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ROCK CLIMBING
Climbing has been one of my passions displaced recently by the arrival of my daughter Araceli Ellen. I met my wife Jennifer pursuing the zest for this challenging activity, the pure un-bridled fear one sometimes encounters and being around other climbers who share in this passion for serious consequences.
I started climbing in Montana around 1992. I was living in Deerlodge, Montana where I met Mike Murnik, M.D. and he showed me the ropes. Mike and I climbed quite a bit(-it was nice climbing with an E.R Doc.) Prior to this period in my life I was a sick, sick, skier, avid fly-fisherman, wilderness camping, mountaineering, general hell-raiser, etc., etc. loose, naked in the wilds of Montana. I thought that rock climbing was a pretty foolish crazy, daredevil activity that I had absolutely no desire to pursue.
I took this (2) day class at Pipestone Mountaineering in Butte. One night we learned a few knots, played with the gear and rappelled indoors. The next day we went to Spire rock just east of Homestake pass and climbed outdoors on some delicious granite.
Well that was about it. While sharing this life changing activity in a classroom environment (3) of us were naturally attracted to each other through climbing-my dear friends Bill Scott and Erin Murray.
For the next few months we did nothing but eat, drink , sleep climbing,climbing, climbing to all the crags within a 50 mile radius. Though we were sick topropers and we always tooled around in our climbing gear dirty, grundgy and in need of a good soaking, we soon became known to this small town as the climbing nazis and later MURPENSCA. GO figure!
We climbed all the time and having learned this sport using the 1st edition of John Long's Fundamentals of Rock Climbing, we would recite passages from our copies whenever we were together or on approach or coming home. After a typical climbing session at Homestake pass we would go to this sports bar in Butte (JOXX)and go through the ritual of having a Tangeray Martini, 3 olives straight up. The typical toast would be similar to, "to surviving yet another climb". The Butte area is home to a shit load of wonderful granite and batholithes there at the pass. OOO-la-la! Dragons back, the wedge, Risenzube, Spire rock.
Top roping was beggining to be the shit but with our limited knowledge something wonderful was about to happen. We started buying gear. We started with a set of nuts. Then I was the rage because I epoxyed my nuts together; let me clarify this OK. I cemented the nuts to the very end of the wires so they couldn't move so I could place them using a different style at the time. All my nuts are treated with epoxy in this manner.
I decided to write a toproping guide to the surrounding area which was kinda lame but we continued to buy pieces to build more elaborate top anchors. We started backing everything up with gear. Out west the anchors are usually bolted but sometimes not....So anyway one thing "LED" to another and I decided to try my first lead climb...I have a picture of it somewhere and since I started this section of my website I'll have to elaborate the long awaited section of this site because anyone who knows us knows that ROCK CLIMBING is so much a part of my life. Hell I met my wife while climbing....that's another story.
So I have been leading 5.8 six months after I started climbing out west. I don't understand the shtik or I am getting old but 5.8 is about an average difficulty route out West. My sister or a girlfriend would climb 5.7 out there but on the East coast that's adult terror-tory.
So, this is the start of VinceDaddy's climbing page. stay tuned for updates/ retractions! :)
SUGARLOAF 9.7.2003
