Trad Dad and the Boulderer

The glow of the Fall effort on the Rostrum in Yosemite had faded. I was in a dark funk of winter. The hounds of middle age were nipping at my heels. I needed something to train for, to draw myself into the light. A rematch on the Original Route in Red Rock would be the perfect thing. I pitched the trip to Ryman as we broke a multi-day fast late one night over pizza and bottles of wine. He tentatively agreed, explaining that he was but a novice placing traditional protective gear on a rope in wild settings. He was primarily a boulderer. Ryman negotiates boulders that take me weeks to piece together like an avalanche flowing through a valley. I hoped his energy might inform my own climbing. "We'll figure it out together," I told him. Here is a short video on how it went.