First Frozen Fingers

The rock climbing has begun! On Tuesday I climbed with my old friend Rit at the Trapps. Climbing with Rit in March has become a ritual since we have lived here in the east, it is as much a sign of spring as returning song birds and the flooding Wallkill.

I have known Rit since I was a wild eyed teenage climber wanna be. He was already a relatively experienced climber and got a kick out of the wild eyed exuberance of young climbers like me and Parick Hackett, Nancy Stohr and George Amenta. Rit lived in NY city at that time and never missed a chance to cruise out to CT to climb at Ragged, there was always somebody to get out with to make the moves and have a few laughs.

Rit lives in New Paltz these days and each spring we say good bye to snowboarding and ice climbing by picking our way through patches of snow and ice to get to the barely sun warmed rock and enjoy frozen fingered first routes of the year. Who knows what the coming season holds but this day we got a bit of adventure and a few laughs under the blue sky