Dormant

The blog's been a little dormant, not entirely unlike myself this winter. Haven't touched a bike for a few months, haven't had an itch to, and considering doing a little experiment and showing up 3 months cold turkey at the True Grit 50 down in St. George at the end of the month, just to see how it would go coming off a break like that.

A few years ago Annie and I were at the Teva Games in Vail, and in between our own events, spent some time watching the World Cup bouldering competition that was going on with the games. It spurred a discussion between the two of us that left us seriously considering the following question - "were those the most impressive athlete's we'd ever seen?" We'd been out of the climbing scene since having kids - making a ride into the sunset - last hurrah type of trip out to Joshua Tree with some friends early in Annie's pregnancy with our oldest, and then a weekend trip up to City of Rocks not long after she was born. Got caught mid wall in the worst downpour I've ever experienced on that trip, thought I was going to become the first ever drowning victim on a vertical rock face. Hadn't been back for more than a one off trip to the climbing gym once a year or less for the last 7, almost 8 years. Don't know that we reached a conclusion to that question on the drive home from Vail that weekend, but knowing the question was raised gives you an idea of the impression those climbers made on us - between the puzzle solving in their brains and the subtle finesse mixed sheer strength we witnessed, we came away amazed. And the seed was replanted with that little bit of inspiration.

So, when I started feeling like I needed to mix it up a little last summer, and the kids expressed interest at one of the aforementioned one off days at the climbing gym, I started thinking it might be time to revisit an old flame. So, this winter, the two staples in my car have been my climbing shoes and my yoga mat. I've been spending a few hours a week on the bouldering routes of the local climbing gym, and falling back in love with the sport. And I think we've got the kids hooked too. And so, in an effort to be a good dad and accomodate the kids interest, the natural next step was to use that loving motive to talk Annie into letting me do some interior decorating......

The little guy likes to help with the route setting.

A few more pics from the last family gym session....

I'm wearing my shirt for 3 reasons. 1- they encourage that there, 2 - because I'm still carrying a little extra, which I now think is more punishing on a climbing wall than on a bike climbing a hill and 3 - even if I weren't carrying a little extra, I'm positive the play time I've spent on a bike the last few years doesn't have my back looking like this.....
I know her regimen, still telling myself I need to adopt at least portions of it, and still not doing it. I could watch Annie climb all day.

The kids are picking up little technical type things on their own. They've figured out that they don't need much to stand on.

Really looking forward to a few weekend getaways for some real climbing with the family this year.