Crushing

I didn't crush any routes this weekend. Clearly.

Dickhead. What the fuck were you thinking?

However that didn't stop me CRUSHING!

Clearly!

I might have more to say on this later.

Stay the Night

I spent the weekend in the company of these guys.


Julia, Alan, me and Cobus at Oorlogs Kloof



Right, let's review how it went.

Julia said: "Thanks team, that was awesome :-)"

Cobus said the following: "Oh yes, I would just like to thank Julia and Steve, I now have that fucking James Blunt song in my head! I don't even particularly like James Blunt..."

And I explained to Alan: "Julia forced us to listen to a song called Stay the Night, which contains detailed instructions on how to get chicks to say yes. Cobus and I realised we are such sorry bastards that on the few occasions that we ever asked a woman to stay the night (or vice versa) the result was stuff like sleeping under our cars in the rain and battered self-esteem. Now that we listened to it all the way back from Montagu, I am delegating Cobus to try out some of the lines. It should be entertaining."

 And then I emailed my gf and gushed out the following badly written stuff, which I really mean:


(Describing Sunday) We got there after lunch just as the sun was moving off my route. Anyway, it was ultra hot so we got in the river on the walk in before the hill, just kept our hands dry, and I walked up wet to cool off. Julia offered to walk to the top to set up my rope. Alan and Cobus were there just to belay. We had a great time. Alan mostly belayed Julia on a route near mine, and Cobus and Julia took turns to belay me. And so we all hung out and laughed and talked smack and tried hard on the climbs. It’s the bomb. You are like a family or something, hard to explain. Then we walked down, and it was hot still, and Julia and I swam again, and we got back to the car and chatted. Alan was there in his car. We looked up at the valley and it’s so beautiful and rugged, perfect. We took the pics and it was like we were this great team. Then Alan left and we drove back, Cobus me and Julia and we had the music pounding and it was like, how could it be better? So that’s what I like. I was a bit upset because my wrist was killing me, but I didn’t want to make a fuss and decided that I would see the surgeon as soon as I could get an appointment.

 It’s very important to me that I climb with people I like. Those three are really nice, and very funny. And they really try to support me and that helps a lot. Cobus has been so patient, going there with me so often. It means a huge amount to me that my friends would do that for me. Or Julia setting up the rope. She could see I was taking strain in the heat, and that it would increase my chance of success if I could just relax in the gully and not have to walk up in the sun, so she did it for me.  And the other thing with your mates, is that you really want them to get up their routes too. So with your friends it’s incredibly supportive. We all want each other to win. How cool is that? Even in competitions, we would all encourage each other. Cos in a few minutes it will be you up there.


It’s the best. The challenges are infinitely varied, they are physical and mental, you do it in the world’s most beautiful places, and if you are lucky you find great friends to share it all with. I know all people think like this about their pastimes, but how could anything be better than that?



As we chatted at the cars, the black eagles were circling and the sun was hitting their wings and they were shining. It is simply incomparable.


Well, that’s what I do.