A text message flashed across my screen, “Will you climb the Scenic Cruise with me this year?”
“Of course,” I replied, “that climb rules. I would do it any day of the week. Actually every day of the week if I had the chance.”
Internally, I wondered about my friend’s request after our last ignominious trip to the Black together. The one that ended with my friend refusing to leave the picnic table and rack up because he insisted that there was no way he was going back “there”, into the depths of the canyon.
On the phone later, he described his sudden change of heart as part of his goal setting for the year, professionally and personally. That prompted an exchange of emails with beta and photos and route descriptions.
In the process, I also started exploring the routes I wanted to complete next, in the Black and elsewhere. I began rummaging through the many guidebooks on my shelves, and one book I always go back to again and again is the latest edition of Yosemite Big Walls, the 3rd edition by SuperTopo, published in 2011.
Read the rest of my review of Yosemite Big Walls here, at SplitterChoss.com.
