Nice Moves H

It’s official. This fall I’ll begin work on an MBA at University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. UO looks to be a great fit for your’s truly. Eugene is a great place to live. The average local seems to be casual with an artistic bend and well connected to the natural landscape. There’s a well grounded local food culture with farmers and artisans producing everything imaginable. And lets not forget the numerous opportunities for adventure. Smith Rock, arguably one of the most prominent climbing areas in the country, is a few hours away. Also, I figure Tracktown USA is the perfect place for one to learn how to walk. My guess is The “University of Nike” has a more than a few runners and therapists in stock. Yeah, it rains in the winter. It rains allot in the winter, and even though some of my closet friends are folks that fled the pacific northwest because of this, I’m game to keep a shell close by for 6 months out of the year.

After all “anytime’s good for climbing” - something I believe was demonstrated this weekend at Mr. Lee’s. The ladies were out in numbers on Saturday. Andre AND Bridget graced us oafs with their presence. Oh, and what’s that red tornado tearing around in the back seat? Oh yeah, Bosco tagged along as well, psyched to train frisbee fetch on the uneven terrain at the crag all day long. True to form, the girls started the day hustling everyone into thinking they might be in over their heads. Andre might as well have been leading Shores of Hell 5.11b when she danced up it last go of the day and Bridget on her 2nd day back climbing since my accident (so more or less off the couch) did all the moves on the same route after getting her confidence back on one of the 5.10’s in the canyon below the main crag. I spent my day projecting Shores of Hell with the ladies and even after four goes was only able to one fall it on top rope. Given the fact that my leg is so weak I wouldn’t even consider climbing up the approach slab to the sun deck or the base of Hardboiled (meaning unable to hike 4th class), I’m fairly pleased with this performance. On gently overhanging rock, a passer by might think I’m merely an intermediate climber. As soon as the angle changes much in either direction, I quickly become useless and my cover is blown. As for the boys projecting the hard routes - nothing much to report. In my mind there’s a tie for best moment of the day. It’s either when I greased off a “wet pocket” only to discover that I’d unknowingly vaporized a small black caterpillar with my atomic pocket pulling power (all that remained was green liquid and scattered black hairs) or Andre’s quote, “Hey, why hasn’t anyone bolted the rock over here? It’s just a shitty as all the rest of it. Oh wait, they have.” Classic.