DISPATCHES

Chin

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"I'll be careful Dave," I say as much to calm myself as to appease Dave's fear that he will be chopped in half. I wonder what the fate of my rope will be if the flake goes. I knock on the flake and it sounds a bit like a kettle drum. Dave and I are both very quiet. I snake through, teetering on the top step of my aiders and eventually move past the flake into better rock. I am happy.

I make the final moves to the lip of the roof and glance down. There is a bit of air below me. The world looks odd from this perspective. I imagine the topographic lines below. The river is a thin ribbon and the trees small buds. The position and exposure is a bit absurd and I forget myself in a moment of bliss. Beautiful.

I look up to get our first up close look at the upper dihedrals and see that our hopes of freeing the wall will most likely be unfulfilled. The dihedrals are perfectly clean with super thin cracks in the corners. I look around one last time and focus back on the task at hand.

After three more hours of aiding, I finish the pitch at dusk. The hundred and eighty foot pitch is the most beautiful I have ever done. I know I am lucky.

— Jimmy Chin, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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