December 29th marked the end of the climbing portion of our road trip. Now, in the midst of winter in the northwest, Kaiya and I get to drive all the way back to Moscow from El Paso. Leaving snow headed towards more I imagine. We chose a route that would take us on the safest, snow free roads while adding a couple of hundred miles along the way. And a stop in Vegas

Four months has flown by in an instant. It seems like weeks ago that we were stuck in the rain in Leavenworth with bronchitis and the looming possibility of the swine flu. Expectations were met, exceeded beyond our wildest dreams. Neither of us had ever imagined that we would ever spend two months in Joe’s, decide that Bishop was so 2007, and make a decision to change our destination from Flagstaff to SLC. From strictly the value of an experience’s sense, I think this was one of the best things that I have ever done for my climbing and non-climbing related life, which at this point are so interwoven with one another it is difficult to discern one from the other…the body fuels the mind I guess. Some people had said that “I guess if you guys can make it through this…” and we have with minimal fighting, wishing for the other to get food poisoning, fever blisters etc.

Flipping the coin over to the other side, the leaps and bounds in difficulty and general climbing ability that were made are well worth the time and effort. All of the days that were freezing cold and miserable in Joe’s, Hueco of all places and Rocky will be in the back of my mind as a “I’d much rather be there” whence I start my new job in Salt Lake and daydream of the better days.

Leavenworth, Castle Rock Idaho, Moab, RMNP, Joe’s Valley, Bishop, back to Joe’s, Flagstaff, Hueco Tanks and a final stopover in Boise. Not a bad list of places for a four month trip. Kaiya having sent one hard problem in each place and me lagging behind slightly in the whole getting to a new level department. Damn kneebars. (that’s what she said?) Not that it matters in the big picture to anyone except the people that care, but Kaiya sent four V8 boulder problems on this trip! Mike McClure would now ask me how many V13’s I sent while on the trip and I would counter with a one-arm pull-up contest. Ha, I CAN piss further. Along with a clean separation from the 8a.nu community, (her ascents will still be reported here) she also has decided that we want to go to Europe and climb in a year or so, Swizzy or Font??? I guess she has finally made the transition from DG to full on climbing addict. Oh and on a lighter note, tiny painful crimps are no longer what gets her excited-she’s all about the openhandedness now.

Right now, Kaiya is maneuvering through her very first big city driving experience, in Phoenix. Five more hours from now, we will be safely in Sin City, our only stop between El Paso and SLC. She might even let me gamble a little bit…

I’ll be digging through photos and video from the trip in the next few weeks, although I didn’t send, I will post some video of me on Diabolic, Brian Veseth falling on the last couple moves of Baby Martini and Kaiya on King Cobra. And soon, very soon some photos of the new place…