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From Afghanistan to Castleton!

• October 2011
• Climb Fly Dogs Training Travel

A year ago I received a handwritten letter and photo from a UK soldier stationed in Afghanistan. In the photo, he was sitting on some rocks reading a copy of High Infatuation, which was pretty amazing to me! I was very worried about him…not everyone comes home safe from service. I sent him some posters and told him: “When you are finished, let me know if you could ever make it to the States, and we will climb Castleton together.”

A few months ago, I got an email from Colin. He finished his service and wanted to know if we could climb this fall if he came to Moab. He also wanted to know what I thought he should do if he wanted to start base jumping. I told him that October would be great, and he should go to Lodi to learn how to skydive. So the day before yesterday, Colin showed up in Moab, en route to Lodi for his AFF training….now that’s what I call grabbing the bull by the horns 🙂 A lot of times in life, people talk about doing things or think about doing things, but then nothing really happens for various reasons. And then there are certain people who take any advice or opportunity they are offered and make things happen. Colin is definitely one of those people–soft-spoken, courteous, friendly–and a guy who goes ahead and does it. I like that. (Heads up Lodi people, say hi to Colin for me!)

We went up to Castleton on perhaps the most perfect day I’ve ever seen in the desert. Sometimes things seem meant to be, and the way Colin and I met was through this blog. My good friend Andrew is visiting me right now, and he’s the one who built this website and blog for me, back in 2007. So Andrew walked up to Castleton with us too, which was a really neat coincidence I thought. Cajun and my other favorite dog Slack joined the team too 🙂

Slack’s human Larry, my good friend, wanted to climb with us too, so we had a great group for the day.

We decided to climb the Kor-Ingalls, to enjoy the morning sun and the great belay ledges.

This year is also the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Castleton, by Layton Kor and Huntley Ingalls.

I love thinking about their pioneering spirit, every time I climb this wonderful route. They’ve given a lot of adventure to the climbing world.

I hauled up my base rig while I belayed Colin and Larry (by the way, if you don’t have a Gigi–not to be confused with a Grigri!–buy one immediately if not sooner. It is the single best thing I own–cheap, small, light, simple and makes your life a million times easier), who zipped right up the route.

We reached the top early, before most of the people camped in the parking lot were even getting out of their tents, although apparently we have no sense of time anyway… (it was the 13th)

Wind conditions were ridiculously perfect, and Colin really wanted to see a base jump in person too, so.

It was one of the nicest jumps ever, for me, and the guys were not far behind thanks to efficient rapping and walking. So we had lots to talk about at the Brewery that evening.

Walking out of there, I was just so tickled thinking about how amazing it was that Colin sent me a letter from a desert across the planet, and then went home to England, and then next thing you know, we were climbing Castleton together! It just goes to show, you never know where you will find yourself, and it’s in some ways a very small world.