Lizzie_Outdoors

We don't usually take Ellie with us when we go climbing. We are always worried about her bothering other people and being her being stressed out. Today a friend asked us to bring her along, so we happily complied. Ellie was wonderful at crag dogging. She hung out at the base of the climb sunbathing and hanging out with our friends daughter.

Rain seems to ever be our forecast here in the desert this winter, which means climbing outdoors is an impossibility.  We continually climb inside trying to get stronger, but it really isn't the same. We decided to take Luke's parents out to Red Rock to plan an upcoming trip. While we were there we stopped at one of our favorite pullouts, and there just so happened to be this amazing waterfall right off of the trail. Water in the desert is pretty rare, and it was wonderful to have the chance to see the water from the rain in this rare way.

After being stuck inside for a month, and then finally being able to get outside, we wanted the next day to be just as good...but it wasn't. We both ended up waking up later than we intended and with massive headaches. Looking back we probably should have been drinking more water the day before because of how warm it was. Not knowing if we would have the chance to climb again any time soon, we decided to head out to Red Rock again. When we got there our headaches were worse, but we were determined to climb. We made it to the intended cliff, and then despite our best efforts, realized that we weren't going to be able to climb. We ended up taking a short nap on the cliff, snapping a few pictures and heading home. Isn't that how life is kind of like? We spend so much time planning what we want, and then once we make it there things don't go our way despite our best intentions and then we are forced to make do. We could have gotten on the climb that day, but at what cost? A

Almost a month has passed since my last post; not because I have been apathetic to this blog, rather the weather has caused a short sabbatical to our climbing. Each week the same routine would transpire. The first few days would start out beautiful, but by the end of the week the inevitable rains would come. We spent most of the month of January inside. We each found something to do to fill the time. Luke was working on a project with his dad and I spent my free time planting a garden of succulents in my house, trying my hardest to bring a little of that nature I was missing inside (one day soon I will post a picture or two). Fast forward to the first weekend of February. The first week in a month that it didn't rain. We both knew we wanted to get outside, but we also knew we hadn't touched rock in a month, moreover, many of the big climbs in Redrock were still covered in snow. Playing it safe, we headed to first pullout to do some easy sport climbing. Knowing I might not get