…But Sometimes It Does

I forget what year it was. But some friends and I decided to head down to New River Gorge in West Virginia to get some rock climbing over Labor Day Weekend.

The conditions were perfect. But I don’t think I got in more than a couple climbs the whole weekend. I might have been intimidated by the other climbers that were all technically light years better than me. I might have been nursing another back injury. (But I doubt that was the case. I recall sleeping blissfully in my tent the whole weekend.) But whatever the case, I was much ore interested in carrying around my camera and waiting for something to happen.

Rock climbing pictures from below are usually pretty boring. But a quick trip to Summersville Lake to deep water solo really got my creative juices flowing.

High above the water, some folks had tethered a long slackline across jutting peaks. I watched in amazement as person after person managed to navigate their way across it. In my head, it was hundreds of feet above the water. In reality, a little less than that. But I still marveled at their ability to walk across that bouncy line while remembering all the times I’ve nearly dislocated my shoulder from just a foot or so off the ground while practicing.

After countless made their way across, the line eventually came down, and the deep water soloists got all of my attention.

Now, watching a bunch of people work their way 5.7 or so climbing isn’t particularly interesting, but watching them fall can be. And watching them leap off the 70-foot cliff really is.

I got a bunch of fun pics over that long weekend. But this was by far my favorite.

I watched him at the top of the cliff. He was ramping up the will to make the leap for only a few seconds. And then like a bird he leapt into the unknown, casually spinning head over heels as if there were nothing more natural in the world.

I don’t know who this brave soul is, but my hats off to you for both your courage, and making my weekend a bit more interesting!