Friday, 01-Nov-2019

Fall is my favorite time of year. It’s bright, the leaves are beautiful, it’s cold but not freezing, and the sun is still up for a fair amount of time. It’s the perfect season for rock climbing.

Thankfully, we were able to make a bit of time, and Sarah and I headed out to The Beacon for a quick three-pitch jaunt up the SE Face.  It was amazing to stretch out our climbing muscles again; placing gear, building anchors, and facing the cold wind through the Columbia Gorge.  We had a blast!

We’d been debating continuing to the summit, but honestly, after Pitch 3, we were pretty burnt and cold – it was NOT a warm day, and while I love climbing in the cool weather, this was getting just a little into the “cold” side of things.  We conferenced quickly, and decided that it’d be better to descend… everything after Pitch 3 is pretty weak anyways, so we weren’t really feeling drawn to it.

Instead, we rapelled down, packed up our gear… and then hiked to the summit!  Woo!