Climbing the Needles was great!!! I had no idea how awesome that place was. Sure the climbs are a bit run-out and quite sustained at times but no less fun. And even on a weekend we had the place to ourselves. Here are some of the highlight climbs we did:
1. The Needle's Eye area: we got so lucky because this spot is right on the road with a perfect pull-out for all the tourists. But the day we wanted to climb it, the road was closed and no cars allowed. So we hiked the mile to the area an
d had the place to ourselves. Sweet! We ended up climbing the Hitching Post, Bloody Spire, Thimble, the Needle's Eye, the Genome. Sweet trad climbs. I led my first one of the trip and it was fun! At about 4pm they opened the road, right when i was leading up the spire next to the parking lot. As i got to the top i looked down to see all sorts of old ladies and popses and kids waving at me. Hehe...funny. Nate had to explain what it was we were doing and then i send him up the needle and everybody was watching. He was the star on the road!
2. Cathedral Enchainment: essentially a climb in which you combine three spires into one. So up West Gruesome, rap off, up Spire 3, rap off, and up south tower and finish. All in all 400 feet of climbing. Phew, that was a long day. It was super fun. I led the first pitch, a long sustained chimney. Heady but good. Nate took care of the rest including a wicked 5.9 that i found myself cursing over. The views were amazing and the weather outstanding. We climbed a few other spires in the area, spire two being my favorite and first fully led multipitch. Very exciting!
3. Conn Diagonal or we can call it Classic gone Epic. What a beautiful climb. All there, all fun, challenging yet tantalizing. I never even noticed the dark clouds moving in as i led the first 180 foot pitch. By the time Nate had led the second pitch it started raining. Not so bad right. A lil rain isnt going to turn us away. Oh yeah, well there was the rumbling of thunder in the background but we were untouchable. So up we went, pitch three to the top. Superb climbing and another great view. Thats when the lightening came a lil close to home. We quickly set up the rappel and off i went into the unknown since we were rapping off the other side of the rock. The guide book said something about a nice landing but all i found was a tiny perch that luckily appeared right before i hit the end of the rope. Yikes. I put a couple of pieces in and made myself comfortable in the lil nook. Nate followed being chased by ever nearing lightening. The next moves were precarious to say the least. Exposed funky climbing to get to the next anchor. Nate went ahead to find a way when the storm hit us square on. All i saw was Nate standing there on top of these rocks with lightening all around and thunder echoing in the walls. Right about now the hail starting coming down and blew sideways through the air. 
Nate found a lil corner away from the impact. So there we were unable to see each other, attached by a rope huddled against the rock. I was pretty freaked. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the freezing waterfall that starting coming down on top of me. I was drenched within minutes. Who knew i could lose body heat so quickly. Some of the lightning must have hit the rock above me because i felt the hole column vibrate like nothing else. At this point you could say i was thoroughly scared. It didn't seem to let up much but in what seemed a small break, Nate got it together and found the next anchors. He told me to climb over to where he was. I could hardly move my fingers or hear him through the roaring thunder. By the time i got to him the hail had returned. We both were shaking so hard. I tried to keep it together and set up the rappel. I could have never done it without Nate. He was awesome. I rapped down and he followed. Finally on the ground. 
It was still raining but getting less. We were both incredibly cold and yet so happy to be down and safe. We looked at each other shivering & dishevelled, and started laughing. All of our stuff was drenched and we hiked back to the car like a couple of hobos but we had big smiles on our faces!
The climb was stunning and i am glad we did it. I learned a few things about weather, my ability to function in a crisis, and how amazing my man is.
Up next: Devil's Tower
1. 5.10 guide tennies approach shoes. YAY! Been wanting these for a while now, so this is exciting. There so comfy and perfect on rock. I'm in love....
