super famous climber people

well, i am all on my own on this trip again, having dropped john off at the airport last night.

i thought i had a lead on a reservation to get into the park, but it fell through. i went to line up at the gate and found out that the people just in front of me had already been waiting for 2 hours. at the front of the line they had been there for nearly four hours. a volunteer tour opened up and some spots were available. this is where it's good to be travelling by myself: the cars in front of me were all groups waiting to get in together. i grabbed the last spot on the tour.

it was a really crazy group and i can't say i got a lot of climbing in. we went to an area with only one problem that i would consider warm up grade and i tried starts to problems that were too hard for me. i also worked on a dyno problem... dyno's are my weakness... and didn't get that either. eventually a group of people showed up at the area - including dave graham, so everyone else cleared out. i mean, i certainly don't feel like trying to stick a dyno when such top notch climbers were around.

later when we moved areas, ben moon showed up and worked our problem with us. he was super friendly and nice. i could tell he was someone famous or popular by the way some of the guys on our tour stopped talking when he showed up, and the guide changed his tone to one of reverence. i was just really happy that i was able to get relatively far along in the problem we were working, and other than that was able to act my normal self.

i go through so many different emotions over the course of a day. i'm here in the desert by myself, and due to the lack of trees, there's no privacy on the campsite. so here i am, all on my own and on display to boot. everyday i meet new people, and most of them i will not see again. if i really let my mind run wild, its pretty daunting to have such strong climbers around. i just met someone, looked them up and found out they've done v14. oh dear. i'm partly inspired and partly discouraged by all the talent around. i'm trying to focus on the encouraged part of things, and really believe that i can improve my climbing if i really work on it.