Flatirons are numbered from right to left -- 1st, 2nd, 3rd...
On May 29, 2009, Chris and I tried to complete my Flatirons trifecta by doing the relatively easy 2nd Flatiron. It was a great climb, we were having a great time, but about 2/3 of the way up the climb the clouds moved in quickly, rain started pouring, and lightning started flashing. We bailed before climbing up onto the Pullman Car, which is visible from town and a pretty awesome looking structure at the top of the Flatiron, and ran for our lives back to the car in some time that I'm sure I will never come close to touching again. When we got back to the car we were soaking wet but happy to not have become lightning kabobs.
Wet, but we made it back safely!
Fast forward to, coincidentally, May 30, 2012... almost exactly three years later. With one whole day off between the end of the regular school year and the beginning of the ELA Summer Academy that Chris and I would both be working, we looked for something that we could do together. You see, this whole teaching residency program that Chris is in has left very little time for, well, maintaining a normal relationship. But, there's a whole blog post of its own on that coming up very soon.
Anyway.
I've climbed very little in the last year, and frankly I climbed more often 7+ months pregnant than I have lately. Any climbing I have done has been on our home garage wall but even that has been embarassingly little considering it is actually in my garage. But still, for the last three years, this unfinished Flatiron has been on my mind and this seemed like a good opportunity to get 'er done.
My wonderful parents gave up their own day off from watching JJ to come up and watch JJ. Have I mentioned how incredibly spoiled I am to have them around? They are absolutely amazing...but again, a topic for another blog post...
Long story a little bit shorter, we got that 2nd Flatiron ticked off my bucket list and now I can look at the skyline driving into Boulder and know I've successfully made it to the top of the three major Flatirons. The best part of the whole climb was the part we had fly through in our rush to reach a bailout the first time, and the second best part was what we had to skip all together. I managed to surprise both myself and Chris by successfully navigating the one "tricky" section of getting up onto the Pullman Car.
I didn't even freak out on the rock despite days of leading up to the climb whining to Chris about how "scary" it was going to be and how I felt horrible going to do something "dangerous" together now that we have a kid (despite roping up on a climb that MANY people "run" up without a rope). I felt better climbing that day than I ever did leading up to my not-so-brief-hiatus from multipitch climbing.
Something about wanting to keep moving so I could go home and see my wonderful son, combined with the euphoria of ACTUALLY GETTING OUT without him, made for a great experience. I sat at one belay and watched two crows soar in the wind playfully right below me. I laughed to myself at what a great time they seemed to be having and how they must've had a babysitter for the morning as well. Chris and I were gittily happy at each belay, just enjoying each other's company and feeling like the old us... only new and improved with funny things to yell at each other like "allez Daddy, comon! Top it out!" (one of JJ's favorite sayings from watching climbing videos with Daddy).
Note to self though...when going a fun outing where you want to take pictures to prove to yourself that you really did "top it out", remember to put the memory card in the camera.
Thank goodness for the camera on Chris's ghetto phone which actually took an amazingly good picture (considering it is probably one of the original camera phones :) ).
Thank goodness for the camera on Chris's ghetto phone which actually took an amazingly good picture (considering it is probably one of the original camera phones :) ).
