Laura and Erica settlin' the score with the boys. Priceless night. Thanks everyone who came. Let's do it again soon.

I miss my friends sometimes. Somtimes I miss my friends. A lot.

The four-by plunge! from George Hayduke on Vimeo.
A photodump of an epic day out with a second family. If only gangs new that people like my friends existed, there would be no violence in the world. We can only hope. A second family for sure! You can click on all images to enlarge and alternately visit Micah’s site for more images! This is just a photoupdate from the most recent post.

At the base of Bridal Veil Falls. I really am going gray aren't I? Maybe it's because I keep hauling so much shit up on long, steep approaches?

That’s a nice crashpad on my back, and a bottle of wine, a bunch of good food and a half-case of Oly on my front. It was a killer hike up! Ugh…

Nic bails from the temps into the 45 degree water of the most beautiful lake in the world. Later, Nic!

The weather was so damned hot that glacier melt water actually felt good to me. I absolutely hate cold water because my BMI is so small. I’m not well insulated and I’m like a cat when it comes to water if it’s cold. Fortunately, today was a different story…well, after jumping off a two-story boulder, there really isn’t much going back…

Nic, Erica and I swim like mad for the warmth of the sun after the big plunge!

We just sat on the rock, getting hot and randomly but frequently flinging ourselves into nothingness and the relief of ice-cold goodness for hours on end! What a magical place this is!!! Thank you Micah for suggesting it!

The first climb of the day*. Here I am sinking ring locks while soloing into the splitter thin hands crack on the 5.12c dive platform. *okay, I'm actually on my stomach and a little drunk...sue me.

The day was tytpified by hyjinx and mischief all over the place. Climbing? Who here climbs?? We’re just havin’ some FUN!

That is not a wine bottle in my hand and I am not having the time of my life and it is not hot as hell and this is actually a picture of us on the surface of Pluto. Psych!!!!

Frivolity was the name of the game and the theme for the day. We didn’t care about anything other than just living honestly and playing as hard as we could. We are such successful people!

First send of the day!!! After my second to last plunge (I had to plunge to get off this boulder) I sent the Lake Boulder (V.wet). A pretty sick line, goes up two grades: one for tennis shoes, one for dampness. My first V.12!!!!

We just kept diving and jumping and eating and drinking and farting…and climbing! Nic tried to send this Lake Boulder in bare feet but wasnt committed. I had the forethought to wear shoes and sent! VENGA!!!!! *chuckles*

After the sun went behind Index it was time to boulder hard. We trompsed around a little and found a plethora of problems. Erica sends hardcore here; lookin' fine on the sick line! So much fun!

After our beloved star had crossed behind the towering mass of granite we call Index, it was cool enough to boulder a little. We didn’t give a shit about grades, only fun. Erica really crushed when it came to the V.fun shit!

Nic gives everything he's got to the V.1/V.2 problem! Nice effort bro! (he he he)

Nic wowed us with his Sharma Scream as he struggled up the first problem. The scenery, the backdrop and the ambiance of the setting totally gave us the energy to be able to send such hard problems as this!!!

Me on the V.0 arete, What a magical place to be able to chill with a crew suffering from a killer vibe and climb under one of the most magnificent peaks in the northwest!

Lake Serene is a place with endless bouldering opportunities and I really feel like we were the second group up there. After Kelley, it felt right. We wanted to climb the place out!

Sara looks like she's ready to dyno all the way to the top; compressed spring-style. What great climbing!!!

We just sat and chilled and climbed and relaxed and drank beer and climbed some more and bonded. There isn’t a greater place on earth than this place in the company of these people! Family!

Speaking of more beer, Sara runs down to the lake to grab a couple fresh ones for us. Climb on!!!

Erica gets ready to send Greg’s Arete while Sara restocks the beer trough.

I smear really well after a few cold ones, perhaps I should bring a pint along on my next multipitch....Nah, maybe not. Erica is spotting me really well, too! *rib*

Without any pressure, or actually any desire to pay attention to grades or names or ticks, climbing became fun again. “Let’s just go up this thing” was the name of the game. A family sort of game…

Micah on the V.12 super-dyno pinscar crack to open hand crimp from a one hand mono on no feet. That guy is amazing!!!!!

There were some harder problems we all tried…and, um..failed on. It’s going next time!!! It’s a PROJECT now!

Nic throws a nice dyno on the V.0 arete. Way to get up it man!!! Wait, it was monkey bars.....

Ha ha! so much fun!

Nic going for the crimp over the lip on The High Life. Not sure what it would go at the way we did it, but Kelley started lower.

We wanted to keep climbing all night, but about 5:30, the thunder jumped over the lip of Mt. Index and pretty much made us all it’s bitch. Time to run home from the neighborhood bully: high voltage electricity!

four-fifths of the Serene crew. Me, Nic, Erica and Sara, all soaking wet from the storm. Wait, where's the good looking guy with all those muscles?

We pretty much ran down the 4 miles of trail to the trailhead away from the threat of being deep-fried by lightning. When we got to the car the rain had stopped, but the hunger had totally set in!

There's the fifth man, the big dog, the man with the plan! Micah wows us all with his jazz hands before going to get bad mexican food.

What a great trip. totally free of any expectation, all pressure and any need to perform in any way. It was pure fun, relaxation and beauty wrapped up in a nice package! thanks Micah for suggesting it! You’re the MAN, bro!

It’s unanimous. This was a great day – far exceeding any other trip and our wildest expectations. Last week, as Micah and I were hiking up to Bob’s Area we came up with the idea that we’d go spend a week relaxing, maybe go for a nice hike – maybe somewhere Micah had always dreamed of. Like, say…Maybe Lake Serene under phenomenal Mt. Index. Yeah! Just the two of us with the lake, a good hike, some beers and of course the great bouldering.

The imposing 2,500 ft of Index massif as the sun set behind it at 2:30 pm as seen from our appartment-complex-sized diving platform. I think I see a good trad pitch or two up there...

But we couldn’t do it without Nic. And then we couldn’t also do it without Erica. Eventually it became a free for all and the entire group was expected to come. Plus, it was supposed to be 101 today, and what better way to escape the heat? In the end, with people working and everything, the Serene crew consisted of Sara, Erica, Nic, Micah and myself.

We got to the trailhead at 10-ish after the 2 hour drive to Index and got to work crawling the four miles and 2100 vertical feet up to Lake Serene. I had told Micah that I wanted to climb, even though it was an R&R trip, and that I’d haul the crashpad all the way up. I also smuggled 35 pounds of beer and wine, and 6 extra pounds of food along with water. I was loaded down, but made it none the less – well, a little less hydrated maybe.

Sara and Erica just getting to the lake. The sigh of relief as you realize that "this up shit" is over.

Once at the lake, we hooped and hollered so loud we scared all the other people out of the swayle and had the place to ourselves. We’d seen the video of Kelly Sheridan and crew bouldering and doing backflips off a massive boulder roughly the size of a small cargo ship, which we found and high-tailed it to straight away. This was a good spot.

Once there, Nic didn’t waste a second before getting some Greg Luganis style half gainers in which resulted in a rather chest-popping, heart-stopping and otherwise monumental belly flop. From 20 feet into glacier water, that had to hurt.

Nothing a beer wont cure!

The 'family' chills, some of us wet, some even wetter, in the 100 degree heat on our magnificently massive rock perch.

We spent a few hours diving, jumping, swimming, eating, drinking beer, drinking wine, telling funny stories, getting naked (you know who you are…), I even got in the first climb of the day – and I bet Kelly never sent it (you have to jump off a 20 foot boulder and swim to climb the 18 foot boulder out in the lake). The sun receded behind the majestic-as-all-get-out Mt. Index at 2:30 so it was now getting cooler and time to climb.

We grabbed the pad I’d hauled up and our shoes and found some cool problems straight away (I’m stealing pics I took from other people’s cameras for this post…) We all worked to warm up on a cool V.1/2 and Sara got a great redpoint on her first-in-a-long-time outdoor boulder. Next I found a really fun V.0 arete that had some variations to it that we all worked and Nic was excited about a V.3 roof-ish problem that he and Micah sent but was too much for my injured elbow (yeah, on the D.L. again…) right about then we got jumped.

We got jumped by one of the most massive and active thunderstorms I have ever experienced – and I’ve been through a few (including the 1980 eruption of St. Helens). All I remember saying was “Guys, we need to go, RIGHT NOW!” to which I heard the reply “No effing shit man!”. What had taken us a good 30 minutes to get to we reduced to ten minutes in retreat in the face of catastrophic electrocution. The four mile hike out became a slow jog down some very, very steep terrain in a torrential downpour. This was certainly not an unwelcomed phenomenon on a day like this – giant ice-cold raindrops soaking my bare body in the oppressively humid heat and making the downclimb more like the tropical Mexican rainforest I’ve spent so much time in. It really reminded me of my years in Mexico! The entire time there wasn’t a moment – a single instant – where there was not thunder rolling in the cloud above us. Quite impressive and reminiscent of my childhood.

The soaking wet Serene crew at the base of Bridal Veil Falls. What are you guys looking and pointing at? Naked people? Micah??

Once at the car the rain finally tapered off and we headed to find some place to eat. A word of caution to hungry eaters on SR2, avoid La Hacienda in Sultan, WA. Don’t waste your time, money or gastrointestinal integrity. We laughed and sang and ate and fiercely loved one another like close family from 7:00am this morning until 11:30 tonight. Life is about this shit people. Get out of your cubicles!

And you know it’s been a good day when you get home and pull empty crushed beer cans out of your pocket that you didnt realize had been there all day. It was a good day!

Gettin' the sides straight. It didn't matter though, because I dabbed the pimp side lunging for the crimp. Damn. I also cannot spell while climbing.

Tuesday found Micah, Erica and I back up at Bob’s area for project work again. This wasn’t a trip for fun or frivolity, this was for the suffering, pain, struggle and ultimately for the agony of defeat. Leaving earlier than normal, we struggled under the burdon of excessive heat and humidity up “the trail the devil made” towards our goals. Making it less pleasant was letting a girl who likes riding her bike a thousand miles at a time set the pace. The two old guys struggled a bit and when we got to Crawling from the Wreckage a break was in order.

The place was deserted though, we only ran into one old guy who seemed to have been lost or thought he was somewhere in the North Cascades. I dont know why, but this place never surprises me with its ability to produce the most random and sometimes disturbing trail encounters.

Micah just past the first crux on Crawling from the Wreckage.

Micah got on Wreckage and linked it up really slick up until the really hard clip, then down. Rinse and repeat. And repeat again. Just remember, “Micah, you cannot aid this route, man!”. After wearing out on Wreckage, Erica got her first super clean 10c lead under her belt on Firing up Bob, which was nice to see because she had been a little sketched out about the route a few days ago. It just shows that she’s able to get into a good headspace about hard problems and overcome her own doubts. That talent, one I wish I had, will serve her well.

Erica leads her first 5.10c and still has the presence to look good doing it.

Time to take a breather from the 13a and head up to Presto Palace, where I was about to be spanked like a little girl. I hadn’t eaten much of anything for 36 hours and the expedited hike had worn me out, but I was going to give her as many goes as I had. Micah climbed up for video and I tied in with Erica on the catching end. I pulled on, made the first few lunges with good movement, but the damned rock felt greasy. I came off. Rinse and repeat again. In the end, I made the chains twice, but it weren’t purdy.

At the last clip, a really desperate one given that a fall from that crappy sidepull crimp means you'll be decking-out. Next time I'm just running it out.

Next up was Erica’s attempt to redpoint her first 5.11b, Stemming out Beyond the Gray, a worthy goal! We wandered down and loaded up for her attempt, she looked great – smooth and powerful – right up until the 11b part when the sequence just evaded her eyes. It’s a hard climb, but a pretty line. The third person of the day to face defeat, Erica was spat off just like the boys, but because neither Micah or I had the strength right then to clean the pitch, she was committed to get to the chains – which she did. A terrific effort!

We lounged for a minute, and then we all went and worked on our projects some more. And then some more, and a little bit more after that. And we all got shut down some more too. We hiked out realizing that we’d come up not for fun, but for work. It was a day of pain, fear, desperation and ultimately defeat. We realized that we’d approached the day with expectations of success, which is something we’d always promised we’d never do – and we were humbled by the rock gods for our hubris. We needed an attitude adjustment – and we got it.

In North Bend we scarfed double bacon cheeseburgers, fries and shakes at the Dairy Freeze with our tails still between our legs. Reconnection with one another was the theme for the drive home, a lot of relationships were clarified and redefined that day, not only within ourselves, but between us and the rock and each other too. I didn’t come away from this trip defeated as much as adjusted and primed for my penance to be paid.

Curry y vino at the Crag: L to R Micah, Nic, Dom and Erica. Just about too late to downclimb the 4000 ft to the car, but not too late after a bottle of wine!

The convoluted nature of my monetary gains and it’s competition with my desire to be outside doing fingertip pullups is one you might not be familiar with, but you should get used to it. Last weekend, if you read me often, you’ll realize that the crew and I got out Saturday at Little Si, and if you remember my girl, Eirca, and I got out Sunday too…to Leavenworth (and Exit 38 in the same day). That meant I needed to work a full weekend this pay period to be able to live (I mean…climb!).

So, what does a guy do? He takes Friday off his day job to climb! This finds me at Bob’s Area at Mt. Washington, off of Exit 38. Not difficult, but a good plan. I have a project up there, Saltallero Presto (5.11a) and the other guys wanted to hit Crawling From the Wreckage (5.13a). That way I can climb a little more rock and make a little more money. Well worth it!

Nic, Micah and Dom projected Wreckage for a few hours and got all the good beta they needed. Micah and I are going back Tuesday, but Dom went up today, so we’ll see who gets the first redpoint. (building anticipation…..!!!!sDFJKHASKDFJHASKHASKDF)

I picked Nic up early so we could run some errands for him and then we booked it to Micah’s to head to 38. Five-man crew today. good vibes and, well, surprises lay ahead…. *grin*

Nic and Erica stopped at Amazonia down low to warm up on some fun stuff, but Micah and Dom had a 13a on their minds and I could only think about my project, so I headed up with the big boys. Micah and Dom worked and few 5.10+’s that I wasn’t going to touch for to save my strength for Presto, but they looked good.

Eventually, Nic and Erica showed up to see the guys working their asses off on Crawling. Major progress was made and  if the redpoint hasn’t gone down by this writing (I haven’t talked to Dom) then it will by Tuesday.

After dickering at Crawling from the Wreckage, we hit Alpinia. A few surprises awaited all of us! We all sent a few easy leads to warm up, I wanted to get on my project and…well, we were hungry. Erica, the crag goddess fir the day, had brought her camp gear and asked everyone to bring veggies. As a surprise, Nic and I smuggled a bottle of vino up the hour-long slog (along with my 7 liters of water (UGH!).

In the end, Erica is a killer cook in the backcountry (yum….) and I think I satisfied everyone’s disdain for downclimbing at night with a little wine.

We all climbed really hard (I almost sent my proj, ground-up! Thanks, Erica, for the most awesome belay in the world, even on that last “TAAAAAAKE”!!)

In the end, This climb was magic! we hiked hard, hauled a ton of gear and supplies, we stayed late and loved one another deeply. This is what makes climbers different than everyone else: a total sense of community. Erica had the genius idea to become crag mother for the night and cook us all a friggin awesome coconut curry dinner, and I had the sense, with Nic’s wisdom, to smuggle a bottle of Merlot up high (sorry, legs….). The rest of the guys simply wowed us all day with their muscles.

At 1:30 am I dropped Erica at her house and drove myself home with a  glowing feeling of success. The guys had made serious progress on the new “dude-proj”, Crawling from the Wreckage, and I had almost sent my project too. Last time I could only get to the first bolt. This time I got to the last bolt. Next time, its goin’ DOWN!!

Beautiful times for beautiful people. I love these folks. More pictures to come, More pictures already in the Imagery link.

So there’s only one person other than myself that’ll understand the title, but you guys needed to have been with us today. It was a great day!

I slept in until 6 (a whole two hours!) when I woke up to some light rain outside my window. Dammit! I thought – no climbing today! It subsided and I called Erica for the meet-up beta. We met at Darby’s for breakfast at 8am (chicken fried steak, two over-easies on toast and some sort of hash brown substitute. Didn’t touch the potatoes). The ominous thing was we ate in the middle of an impressive thunderstorm that kinda killed our chances of climbing anything at all. Rain. Damn!

We’d wanted to get up to 38 before the rest of the crew (which was supposed to be huge today!) and get some burns in at Nevermind or We Did Rock before they showed. We were on the road at 9 with me beind the wheel and Erica playing D.J. with her fancy new I-pod thingamajigger.

Just north of Tacoma we called Dom for the rest of the crew beta. Dom called back after we were on 18 with bad news – Micah thought it was too wet, the rest of the girls thought it was too wet – and by that time WE thought it was too wet. We called Mika, still at 32, and told him that the crew had been rained out. Sorry, bro.

“But, we’re here Erica, whaddya wanna do?”

“I dunno, climb something fun?”

“How ’bout we hit L-town if I pay gas both ways.”

“Okay. Drive, boy.”

We drove to Leavenworth under gray and rainy skies with dreams of sugarplums and steep, steep granite sport pitches dancing in our heads. “Damn, but we don’t have a guide book and I’ve never climbed sport over there! We’ll just hit the ranger station and pick one up”, I said. “Okay”. I called my dad in Wenatchee for weather beta – he said it was already in the 80’s. I called Bullshit.

15 minutes east of Alpental the skies cleared, the birds came out and angels sang. The rest of the drive was a mutual discovery of Erica and Greg – getting to know new people when they’re good people is like riding a bike – it just works. We got to the closed Leavenworth ranger station just about noon. No guidebook to be had here….. “Well, there’s got to be a gear shop somewhere in town”.

“Yeah, lets park somewhere and blend in as tourists to find one.” I replied.

It didn’t take long before Erica found an outdoor shop on the “strip”. No help from the highly stoned lackey, but he did give us directions to the real gear shop that would rent us an out-of-date, uber-cryptic copy of the worst friggin guide book ever written for any crag. I mean Einstein couldn’t have found his own ass with the beta in this book. Absolutely stupid. DO NOT BUY this guidebook!

We headed up Icicle canyon, still with granite pitches dancing, but dancing a little less feverishly – it just happened to be that dad wasn’t full of bullshit – it was an oppressive 90-some degrees. Blah…I mean, VENGA!!!

We stopped at Bridge Creek, noting that Bridge Creek Wall offered some 5.9 and 5.10 sport routes. We found some nice rocks by the river and ate, drank, relaxed and tried to use our handy rosettastone to decipher the stupid guidebook glyphs.  We decided that the best route to Bridge Creek Wall was from Egg Rock, which I knew well.

The approach wasn’t from Egg Rock. But, since we were there, we thought we’d get in some bouldering. Erica is wicked. She nearly walked up China Cat (V.2) and gave a good look at the damned problem behind I heart Jerry Garcia that I can’t keep my feet on. She did hike a nice V.1 to the Right of China Cat and an unnamed V.0 with ease, grace and absolute control. Still, we wanted finger shredding granite pitches!

We stopped at Machine Gun Rock, where she sailed up and over Band of Gypsies (V.0) and Dirty Harry (V.1) and almost got Machine Gun Funk on the flash, but didn’t go down due to the long reach on the throw to the crimpy jug up high. I got to repeat though, on my first V.2 ever, like four times in a row today. It’s got seriously clean, fluid movement for such a tall guy. I really love that rock. Thanks, Micah – you’re the man!

We spent the rest of the next few hours looking for something that wasn’t mixed sport/trad or a .14d. We decided to hike up behind some other climbers at Icicle Buttress, but it ended up to be a multipitch trad route. Damn! Ultimately, we landed at some other place with one sport route and what looked like a few topropes. We searched and searched for anchors but within 30 minutes of death-defying searching decided that it was all plug-and-chug territory. What a great time to not have a trad rack!  Just then the thunderstorms burst onto the scene and we called it a day of fun, travel, adventure, spontaneity, and building a great new friendship – and time for home.

We stopped for the traditional Heidleburger on the way out, relaxed in the heat and truly enjoyed each others company. Good times for sure, but also time to get on the road despite not getting a good burn in for the day. Ugh!

But wait. this is where the story gets really interesting. We had to go back by Exit 38 to get back home…

At Alpental I said “If it looks dry, Im stopping. How do you feel about that girl?”

“Do it, boss”.

It looked dry at Exit 38, so we stopped. The hike to Nevermind Wall was wet, but when we got to Substation I screamed “yeah! Substation’s dry!”, but we kept going to rule out Nevermind. I wanted back on Steep Street.

In the end, I got a repeat lead on Steep Street and Erica made it to the chains on TR. She’ so totally gonna send that route next time! I was excited to have been able to introduce them to each other.

My newest climbing partner, E-dub, taping her poor, abused hands for Steep Street. Such a strong climber!

In the end, today could have turned out to be a boring disaster of a gray and rainy mess of a day. My spontaneity fit well with the desires for adventure of another climber – and luckily we happened to be in the same car. We got to do some great climbing, driving, adventuring and serious bonding in spite of Mother Nature. I believe that Mother set today up for us. Not only do I have a new climbing partner – someone whose hands I’ll freely put my life in – but also a good, honest friend that I hope to get to know better and better as time goes on.

In all honesty, Erica is a stronger climber than me in a lot of ways, and I kind of like that. I’m not intimidated by the fact that she’s younger, has stronger tendons and better endurance. I really like the fact that she likes my method and my madness, and that she can forgive my weakness.

I’ll climb with that girl any day.

Completely.Stellar.Day.

[edit: I was going to edit out some of the - eh hem, language - from this post. I decided against it because it sums up the feeling of desperation and frustration - and ultimately success - of the day. Deal with it, you're a big boy/girl aren't you?]

[second edit: I couldnt stand it, I edited the language]

The crew: Mika, Nic, Micah, Erica and me (out of frame)

The story of the day is of Micah’s completion of his project Judgment Day Direct (5.12d). Props go out to the man in the glasses! I’d been catching for him a few tries earlier in the day today, but he felt off and wasn’t committing to the final throw. He decided, wisely, to rest a bit so Erica and I went around the ledge to work some leads on Reptiles and Amphetamines. I led ground-up and she followed and just as she topped out and got back down I heard Micah give a good scream from up high. We knew he was working the line but I couldn’t get around the corner because Erica was still tied-in! I stripped out slack so I could get around and not tug on her just in time to see Micah latch the final move (the one he kept falling on) and nail it solid! From then it became a total scream fest for the next five minutes of cheer, hoots, venga’s and fuck-yeah’s.

Even sicker than that was the fact that Mike Massey, the guy who authored Judgment Day Direct in ‘96 had actually climbed up Girls in the Gym (adjacent to JDD) and was taking video! I’ll post the video as soon as I get a copy, maybe Monday at game night.

and even better…today was sending day for EVERYONE!

An example of questionable belay technique. Like, actually being there. Micah's thoughts right about now: "Where the fuck is Nic?"

Nic got JDD clean, Bust a Move and his high point on Californicator.

Mika worked to the chains on Bust a Move.

The most wicked list though, I think, was Erica’s who owned the place physically and mentally today. She stood up to some pretty stiff lines, leading Devil’s Advocate, Reptiles and Amphetamines, and nearly flashing BLM5! She also got to the chains on Psycho (I cant even to that!) and nearly flashed Bust a Move!

The days just get better and better! The people just get better and better. The scenery is amazing. Life is a beatiful thing!