Autumn is a time for animals and plants to start dying. Elk are coming down from their lofty perches up high, despite what every natural instinct tells them, only to get smoked down by a speeding car being driven by a soft, stupid, fleshy person on the way to doing something meaningless. Flowers freeze in the night, and the quaking aspen trees have shed their leaves into the brown grass.

At my local crag, climbers are no longer on sending missions, but rather, in draw-retrieval mode. Take what’s yours and then get the fuck out of there like a rat.

There are always projects left, and maybe a few sunny days in the next few weeks will let us get on them just one more time before the snows come.

But not me. I’m working two jobs right now, and it’s making my life more miserable than it even is normally. Well, I don’t want to start a precedent of using this blog to complain, but, shit me, what other good comes of blogging?

Danny Robertson on his new route Achilles (5.14a)

This photo above is a shot I took of my friend Dan Robertson on his new addition to Rifle, Achilles (5.14a). It’s a sick new addition, and maybe there’s even enough time out there for someone to nab a speedy second ascent before winter, but not me, bubba. It takes me about three months to do one route there, which, given that there are at least 100 routes I have not sent yet, is a lifetime left of climbing.

Well, that’s too positive for 7 a.m. … It’s time for work, homie.