Spent this past Sunday paying homage to the rock Gods with a day up in Idyllwild, CA. This quaint little town is home to Suicide & Tahquitz Rock. It’s a mini-Yosemite with mutipitch trad, and “sh*t your pants” run out slab routes. I went back to revisit one of my favorite lines up in Suicide Rock, Flower of High Rank.

The night before, I took roll call for my gear. It’s always good to occasionally clean and check your gear as the lot. Sadly, for some reason one cordelette and a locker was missing from my lot.

Even though 70% of my climb time consists of bouldering, I still have an unreasonable passion for plugging gear. I will have to admit that I am in no way an alpine endurance athlete. The 40 minute uphill hike to the base kicked my butt. It has been a while since I was back in Idyllwild. So today after the hike I needed a full days rest to heal.

Earlier this year a good friend and climbing partner got in a really horrible trad accident, while I was belaying him. Thankfully he is now fully healed. Even though I wasn’t physically hurt, it was mentally shocking experiencing it. It took me a while to ease back into roped climbing. Yesterday was my first time back leading up with gear. I’ve done Flower of High Rank late last year, and cruised up the thing. This time was different. I definitely had a different mind set while leading. I was getting frustrated with myself taking hangs, but I just needed time to ease back into it all. Thankfully I didn’t hit any freak out moment where I had succumb to bailing out. Eventually I finished the pitches, and gained that feeling of passion I’ve been masking with fear for a while. Can’t wait to get back out there and lead more with them thar widget wedges.

Keep a right mindset & climb on everyone!

-Natalie Duran