Little Time-Out For Kelly...

I have been slacking recently on posting because, sadly, I haven't been out climbing in a while... I'm on a forced break from climbing (first school, then moving, then health reasons) and I'm already starting to go a little crazy. I'm going to make more of an effort to update this blog, to help keep me sane, as browsing the dozens of other interesting climbing blogs out there makes me wonder "why am I not there, doing that?"

Joel Campbell's "Yawning Rock"

Cortney and I recently moved into a small house in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle. The house is great, with plenty of room (for us) and nice amenities - it even has a fireplace. However, the best part of the house so far has been the huge pine tree in the front yard.

Joel and I used a ladder and fun passive-pro lead climbing to rig a fixed line about 60 feet up. Since then, we've installed two hammocks about 50 feet up. It's really nice to get out of school and literally just "go climb a tree." Tree climbing shares many characteristics of rock climbing: It is climbing (of some sort), it is an interaction with nature, it involves playing with roped-climbing gear, it gives me a slight fear of heights, and the view is better on top - from the hammocks, you can get a view of the Olympics, the Cascades, and even the skyscrapers downtown. Good times.