On Friday I turned 30—a nebulous and volatile age in which you are either “old” or “still young” depending on the other person’s perspective. On this morning after such a high-speed weekend, however, I must admit to feeling a little … um … not old … let’s say worn down.

My good friend Hayden Kennedy approached me last week with the idea that we should climb 30 pitches to celebrate my 30^th birthday. “Birthday Challenges” (BCs)—usually some kind of numbered endurance mission that corresponds to the person’s age—aren’t anything new, nor are they exclusive to climbing. Run 40 miles, drink 21 beers, masturbate 18 times, walk 100 steps … all are valid challenges assuming that that is what the person is into.

I’ve always thought BCs were a little dumb, but that’s because I think that anything with contrived difficulty is dumb (such as bouldering eliminates, single-push mountaineering, running a marathon, the entire world of mixed climbing, et al.).

Still I went along for the ride, mostly because I thought that doing 30 Rifle pitches probably wouldn’t be that hard. I don’t know why I thought that since I normally only do five or six pitches per day, and I don’t know if I’ve ever done more than 10 in Rifle ever.

We got going around 9:30 in the morning and got into a really nice pace of climbing pitch after pitch. I started the day feeling pretty tired and uncoordinated from a bad night’s sleep, but eventually got into a little groove as I woke up. I usually don’t start climbing until the afternoon because I subscribe to the motto that “No world records have ever been made before noon.”  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it seems like it should be.

Though I was skeptical about doing the 30 pitches, it quickly revealed itself to me as the perfect way to spend my birthday. That’s because I climbed a bunch of routes that I haven’t done in years, and revisiting them, in a way, was a rather poignant and apt tour of my past.

When I first started climbing at Rifle I could barely climb 5.12—and since then I’ve technically done a 5.14. So this home crag—as anyone’s home crag tends to be—has been the site of a long and very much educational journey.

I climbed routes that were once former projects of mine and in some cases I wondered how I’d ever fallen on these pitches since they now felt so easy. In other cases, with some 5.11s that I had onsighted many years ago but hadn’t climbed since, I was surprised that way back then I’d somehow managed to do the tricky, difficult climbing first try. In all cases, however, I climbed slowly and rhythmically and allowed all these memories to wash over me. It was incredible—and like I said, a perfect way to spend the day.

Around pitch 12, however, my forearms started cramping up—I experienced that electric jolt of tightness whenever I locked off or brought a bight of rope to my mouth. Hayden started getting the same forearm cramps, too, though for him it wasn’t until pitch 20. That was disconcerting to us, and after our 21^st pitch, we brought the grade down a notch.

We thought it would be cool to end the day with an ascent of Pump-o-Rama, which is a juggy 5.13a that is the classic Rifle “warm down” pitch. Both Hayden and I have climbed Pump-o-Rama a hundred times: without kneepads, in sneakers, without resting … Hayden almost did it the other week while wearing a pair of fleece gloves. Still, at the end of the day, literally and figuratively speaking, it’s still a hard climb. Since we felt so tired and had been battling with these wicked forearm cramps for the last few hours, we were both equally skeptical that Pump-o-Rama would go. Neither of us had fallen up until that point, and we knew we had to try.

Hayden went first: His tactic was to just climb without resting in order “out-run” the pump, figuring that he might not be able to recover. Shabang, he sent it! He had done his 30 pitches, and I was really psyched for him, but I was also really nervous since now I had to climb, and I really, really didn’t want to blow it.

I was in full redpoint/battle mentality, and I decided to actually wear kneepads, since, unlike 21-year-old Hayden, I knew I’d have to rest to get up the route, but I also knew that I’d be able to recover. I suppose that in these different approaches you could see the gap in our ages. The climbing was a bit nerve-wracking, and in my own miniature way, I was able to get a glimpse of what it must be like to be trying for an in-a-day free ascent of, say, El Cap—with all the pressure there is to have to send after so much climbing. That said, I didn’t psyche myself out, and like Hayden I (barely) clipped the chains for my 30^th pitch. What a badass no-fall day!

30 at 30 was cool for many reasons, but one of them was that I was reminded of how much camaraderie there is in doing big challenges and long routes—something I once knew when all I did was trad/alpine/ice climb, but have forgotten about since I’ve been focusing on sport. Sport climbing is incredibly rad, but it’s also incredibly self-centered. You can cheer on your partners and be psyched for their redpoints, but at the end of the day, you really are only focused on yourself and your own projects. But on this day, Hayden and I were a team and neither one of us would’ve let the other one fail to send.

Hayden’s a good friend, and I feel even closer to him after this experience, and now he’s off to his next big adventure, currently on a plane to Pakistan.

After packing up the car, we drove up to the Rifle campground. Due to various tip-offs, I sort of suspected that there was going to be some kind of bonfire/campground birthday party with the few lurkers in the canyon. However, when I got up to the community house and saw the parking lot absolutely packed with cars, I was blown away. About 100 people showed up for a surprise party that had been unbelievably organized by my completely awesome girlfriend, Jen. The biggest surprise of all was my mom, who flew in from New York, as well as two of my best friends, Sam Elias and Emily Harrington, who came home from Europe early to be here.

Despite being a Leo, I’m uncomfortable being the center of attention, but I was unable to not fully enjoy myself with all my friends and family members here for me. We danced all night to music/lights/fog machine brought in by Chris Kalous, I did the butt-slap dance with Jesse Mattner, Adam Avery kept everyone’s gullets wet with two kegs and at the end of the night, Jen gave me my present—a new guitar that dozens of friends had all chipped in to help buy. I promise I won’t suck next time you all hear me play!

As the night progressed, I thought about how I entered my 20s with three good friends, and I exited them with about 100—that was an incredible thing to realize. I really feel so humbled and honored to know all of these people, and I feel so lucky to have them in my life.

Anyway, it was a great day and weekend, but I’m psyched that it’s over, too. It’s good to be self-indulgent every now and then, but now I am completely motivated to be on the other side and find ways to give back to all the important people in my life. Thanks everyone!

Here’s a list of our 30 pitches, roughly in the order we climbed them.

1)   Cold Cuts (5.11a)

2)   80 Feet of Meat (5.11b)

3)   Crime and Punishment (5.12a)

4)   Jail Bait (5.11c)

5)   Cardinal Sin (5.12a)

6)   James Brown’s Wild Ride (5.11d)

7)   Drunk Lover (5.11d)

8)   Steroid Power (5.11d)

9)   Next Try (5.11c)

10)        Lost and Found (5.12b)

11)        Fistful of Dollars (5.11c)

12)        Hang Em High (5.12c)

13)        Rehabilitator (5.11c)

14)        Bottom Feeder (5.11b)

15)        Irie Meditation (5.11d)

16)        Defenseless Betty (5.12a)

17)        Firearms (5.12a)

18)        Pellet Gun (5.10d)

19)        Choss Family (5.11c)

20)        Street Knowledge (5.12b)

21)        Primer (5.11b)

22)        Pryor (5.9)

23)        Martin & Lewis (5.9)

24)        Sellers (5.8)

25)        Costello (5.10d)

26)        Irish Blood (5.9)

27)        Carlin (5.9)

28)        Feline (5.11a)

29)        Pile Driver (5.11b)

30)        Pump-o-Rama (5.13a)