Shift 6 and a birthday bash

After five shifts with “adult boys”, I spent my sixth shift with eight adolescent girls. Needless to say it was different and probably my most challenging week thus far. I saw more tears in the first 2 hours than I have in the five previous shifts. It was an emotion fest and many of these girls were master manipulators! While I have worked with adolescent girls in tough situations from the inner city of DC to a detention center in AL, this was different. That said, good things happened this week, and I learned and grew.

In the front country, I headed to Red Rocks for a birthday bash. Two friends from St George and some of their friends from Flagstaff share a late March birthday. They have a tradition of celebrating in Red Rocks. So, we had worlds colliding as friends and friends of friends come together for climbing, bluegrass around a camp fire, and even a little bit of March madness.


This is Chuckwalla, our "climbing gym". With daylight savings time, we were able to get in a session this past Tuesday as we came out of the field.


Wednesday morning breakfast. On the right in the picture below are Gillian and Dafnah, my two best non-climbing friends. They keep me balanced.



The wind was so bad, we didn't last too long. I convinced the others to sit with me while I watched the UNC v Marquette basketball game. There is a tendency for outdoorsy folks to have little to no interest in traditional sports. I am working hard to enlighten this population!



Ginger Cracks, 5.9, 7 pitches. We only made it to the third due to the cold. Considering that it was snowing when we started and the others only made it half way up their first pitch, I don't feel too badly about bailing.



We finally got some nice weather on Sunday and did some party climbing.



The birthday bash group photo (minus Paul and Zach).

San Diego

I spent this off shift climbing around the St. George area and on a road trip to San Diego. I traveled with two of my best climbing buds, Anthony and Dave. We packed the trip full of food, friends, and recreation. We climbed, bouldered, played beach volleyball, rode a tandem bike on the boardwalk, visited friends and my newly engaged cousin, and enjoyed lots of deep belly laughter.



Jenny and I met in Costa Rica over five years ago. Upon our first conversation at a July 4th celebration in Costa Rica, we knew we were kindred spirits. We have stayed in touched, but haven’t seen each other since I left. She and her new husband treated us to a typical Tico meal.


Jumi is a friend we met climbing around St. George. She was a gracious and patient tour guide all weekend.


We bouldered at Santee boulders and roped up in Mission Gorge.



Anthony has technique.....and Dave(yes, he is climbing in cut off jeans), he's just got muscle. Just kidding Dave, you have a little skill too. And Anthony, you also have some muscle. Me, well, they tell me I look good ;)


A life long dream to ride a tandem finally completed.

Shift 5 Pictures

I took this picture on a trail just outside my house the day before going into the field. This is also the view from my bedroom window.


A little charcoal face paint to get things going for solos.

The Monday winter wonderland after a week of spring.

Shift 5 - Step back scorpion, it ain't spring yet!

Shift 5 was crazy, heartbreaking, and great. I returned to the all guys group I was in last shift.

On Tuesday our staff team came into the group with two clients walking out. One of them decided he wanted to walk the 80 miles to leave the program and the other just wanted a break from the group as they were making too much noise to see any wildlife.

On Thursday, another group member decided to walk as well. This one hit the group hard. This client was dear to the guys, and everyone knew, including himself, that if he left the program (as he had done the six programs prior) that he had absolutely nothing to return to except homelessness and drugs. Despite pleas from his peers and persuasion from staff, he also decided to walk the 80 miles out of the wilderness.

The weather was beautiful all week and it felt like spring had finally arrived with a few scorpions and mice making an appearance. That thought lasted until Monday, when it got bombed by intense wind, rain, snow, and hail.

Despite setbacks, some pretty amazing things happened this week as well. Four of the guys were on solos for three full days and nights. This was an empowering and life changing experience for each of them (though they probably wouldn’t want to repeat it), teaching them self-sufficiency and how to be with themselves. A client opened up about extreme childhood trauma and felt the burden lessen a little. I was the second person he had ever told. Staff brought out a guitar and the guys played and sang around the fire. Two clients graduated from the program. Their growth and clinical sophistication has been remarkable to watch. I ate the best steak of my life, an elk steak harvested near Bryce Canyon.

I guess most weeks could be summarized this way: heartbreaking, hard, and uncomfortable, but still beautiful things happening. I am now hoping to paint my nails, re-gain some femininity, and, of course, climb.