Reeve's Roadtrip Blog

Like all terrible ideas which seem good at the time, we had both had a drink. Not much, but I'm looking for an excuse for my optimism. Or naivety, perhaps. I saw online that a permit for the Whitney zone had become available, suggested it to Marie, booked it, then went to sleep, safe in the knowledge that we would have a fun time camping in the mountains then climbing an easy multipitch. To see how wrong I can be, read on... A week later is 'walk-in day'. I wake with a start, already apprehensive even before I've had chance to make sense of my unfamiliar surroundings. We treated ourselves to a motel so that we would be fresh and have time to prepare, but we had a lot to do so we didn't quite get the early night we got to sleep late and are bit stressed. Marie rustling up some motel cuisine I'm not quite sure what I've let myself in for. All I know for certain is that Marie definitely doesn't know either. Maybe that's for the best at this stage. Befor...

Alternative title: Mixed Emotions in The Needles I've written about The Needles not  once , but twice  before. It's one of my favourite places on Earth, blending incredible featured granite, adventure beyond their stature, and a mystical aura further evoked by the names of each formation, such as the Witch, the Warlock, the Magician... It's fair to say, I'm completely bewitched. So when I read that the KNP Complex Wild Fire in 2021 had wreaked devastation across that whole area my heart sank. The road to the camping at the trail head only reopened in May this year, so I was expecting it to look very raw still. Wildfires are actually a normal and healthy part of the forests' life cycle. Tall dense trees stop sunlight penetrating their canopy and reaching the ground, meaning low lying plants (and hence food for animals) don't get a look in. Following a wildfire, these shrubs and plants are usually the first to colonise the now nutrient-rich ground. All the same, a...

I'm completely absorbed, so when Marie comes into the room she catches me off guard. I slam the laptop shut so she can't see, but in doing so I have inadvertently drawn attention to it. "Are you really watching it again?". Her expression is somewhere between disapproval and disgust. "It just came on because of the algorithm!" I exclaim, but my tone is too earnest so it ends up sounding like a bad excuse instead of a reasonable explanation. "What's so special about it" she admonishes me further "the lycra? The jazz-rock? Or the unacknowledged androgyny?" She walks out the room before I can answer.  She must have come in for a good reason, but whatever it was has been left unattended to. I have an urge to call after her, but anything I say now would only make it worse. I sigh, but despite it all I can't help myself. I open the laptop again and wait for the video to buffer, allowing me time to wallow in my shame. It finally loads: Ma...

  2011: around the world in 9 months; 2014: twelve months career break; 2025: here we go again! First stop, California. Great climbing, great weather. Usually. Day 3. We watch the lightning then count six seconds before the thunder. Not far on the other side of the mountain. We've just met Levi at the crag and so far he is topping the charts for the most archetypal American climber we've met (mullet, 'tache, proclivity to say "awesome" at even the most mundane things). Levi tells us that the repeating storm systems are very unusual so we have arrived at a very fortuitous time to be able to see them. Not wishing to disappoint his enthusiasm, I falsify my agreement and set off on a climb, hoping the storm holds off for another ten minutes. It doesn't. The overhanging cliff provides the illusion of shelter for about thirty seconds, during which I have the misguided hope that I might be able to climb despite the rain. Then all hell breaks loose and there's icy...