You can’t always make it to your destination, but you can keep making effort and most usually progress in that direction. Since the age of 41, I have considered myself a rock climber. It is not the most important thing about me, nor the most permanent, but it is good fodder for conversation, anticipation, challenge, and blog entries. Since moving back to East Tennessee after 30 years of absence, I had only climbed three times on rope and about three times bouldering in three years (1).
Besides time, there was the issue of finding a partner. I may have solved that problem. I began going weekly to a Bouldering Gym in Bristol (2) in February. I have met many enthusiastic young people who want to climb outdoors. I offered a trip to one of my old crags for Saturday last. Five climbers responded, three of which had never been climbing outdoors and another who had not been rope climbing. I harkened back to teaching climbing to high schoolers in Western North Carolina. Getting six busy people to schedule on the same day at the same time is a bit challenging, but we made it happen, albeit on a less-than-ideal weather day (3). To see a bit of what we did, click on “Old Digs, New Gig“.
- https://creatorworship.net/2023/05/15/playing-along-the-line/ , https://creatorworship.net/2023/06/02/at-long-last-2/ , https://creatorworship.net/2024/04/09/bays-mountain-climbing-again/
- https://www.appalachianboulderingcenter.com/
- It was that seventh partner that failed to totally coordinate with the others, but we worked around his schedule.
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