Found it

It’s funny how some things just seem to click into place all at once.  Yesterday was one of those days.  C and I were on the road early in the morning, doing some work stuff around Buda before driving out to Reimer’s Ranch to climb the day away.  We hit the park around 11am, and it was already warm outside.  70s without a cloud in the sky.  Absolutely perfect conditions.  And we had the entire place to ourselves.

The climbing was so amazing.  We floated up the rock at our own pace, warming up on Dead Cat’s, onsighting a new route at Dead Cat’s Annex, then wandering over to Prototype Wall.  C wanted to jump on Prototype before we tired ourselves out for the day.  She tied in and put up the first two bolts with some very impressive acrobatics.  The next sequence of moves gets pretty tough, so with the sketchy part protected, I nervously took over the sharp end of the rope.  And then the route went.  I moved over the bouldery start with an easiness that surprised me, and worked through each sequence after that to the chains.  5.10d.  My hardest route on lead yet.

Yesterday was the personal progression in my climbing I’d been working to see for quite a while.  Somehow, for some reason, I think most it had to do with the person holding the rope.  She puts a lot of confidence in me.

The day could have ended at 6pm and it would have been perfect, but things just kept getting better and better.  After a quick trip to Whole Foods for a few ingredients and Black Butte Porters, we went back to my house and cooked up the spinach quiche of all quiches.  Fighting the temptation to just dig into it on the spot, we drove over to John’s house to serve it alongside his fantastic tortilla soup and a few other friends.  It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

If you noticed how my last post ended here, you’d see this was exactly the feeling I was shooting for.  I found it.