Termination

El Fin. Our last blog post:

Red Rocks is a marvelous climbing area. Here, we climbed Prince of Darkness (10c, 6 pitches) and a dozen or so steep sport routes in the 5.10-5.12 range. In between hot and sunny days, we experienced a rare Las Vegas hail storm which brought frozen ice pellets and 50mph winds - toppling many tents in the campground. 

The endless incut edges on Prince of Darkness

Sunny and steep

Vegas has been hit hard by the persistent recession. Half of all mortgages are in negative equity and the unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation. Cookie cutter houses are empty, buildings are left partially constructed, and strip malls vacant.  Vegas ranks lowest on our move to list.

Today is the last day of our trip together. We’ve climbed hundreds of pitches, visited eight states and Canada, and explored many places of possible future residence. 10,000 miles later the minivan is still going strong. We’ve been able to maintain a moderately luxurious travelling lifestyle for just under $1100 per month. I’ve actually been able to save some money!

In a few hours Dan departs on a jet airplane, returning east for the winter and spring. He’ll be coaching a high school Nordic ski team and working at the Burlington Eastern Mountain Sports.  I’ll be heading back to CA to sell the van, buy a small car, and find a place to live in Lake Tahoe, where I’ll be working with a non-profit environmental org for the next year. We’ll both continue to review gear for Supertopo. Dan will be tearing up the slopes in the latest and greatest ski jackets, ski pants, ski gloves, and will be digging snow caves to test bivy sacks. I’ll be doing zero degree sleeping bags, four season tents, softshells, and gps units.

Here ends our trip and thus our blog. We’ll leave you with a shot of us modeling softshells. 

Happy Thanksgiving.