Rock Climbing with an Owl

Pictured on the right are my friends John and Jardan. John is clinging to the cliff for dear life while Jardan belays for him. I did the lead climbing, which means I got to go up the face of the mountain and attach the rope to eyelets every few feet until I got to the top and attached the rope there. I didn’t fall while I was lead climbing but I did fall on my second time going up. I try riskier holds when I’m only going to fall a few inches instead of falling a few feet past my last eyelet.

You might remember our friend the owl who used to visit sometimes when Tamara and I lived in an apartment a few miles south of this mountain. He was hanging out in the hollow of a rock watching us climb. I only had my phone and not my camera, so I didn’t get a very good picture of him. The guys said that he was peeking out of his hollow trying to figure out what I was doing when I went up the first time.

Below the ledge where we belay, there is a lot of gravel and loose rocks down the slope. I decided to go down there to pick up a water bottle we had dropped, but the closer I got the fa

rther it slid down the gravel. Soon I was riding a rock slide down the side of the mountain in pursuit of this bottle. I did grab the bottle and a couple of other pieces of trash besides, but by that point it was much easier to go down the mountain to the next trail than to fight a rock slide up to our trail. Resume the rock slide ride.

At one point I lost my balance. You know there might be something wrong with you if while losing your balance in a rock slide your first thought is, “Oh no! My trash…” I fell on my trash, but I wasn’t hurt. Neither was it, though it was soon to be thrown away. I slid to the trail after that without further incident.

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These are my pictures of the owl. He’s near the upper-center of the picture, just to the right of where we were climbing.