Summit Registers
Steph,
First off I just wanted to say, thank you for being such an amazing role model and human being! I have been following your blog for awhile now and love reading your new posts as they always have something wonderful to offer. I also just wanted to tell you that I climbed washer woman tower two weeks ago and was thrilled to see your name in the summit register. In my opinion, one of the things that makes climbing so wonderful (just one out of many of course!), is that us recreational climbers can actually go climb in the same areas as the people we look up to. There are so few other sports where professional and recreational athletes can mingle in quite the same way. So, I hope that you continue to sign the registers of the desert towers you climb because it is so much fun to get to the top and see who else has stood there!
Second, I was reading an email you posted from someone named Matt in Freedom PA, I’m not sure whether he was specifically asking to go climbing in Moab with you or if he was looking for some experience rock climbing but I wanted to tune him in to some local climbing opportunities via the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh (ECP). We have a huge rock climbing section in the club and offer a rock climbing school every spring (http://www.pittecp.org/schools/rockclimbing/rock_climbing.asp) as well as a mountaineering school every winter.
Oh and one last thing, is that photo of you climbing on the “towers and cracks clinics” page from a route on The Convent? It is a spectacular view of castle valley!
Thanks again for everything and I hope that maybe someday during a trip to Moab I’ll run into you!
-Kristen
Thanks for writing, Kristen, and for the information 🙂
Last week a British climber sent me a picture through Twitter that he snapped while waiting for his bus in the headquarters of Paine. It was an entry that Charlie Fowler made as we were leaving Paine in 1996, on our way to Fitzroy. It was so moving to see that, especially with Charlie being gone….and funny to get your email since that Washer Woman entry was also from a climb with Charlie, way back when.
Recently I have been slacking very hard with the Castleton summit register, but you have inspired me to be more conscientious 🙂
And that photo is from Sister Superior, the route called Jah Man, shot by the ever-awesome Keith Ladzinski 🙂
Thanks for writing!
Steph
