My first love is trad climbing outside. Maybe it is because that is the first form of climbing I ever got into, living in Northern California with Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas not too far away. I have been lucky enough to have learned to climb in the Valley, all over the Sierras and other mountain ranges out West (e.g. Sawtooths (ID), Wind River Range (WY), Squamish (BC)). While long alpine type climbs are very difficult for me now I still try to get in trad pitches when weather (a fickle thing in New England) allows for it. I tend to make a few trips out West to warmer, drier climes if possible. My climbing partners tend to be much larger than me, so the deal is they carry most of the gear to the base and I lead the pitchest :) I have a ton of climbing photos from before my accident; and I am accumulating new ones from after my accident. That is quite satisfying.

And here are some post-accident.

Post-accident, I started to ice-climb, mainly because climbing exclusively in a gym all winter would be deathly boring. Ice (and mixed) climbing is quite straightforward in some ways, but there also seems to be quite a bit of creativity in tool use and body movements, which I find quite intriguing. It is also a medium I am less familiar with so gaining and understanding of it is all quite interesting to me.

Oh, and back on the big stone.