We planned; our schedules and lives jumped around each other; we set dates; we frowned at weather reports; we called each other at two in the morning because it was raining in town. We had almost completely given up.
But at long last, when he texted me last week, asking if I had a day during the week to come out and play, my schedule allowed for it. With no patients to see, I took an unpaid day to head up to Tuolumne Meadows with my globe-trotting friend.
The thin ice fall clung to every curve and bulge of the cliff face of Drug Dome, the start of the route awash with waves of yellow and white ice. What transpired was a gorgeous dance of watching Kurt lead the route, then me trudging up behind, my feet screaming in too-tight boots. But to look out across to the west: to Mt. Hoffman; the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne; trees and blue sky cut only by the occasional jet roaring overhead; to hang from the rope and my tools looking for the next step, the next strike; all of it drove home how special this moment was.
While smiling throughout, when I stepped into the sun beneath the second belay, a WI4 curtain separating me from Kurt's anchor, I looked up at him and shot the biggest toothy grin I've had in a long time. We may have had to wait four years, but we sure hit this one out of the park.
On the way home, Kurt and I stopped at Tioga Lake to skate (only his second time ever!).
Rest of my pics are here.
The rest of Kurt's pics are here.
From the luckiest girl in the world:
Climb Hard. Be Safe.
-L
