Higgins and SoYo

[mungeclimber]

I forgot this article was floating around out there...

Commuters on Chiquito Dome

http://www.tomhiggins.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=20

MY ENJOYMENT OF CLIMBING begins long before the climb. I tingle as I think about Chiquito Dome. While I scamper around the little bouldering outcrop, Indian Rock in Berkeley, I imagine climb­ing the golden surface of Chiquito. At my desk, I shove away memos, sketch topos and scrawl route names for the last route I did with Chris Vandiver on Chiquito Dome, and the one to come. I peer into our slides of the dome, imag­ining how this knobby section will go and the next and where to belay.

There on the July calendar are three free days. I wonder if Chris can meet me at Chiquito Dome to finish a new route we started last year, but had no time to finish. We have planned and cancelled a trip several times this year. Chris has been busy building house additions, selling skis and teaching climbers. I'm busy consulting with cities on transportation problems. The work hustle heightens concern about climbing on Chiquito Dome. Maybe someone has already done our route? Maybe the dome, all ours up to now, is covered with routes? We talk nervously on the telephone, I in Oakland, Chris in Donner Summit, near Lake Tahoe. He's puffing his cigarette and says, "We've got to do it, man. It's too damn good to last." Finally, we find a window of time from July 19-21.

[NateD]

Love the honesty and detail in that excerpt. We can all relate, eh?

[mungeclimber]

Dreaded heat and the nearly all consuming desire to get back out there definitely ring true!

[susan]

Well, he certainly once loved that route. It would be dishonest not to admit I have enjoyed climbing some of the sport climbs that obscure it now, nor do I want to get so run on a Higgins..., but what a testament to an accomplishment that must have been once upon a time when it stood alone.