After a glorious month and a half in Joshua Tree I decided I needed to get back to warm water, friends, and family. El Capitan will fall, just not this spring. Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been doing since returning to the “Greatest City in the World”.

My mornings start when the sun hits my tent. I take them slow and deliberate. First I make some coffee with the ever handy Jet Boil French press, followed by breakfast (oatmeal, an egg scramble, or cereal), reading/writing, and yoga. 

Climbing is different everyday. I’ve been practicing new techniques such as aid climbing and jumaring to prepare for The Nose. I’ve been doing some chill routes with friends and got to take my brother up his first outdoor climb. I’ve also been pushing my limits on some harder lines, like Illusion Dweller.

My intention is to learn as much as possible everyday. To learn about climbing, learn from the books I read, the people I meet, and most importantly to learn about myself. Climbing teaches you incredible things. Everyday I do things that are a matter of life and death. Tying knots, placing gear, building anchors. All very, very safe when done right, but heady nonetheless. You learn a lot about yourself doing these sorts of things.

The last two days have been WINDY! So windy. I only did one climb yesterday. It was a very thin 5.10a slab requiring a lot of finesse and balance. Add 50 mph winds (no joke) and it felt like 5.11a! Then wind is supposed to calm this afternoon and be beautiful again. 

Joshua Tree is about as close you can get to living on another planet. So foreign, so beautiful, so harsh, so rad. Come visit.

Carpe Diem,

Eric

Sometimes I feel like I’m living out a Jack Kerouac novel. My time in Oregon was short lived and I am on the road again, currently living in the most amazing of places, Joshua Tree National Park.

The story that caused this trip to come about is long and best told around a campfire. My time in Oregon was amazing and terrible. Full of love and at the same time some things very far from love. 

When this trip ends I will be once again engulfed in the warm waters of the Atlantic ocean and the pleasant heat of the Florida sun. When this trip ends. Until then I have set my site on the giant granite wall known as El Capitan. I have begun training and if money and time and the universe conspire I will climb that wall in late May or early June. 

I am going to revive this site to write thoughts and post photos along the journey. If you are interested and care, I hope you will follow along.

Living Fully,

Eric

The past is the past, the future is unknown, the present is now. Live in the present.

I’m shaking the dust of Southern California off my boots and heading on. My time here has been good, nearly great.

I will miss the friends that I have made. I will miss the close proximity of Mex and my beloved Joshua Tree N.P. What I will not miss is the city, the commute, the traffic, nor the California laws and regulations.

While my heart will forever be drawn to The Southland, on Saturday I’ll aim the nose of The Beast northward. Take the coast and catch some waves along the way to Bend, Oregon. 

I visited my good friend Winston and his lovely wife Hillary there a couple months back and came to realize that it is a special place. A seemingly perfect blend of city and country, surrounded by National Forest, mountains, Smith Rock, and filled with down home folks. 

Here’s to a new chapter. Here’s to the present.

To hug the mountain.