What difficult achievements in your life or climbing journey have lead you to believing any thing is possible? In preparation for a multi-day climb in British Columbia scheduled for summer of 2018 I have begun climbing once a week. Thanksgiving morning we hit the local climbing area, Safe Harbor and climbed a beautiful 150ft dihedral called Autumn Arch. I was about to leave when a discussion arose of why. Why was it a good pitch of climbing? We all agreed that it was good because each move was equally difficult, analytical problem solving was required to move forward and with every move there was a risk of failure. I replied, although much harder, that is the “why” a route called Machismo is one of the best routes in all of America. Sustained climbing where every moved is extremely challenging and requires the climbers full attention. My climbing partner Ian (who had taken several large falls earlier in the morning) smiled and said, lets climb it today! I looked at him, he was serious. With my toes headed towards family and turkey I froze…..Lets do it i replied! This photo was taken by Chad Esh, as I am leading through the crux moves on Machismo. For me successfully climbing this route in 1997 removed many metal blockades in my climbing career and ultimately to me climbing 5.13’s and many multi-day routes in Yosemite National Park. #rockclimbing #safeharbor #autumnarch #machismo #climbing #paclimbing #thanksgiving #lancasterparockclimbing #sportclimbing #goals #lancaster #life #risd (at Safe Harbor Climbing Area)
