a mom’s thoughts on climbing

so a little more talk about our trip to the new last week… let me back up a bit. brian and i had convinced ourselves (well, i know i had, and it seemed to me that brian had too) when seb was all brand new and shiny that climbing routes with ropes and gear and packs, etc., was going to be way too complicated for our already baby-complex lives, so we decided to put off going to the new river gorge for a while. early this summer, we decided we wanted to take a climbing trip that would involve camping and not flying to keep it cheap. in august, we thought we’d go south, but decided it would be too humid and yuck and far. in sept, we thought we’d go to the boston area and visit family and friends on the way, but decided that would be too buggy and yuck and far. so at least to get rid of the too far factor, we settled on going to the new in october, thinking we’d mainly boulder there and maybe climb routes, ropes and all, one day. well, it turned out that we spent two “days” climbing routes, and it would have been three had we not spent THAT day bushwacking some non-existent trail to find the crappiest rock in the whole gorge (bubba city sucks! never climb there!). i found (and maybe brian did too) that gearing up to do some long(er) climbs wasn’t any more complicated than bouldering. it was so good to be back on a rope. at summersville, one area near the new brian and i had almost completely climbed out, i felt at home and a cozy warmth enveloped me as i climbed routes that will never lose their familiarity, taking a moment at the top to look out over the lake and fall colors below me. it was so GOOD to be back! even if i was just climbing the easy routes or toproping. and i met with friends we hadn’t seen in two years at least, and made new ones i hope to see again and again. so much of climbing tends to be about these people who i don’t appreciate enough until i’m separated from them. and they met seb! confirming our suspicions that he IS the cutest kid ever. EVER!

now we’re home and it’s sort of lonely after having all those people around. so in the quiet, while seb is taking a nap and brian is still at work, i sit and daydream about going back to the new, tying into the sharp-end of a rope, and climbing up and up and up.

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