Fulfilling A Dream of Arches

This picture with a red line on it might not mean much to you. For me, it’s the culmination of a summer of training and years of dreaming. I’m going to climb it in October. It’s called the Royal Arches route. It’s in Yosemite Valley. I remember the first time I went to Yosemite , with it’s immense granite walls and domes. I looked for this route because a friend mentioned it to me. The base of it sits right below the Old Inn.

I went back to Yosemite last year. A frend and I hiked to the base of the Royal Arches. I looked up at it, I just wanted to go up it

The Route (5.7 A0)

NOW! I even almost talked my friend into climbing the first few hundred feet of it. But I knew if I did that I wouldn’t want to turn back. I would want to go all the way.

So I guess it’s lucky I didn’t even start it. I’m a firm believer that when you truly make a choice, a decision to commit yourself to something, you go all the way. I tell you, I have made alot of so-called decisions in life and I didn’t go all the way. I guess in some sense they weren’t really decisions because I wasn’t really committed.

I have been climbing alot. Been away from home and my beautiful wife more than I would like to. I’m just glad she understands what something as seemingly meaningless as climbing up a rock wall can mean to somebody. It is meaningless. It’s how the climbing makes me feel. Those beautiful moments which can stretch from seconds to minutes to hours if we are lucky. Those moments of pure, crystalline peace with oneself.

Sometimes it seems as if my life is ruled by short term rewards. There is no satisfaction that is quite the same as building yourself slowly up until you reach a point in life where you feel deep inside that I am worthy of this. It takes alot of work, persistence, and self-insight to get there.

I have a few more months until I get to reach for the opportunity that I have worked diligently to get. I never meant to get all sentimental. I just pulled out this picture, started painting the red line you see right up the granite face, and thought to myself how lucky I really am to have a goal in sight like this.

I believe I can do it. I can’t wait to try.