April 2016
"Not a day goes by where I don't think about Yosemite."
I stare out the car window.
I think about what he's just said.
I love Yosemite too, but is that true for me? Do I think about Yosemite every day? Do I think about climbing every day? I think about it a lot, but every day is an awful lot.
Maybe.
I can't put it into numbers or into any quantifiable way or even into any qualifiable way really, but I do think about it a lot. Everything is planned around the next trip. The next time I can go outside. Not necessarily just to Yosemite but to any place I can climb.
And not just for another weekend, but for every day.
For a lifestyle.
Forever.
For a long time, Yosemite was an imaginary land.
The members of my gym in Korea would speak of it with such reverence. A magical place with the most majestic walls, erupting from the earth and reaching high towards the heavens.
Even though I grew up in California, I'd never been to Yosemite.
So, strangely enough, by the time I finally made it to out to the Valley, some 3 years after I'd started climbing, everything I knew about Yosemite I'd learned from Koreans.
I'd worried I'd be disappointed.
I wasn't.
The climbing. The scenery. The energy.
Everything here is unlike anywhere else.
Even though the high season traffic drives me crazy, I also love seeing the amazing group of climbers who gather here.
People the world over all convene in this little Valley for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to climb in this historic area.
One Irish man we met was here on a 2-week climbing trip with his son. It was his 50th birthday present to himself.
A Swiss man didn't speak a lick of English, but was here for 10 days, searching desperately for a partner to climb the Nose with.
It's a crazy thing-- climbing is an absolutely 100% non-productive activity. Nothing physical results from it. The are only two outcomes from a climb-- you end up the way you started or you're injured. So you can only really have a net loss in this sport.
And yet we do it anyways.
We dedicate our lives to it.
We plot and plan and scheme for ways to save up money so we can quit our jobs and climb indefinitely.
"Climbing is ruining my life!"
He said it in a joking voice, and we laughed.
But we both knew he wasn't really joking.
He'd originally planned to work as an accountant after college.
A safe, respectable profession that would've enabled him to care for a spouse, raise 2 kids and a golden retriever, and live in a cute pink-trimmed house with shingles and a white picket fence.
Instead he ended up living out of his car so he could climb full time.
Savings?
Sure, I've got enough savings to climb for the next 6 months!
That's savings, right?
What do mountain misfits do when it’s raining everywhere for 5 straight days?
Kick it in the big city, tear up the gyms, and drink!
Alex is a great model. Bright red jacket offset with a teal inner layer. Hipster cap and black framed glasses. Playing Jenga in a bar. 10/10 would use as a model again.
The best part of this picture is that it makes it look like Alex is really good at Jenga.
But in reality she lost most of the games we played that day, and now has quite the debt to repay.
Don’t think I forgot, Alex.
I definitely didn’t forget.
I’m bummed I didn’t get a picture of our group! Five people, four bikes (one tandem!). Rocking bright red, royal purple, leaf green, sky blue and grey-blue. It would’ve really made for such a fabulous picture!
I baked the most perfect cheesecake of my entire life.
I am extremely proud of myself.
I’m going to take a few kilobytes of space on the internet to brag about it and no one will stop me.
It’s a satisfying thing, reaching perfection.
But also a little empty—where do I go from here? Is life even worth living anymore when there’s nothing left to achieve?
I also baked a salted caramel chocolate walnut tart with coconut shavings.
And then brought it camping.
This is how I trick people into climbing with me.
Will exchange delicious baked goods for belay jobs.
I don't typically take pictures of food-- except for what I make personally. And I love taking pictures of climbing-camping meals!
Some people just eat oatmeal for breakfast but not me. I eat like a fucking queen when I go camping.
And by like a queen I mean fried eggs and usually some sort of veggie stir-fry.
Take note of the ratio here by the way. Six girls (including me, the photographer!) and just two boys at the top of a multi-pitch in Yosemite! Times are changing. Hanging out with lady crushers all day is super inspiring and really just the best!
I know it's the same thing every single time, but I really just can't help myself. I love flowers.
We interrupt your regular programming with a short interlude of roses in the neighborhood.
Painting gear painting gear painting gear.
I have to try harder to keep track of my gear so it doesn’t get lost.
Whoops. Too late.
Deer in the camp site deer in the camp site deer in the camp site.
Guys, look.
It's deer in the camp site!!!
John Muir famously likened being in Yosemite to going to church—such was the impact the mountains had on him as he would gaze up at their vast, almost terrifying faces.
We, too, found religion in the heart of the Valley.
Or we just really needed to pass some grapes from one sprinter to the other.
Sometimes, life is so damn hard out here.
You don’t understand all the struggles we face.
Staying nourished. Keeping dry in the rain. Staving off loneliness and despair.
People romanticize van life like it’s great, but it’s really full of struggle.
Even though it’s been almost 3 years since I’ve left Korea, Korea never really leaves me. The friends I made in Korea are still among the best that I have.
I wonder if the experience of working and climbing in Korea shaped us to become the strange ragtag group of misfits that we are, or if we were misfits before we went to Korea.
Probably a bit of both.
All I know is that of all the climber ex-ex-pats, only Sarah and I have proper salaried jobs. The rest of these vagabonds are just that—vagabonds.
Could we have guessed this is where we would be, 3 years ago?
Where will be in 3 more years?