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| Mattie showing us how it is done!! You are my inspiration! |
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| My first lead in a year! Nothing fancy, but fun to be back! |
This summer has been a a little rough, but I have been making the best of it and trying to appreciate the things I can do and not ever take my body for granted. Finally after four months of dealing with a broken tibia and fibula I was finally ready to get back into the mountains and back to climbing! The only small problem was my shoulder has been very unstable for the last year and has been dislocating on a regular basis. I am heading into surgery in a couple of days to fix the problem which will give me enough time to recover for ski season.This is hard on me mentally after coming off such a serious injury to my lower leg. I am trying to remain as positive as I can and I am grateful that I can now at least walk.
A few weeks ago I went climbing for my first time since my broken leg with two very inspiring women Mattie and Kim. We headed down to Wild Iris in the southern Wind River Mountains out of Lander, Wy. I was so psyched be able to get out and get on the rock again and be in the mountains. The climbing in Wild Iris is rated a little harder than I am used to climbing and especially after not climbing for over a year. Mattie, being the amzing graceful and mellow person that she is lead right up the hard stuff instilling confidence in my climbing ability. Watching her was amazing! There is nothing like going climbing with two badass ladies to get your confidence back. I had an amazing time and even lead a few pitches!
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| Kim Havell Sending Beautifully! |
The following weekend I was excited to get into the Tetons! The past 4 months I had just been staring up at them wishing I could just be able to walk to them! I could not believe that my time had finally come I was going to climb Irenes Arete with Brian and play in the mountains. My leg and shoulder had felt good climbing in Wild Iris, which had me feeling positive about the day. I had climbed Irenes a few times before and was so excited to climb such a beautiful route. My leg was a little sore going up, but nothing major. I was feeling really strong climbing until the third pitch and my shoulder decided to dislocate, I could not believe it and I was so mad at myself for being all the way up here with not a lot of bail options and putting my partner in a bad position. I was able to finish off the pitch with it dislocated and get to Brian on the belay ledge. After about 20 minutes we were able to get then
shoulder back into place. The only bad thing was we still had 2 pitches of climbing until the descent.
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| Brian moving gracefully! This move was a little hard on the shoulder. (stayed in on this one though) |
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| Irenes! |
The one good thing was a good friend and PA Lanny Johnson happened to be on the route behind us. He knew how to get my shoulder back in and so I felt a little more secure with trying to finish the route. Looming above be was a hard hand crack that I remember really liking but with the way my shoulder felt I was not feeling very confident on making it through the crux. Brian lead up and out of contact, I knew Lanny was coming up behind me, but I really did not want to deal with the pain of my shoulder dislocating again. Sure enough I tried to climb up and was not able to make the move due to my confidence and my sore shoulder. I fell 3 times and on the third try my worst nightmare happened my shoulder popped out again! Lannys partner Mike was just making his way to the ledge and was able to tell Brian to lower me down a bit, but communication was tough. After what felt like an eternity Lanny got to the ledge and was able to put my shoulder back in. Thank you Lanny! I then was assisted up by Mike and able to make it to Brian and climb the last pitch with mainly one arm. My shoulder was sore and I still had not done much hiking with my leg. The gully going down from Irenes was less than forgiving, but was able to make it out to the car with little problems just a sore shoulder and ankle! Getting shoulder surgery in 2 days to have be back in time for skiing!!
