Mom's El Capitan Experience

When Calder was 17 years old he announced he was going to spend the summer living in the Yosemite parking lot in his pimped out VW bus. As a parent the prospect of danger was many fold the least of which was the peril of his climbing activities. Nothing would dissuade Calder from his desire and so with trust in his goodness and judgement he was sent on his way. He called me weekly to report and tell me about his adventures. This was the beginning of many years of big wall climbing and the resulting physical and emotional growth that it brought to him. He became very accomplished and well known for his skills and proved to be a credit to his family.

His older brother Travis, who is an established business owner and father of three, decided recently that he would like to experience the thrill of climbing. He arranged for Calder to take him along with his best friend and business partner, Enoch Palmer, to Yosemite to climb El Capitan. Calder invited another climbing friend, Nate Brown, to join them. The photo above is the farewell photo the morning they started on their way.
This is a photo in the meadow before their ascent. This trip had new and wonderful ways to keep me in the loop. With the age of the iphone, facebook, internet and techie geek Travis, there were daily updates and photos reporting their progress and feelings.
Planning the route. (Enoch and Nate)


Six days of this does not seem fun to me but they had a wonderful time. They said the days flew by as they busied themselves with the process of placing and cleaning their gear and climbing.
Before they started up the bears got hold of their water supply.
Sleeping at night would freak me out but they were tied onto the rock and assured me it was all safe.
Two brothers in a bonding experience.


One of many remarkable photos taken by Travis was this water falling from above which he described as separate diamonds catching the light as they fell.
At the top. A great feeling of accomplishment for the climbers and great feeling of relief to me to know they would be on their way home.
Back in Midway cleaning the gear. (the sailboat in the barn will probably be the next great adventure.) I told Travis and Calder how much I loved them but more than that I'm thankful they love and enjoy each other so much. I think this trip deepened all of those feelings. Glad they went..glad they came home safe.
The parting shot.