Why I Climb

Joshua Tree, California

My first piece has been published on the Outdoor Minded Mag website! I also did the layout, of which I am quite proud. It’s really fun to mess around with making things look just how you want them on the page, and I can spend hours tweaking spacing and sizing… it’s amazing how much time passes when you’re moving pictures around.

This piece has been in the works for quite a long time, since the last time I went climbing in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, which was a few years ago (2010 I believe…). It started as a journal excerpt, written as we were driving back to and from the climbing sites, and added to while waiting for pizza at Miguels after a long day of climbing (the pizza shop/campground/place to buy any gear your need or want/hang out for climbers in the Red– Miguels Pizza and Rock Climbing Shop). I had wanted to finish it for a while, but other things got in the way (life is annoying like that sometimes). Glad I could finally get it done, and especially excited that I could get it published and share it with everyone!

Here’s an excerpt:

Rock climbing is like an infection, some tiny bacteria that snuck in through a cut, multiplied, and almost without knowing it you’re speaking the lingo—words like “beta” and “redpoint” and “crimper.” You’re wearing the unofficial uniform of patched down jackets and ratty torn pants, spending hundreds of dollars on ropes and carabiners and bits of webbing and tight uncomfortable shoes, driving hundreds of miles so you can haul yourself up hundreds of tiny ledges and holds. It’s hard to figure out why you do this. It’s also hard to rationalize why being a climbing bum isn’t a good (long-term) life choice. – See more at: http://outdoormindedmag.com/why-i-climb-2/#sthash.w5bxg7OG.dpuf

Check it out, “like” it, share it, tell everyone you know! And do the same for OMM, because it’s an awesome magazine that everyone should read on a daily basis. Especially because I’ve now edited two pieces (and written one), which are contributing to the general awesomeness.

Link: Why I Climb