One of the great blessings of rock climbing is the people we meet along the way.
I wasn't too far into my rock climbing career when I was ready to dive into trad. Thankfully, my partner at the time was quite literally a professional in the world of mountaineering safety so I had a very competent, very safe teacher. I was loving the sport climbing world and was pretty strong in that area. My partner was trying to school me on the basics of trad climbing at home, and the day to try it out finally came.
He told me we were meeting up with a small group at the crag. I lived in Colorado Springs, then, and there was more rock in the area than I knew what to do with. On this particular day, we were heading to Sheeprock. I was fairly nervous. I hate a learning curve, and I knew this would be a big one.
Upon arrival, I realized the group we were meeting up with included none other than climbing legend, Jimmie Dunn. If you don't know much about Jimmie, he's one of the most fun, down-to-earth people out there. Not only that, but he has a truly astounding list of climbing accolades and first ascents to his name. Well, when it was my turn to make my way up the crack, Jimmie offered to show me the ropes.
Jimmie knew the area like the back of his hand. He said "Clip in and follow my lead, I'll walk you through the moves." And sure enough, Jimmie freakin Dunn hopped on the route ahead of me and free soloed above me, pausing frequently to explain how to manipulate my fists or feet in certain areas. At one point, halfway up the route, he stock his left foot out over my head, and said "Hey, could you tie my shoe?" Mind you, my nerves hadn't quite left my body yet, and though I was on belay, I wasn't exactly loving the idea of pulling both of my hands out of the rock. "Bump up a little, and stack your feet, you'll be solid there," he said down to me, his loose shoe strings still blowing in the breeze just above my face.
This guy, 3 times my ages, wasn't even roped in, and there he was waiting patiently for me to tie his shoe, looking out at the view around us. As if he was just perfectly suspended in time and space. So there was nothing for me to do but to lace up his old La Sportiva.
We finished the route and the day, and it will forever be one of the coolest days I've ever had. For a moment, it felt like I was swept back in time to when routes all over the nation were still unclimbed and untouched.
It makes me wonder...if you could climb with any climber (old, new, alive, passed), who would you climb with?
First off, this is a cool story. This sort of stuff makes climbing so awesome.
But I must say, my safety senses are tingling...
Having another human, aka a 100-200 pound object, climb above me, unattached, gives me the heebbie jeebbies.
Long live Jimmie Dunn!