant Rock. Tim had a stark moment at the rap station. He is so solid on his bare feet that he scampers all over without a rope. Suzy and I had done our usual belayed traverse along the top to the anchors. But when it was Tims turn he just waltzed over unroped. I was so used to his antics that I didn’t think anything of it as he stood there with his back to the abyss fiddling around his harness for his rappel device.
Suzy and I were both anchored. I was probably anchored twice with my daisy and a sling. But not Tim. And he wasn’t going to lose his balance, the Wacos are huge up there. But that drop was right behind him. It’s not exactly flat. Not a hanging belay, but it’s on a doming over cliff edge.
But Suzy hasn’t been around Tim as much as I have. She reached out, bless her heart, and gently grabbed Tim by his sleeve. As soon as I saw that, I also reached out and grabbed a gear loop. No way was he dying on our watch. The next party inline for the rap saw what we’d done and nodded approval. Tim immediately claimed that he was perfectly safe, but he daisy’d in after that. Call us paranoid, and you’d be right. But no one died that day.
Memorable routes were Windance with Tim and Suzy. Also the epic on Theater of Shadows after Synocranium. Everyone else thought it was too hot, but it turned out to be warm with a nice breeze. My partner there was Mari from Squamish. Our two teams of Tim and his son Zack, plus me and Mari cruised through the 6 pitches with ease.
Back at the base it was heating up and Mari wisely decided to descend while Tim, Zack and I walked over to Theater of Shadows. When we arrived the heat was kicking in and we three took a short nap in the shade at the bottom of the route. We liked the idea of doing both routes in one day, but climbing in the heat is daunting. Finally Tim mustered up some energy and started up. At bolt number 6 he slipped and took what should have been a very safe 5 foot fall.
We were surprised to see him immediately grab his hand in pain.
“Fuck, Fuck!!!”
“You OK up there?”
“No, I’m not. Fuck, God Dammit!”
“What’s going on, did you get a road burn?”
“Fuck, you’d better lower me, I’m done.”
“Here, I’ve got to keep pressure on it, but I’ll show you guys just once.”
“Oh shit, that is bad!”
“Yeah, I’ve got to get to the car fast.”
Zack put me on belay and I quickly climbed up to leave a couple bail biners. Back on the ground I told them to hike down while I took care of the rope.
He’d hooked it on a sharp edge and ripped open a huge flapper…the kind that needs a hospital visit with what turned out to be 21 stitches.
I played guitar for the music lovers a couple of times. It was fun to see my friends both old and new gather around to hear my campfire music. And Zack is a master banjo player. Who knew that Blackbird could be played with guitar and banjo? The sound was indescribable.
Down at the BLM campground I got attacked by a large dog. I was walking to the restroom when it ran out and started making bluff charges. Nothing I did would calm it down. The owners were sitting calmly at their picnic table looking startled. They were nice looking climbers who should have known better.
When I picked up a rock the woman stood up. The dog kept attacking, snapping at my legs. I threw an intentional near miss, hoping to scare it off.
Immediately the owner was offended, like I’d threatened her small child:
“Don’t throw a rock at my dog!!”
“Call him off!” She did nothing.
Finally I picked up a larger rock, and this time I was truly angry.
“You want to fight? Come and get it” I was ready at that point to stop the problem. Finally the guy stood up and walked over, still making no move to grab his dog.
“Control your animal!!” I backed off, holding the large stone at the ready. I had no desire to hurt their disgusting pet, but if it came to a fight, I was ready.
When I got back to camp I was in a state. I told my mates how the woman made me feel like I was in the wrong, when it was clearly the dogs problem. They all agreed I was in the right. I normally get along great with dogs, it was frustrating to meet a bad one.
Zack led the 5.11 Interceptor route. Neither Meg nor I could get it clean on follow. Zack did great with just one hang. We also did a fun 5.8 in Hostess Gully at Castle, and some new moderates at Raticella rock.
My favorite climb was a route coming out of a cave at Boxtop. Joan struggled with it as I think she was having an off day. I got on it and found a bunch of stem moves on the back of cave. It’s a bit like a crevasse in a glacier, but it’s granite with a finger crack on one wall. She was mostly finger jamming it in a more pure fashion. But when I led it I said screw that and proceeded to stem the back wall for half the climb.
Later I drove home early to hang out with Sue then drove back with Craig and Andrew Berger to fletches reunion. Led pitch one of bale Kramer. We had a fair representation of the old gym crowd. Whiskey was involved.
Sue and I have been riding point for exercise. Often I will Bring my rollerblades and cruise Ruston afterward. I had to rebuild my handle bars on 1971 Sekai after brake cable housing broke. Those brake levers were original and sloppy with age. I picked up some used brake all metal levers that were much more modern with the shrouded cable exit. While I was in there I also got a newer (used) bar end shifter, plus related cables.
Moving onto Sue’s old mountain bike, her V brakes have been bad for years. We went and looked at new “comfort” mountain bikes and they range from $700 to $1200. We were tempted but Craig pointed out that her current bike fits her well, it would be much simpler and cheaper to fix the brakes. On taking them apart I found her brakes were made with some cheap plastic tension adjuster bearings. I bought new cabling for front and rear, plus new all metal V brakes at $20 each. After I installed all of that the bike stops on a dime with two fingers. There is no need for the new hydraulic disc braking system of the thousand dollar bikes.
Sue went climbing!
Sue and I decided to explore a new crag at exit 34 called Solar Storm. As with most new crags, we wasted 2 hours hiking the up the wrong trail. I mean, it was good exercise, but the delay meant we ended up baking in the heat later.
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/126379572/solar-storm-direct
She cruised up the slab like the old uninjured Sue from days past. It was so great to see her come cruising up to the belay on pitch 2 and 3. She had zero problems climbing the thin slab. After all her talk about how she was done with climbing, then to see her climbing like the Sue I married was awesome. I’d thought I’d lost her as a climbing partner.
I skated today 3 laps at Ruston then climbed with Cris John at gym. Jamie’s asthma was acting up so she called Sue to watch Rose and Abby while she went to Urgent care.
Rose gave me a couple hugs and even sat on my lap while Clint worked on his bee hives. She seems to go in and out of liking me. She is an amazing little human being but I am completely lost on this whole grandpa business. That shit doesn’t come with an instruction manual.
I climbed and skated strong. Still can’t lead a 10 on the prow, but the 2 ten minuses are nice.
Sat July 12, 2025
** and I went up to Solar Storm and did all seven pitches. The 5.8 pitch
https://www.mountainproject.com/route/126361978/velvet-elvis
was really lovely. You clip a bolt and then have to hold onto a horizontal dyke while placing a high cam. The rock is just sticky enough to allow the move. I had to do a mantle while reaching into the finger crack for a layback to finish the mantle. After that there are a couple blind placements followed by another layback to another mantle. It’s a bit like Lovers Leap movement.
I felt nervous but safe and confident that I was making the right moves. I don’t want to say I’m warmed up because that might hex me. But jeez, I was climbing very strong all day.
** and I are a well oiled team. We watched a couple of relative beginners move very slowly up and down the wall while we were cruising everything. It’s fun to be experienced.
Just returned from 4 days at Squamish with zz and **. We flew up Skywalker and Klahanie. The crux open book was a tiny bit scary but then I remembered the move and was rock solid. I also led Octopus Garden cleanly. Those green and red jams felt much more secure than normal. I wonder if it’s because of my new dumbbell workouts? I also led both of the offwidths but had to hang on the top crux of the right one. On both of them, the secret is to put a foot really, really high and lever up onto the foot.
Also of note is the Cold Comfort crag. It’s still cool and shady at 1 PM. I needed a wind shirt while people in the parking lot below were baking. The far left nine needs up to 6 blues and a small wired to be safe.
** and I got into one of our rare but classic arguments the last night. What would pass for just a thoughtless observation turns into a “You are the cause of 80 years of oppression against my people!” lecture complete with “I will never climb with you again!” She arranged a ride home for me with zz, due to hating my guts so much, but later changed her mind and was all sunshine and unicorns.
To be fair, people from other races and cultures, especially brown people, experience a tremendous amount of hardship in Amerika. And that leads to generational trauma, which makes for angry and bitter people. But I wasn’t the one who enslaved or discriminated against her family, and she knows that. But I got blamed. James is looking real good about now.
Sue has been whining that I never go hiking with her anymore so yesterday we drove up after dark to the horse camp to get a dawn gate entry at the mountain. I was at my painting spot by ten thirty. This led to painting the mountain with noon light. It’s still pretty but looks totally different. Then the clouds moved in and I was left with large patches of shade. I’m surprised I got anything remotely good.
But, all the hikers liked it. I take breaks from the work and try to sit far away from the easel so I can’t see the train wreck. As I was resting a mountaineer came walking up the trail. Several people had gathered around the painting taking photos and wondering who was the artist.
“Ok, who is responsible for this magnificent painting?”
I shook my head along with the dozen or so other people at the lookout.
“Really? No one here is the artist?”
Some of them knew each other so they knew who it wasn’t. I stood out a bit due to my white hair and neck handkerchief. A couple looked at me and pointed.
“So it’s you?”
“Maybe?”
“Well, it’s very beautiful! The colors are just perfect.” I heard that a lot. Now I have to decide whether to finish it with noon light or afternoon light. The shadows are in completely different places. I have so many afternoon paintings it might be worth experimenting with noon light.
