First Return Clients

A week ago, I had the privilege of guiding a couple, Trudy and Ralph, at Chimney Rock Park.  They had booked a half day of top-roping.  I took then to an area called Wildcat Buttress.  There are some great crack climbs there.  The couple had been climbing before so I figured that they would be able to handle the routes I was going to put them on.  They did well.  The routes were just at their limit but they were able to make it up them.  The biggest problem of going to Wildcat was that the trail there is very bad.  There is a lot of loose rock, many obstacles, and it can be a little steep in some places.  That was one of the biggest challenges that we faced that day.  As we were talking through the day, I began to tell them about Looking Glass.  They were interested in possibly doing another half day.  I tried to sell them on coming over to Looking Glass and checking it out.  We parted ways and then I began to wait to see if they would book for later in the week. 

 

Fast forward to Thursday. The booking that I had for that day got rained out.  Trudy had not booked again so I had figured that they were not going to want to do another day.  That night, I received an email from Trudy.  We then got things set to go hit up Looking Glass on Friday.  I was stoked.  My first return clients.

 

Trudy and Ralph at the top of the first pitch of the Nose

Friday morning arrives.  They show up a little early and we head up to the Nose area.  Once there we climbed The Nose.  They really enjoyed it.  Oh, it was also a beautiful day.  There was a steady (should read strong) breeze and the temperature and humidity were lower than normal.  After doing the first pitch of the Nose we moved over to do a variation of the first pitch of Sundial Crack.  It was a bit trickier but they both enjoyed it.  Finally, I swapped ropes with another of our guides here at Fox, Tracy.  She had a rope set up going through a small roof about 60 feet up the wall.  Trudy and Ralph both gave valiant attempts but failed to pull through the roof.  

  

After we did that we were done for the day.  I had a great time getting to work with them.  I also managed to get some decent photos at Looking Glass.  Here are a few of them.