As I climb more and more, I find that I don’t enjoy anything more than easy multipitch climbing. I like knowing that everything is in my ability and the exposure is high. This route is very special to me because I spent the entire year helping my wife to train to do it with me. “Solar Slab” (5.6) is actually only the top 9 pitches of the climb, with the bottom 5 pitches being either climbed by “Johnny Vegas” (5.7) or “Solar Slab Gully” (5.4). We devided to climb up Johnny vegas, and the phot here is the top of pitch 2. We climbed the entire morning to make it to a huge beautiful ledge about 500 ft off of the canyon floor. There is one boulder to shelter from the sun and refuel at before starting the actual pitches of Solar Slab. We managed to make our summit around 2 pm, before starting the decent. We opted to hike out the back, where we rappelled 3 times to get off of the peak, and then did a 4-hour hike along a stream. On the car ride, I described the route as “One of those 5.8 warm-ups in the gym, but 200 ft at a time”.

This climb is my favorite I have ever done, because it took years to self-disciplined training and practice for everything to come together. I led pitches, built anchors, and rappelled all while battling the desert heat and exposure. It is certainly the proudest I have ever been climbing, and I am thrilled by the experience. I definately discovered that this is about my limit for big objectives. This is the first time I climbed a route where I wasn’t immediately thinking about the next big objective. It was satisfying in a way I had not experienced before.

This is the last big climb I did as the head instructor of Greater Boston Climbing School. I had an amazing time, but it is time for me to focus on my research and career. I will continue to climb at this level, but I feel very happy with this as a crowning achievement in my climbing.