After projecting consistently for a month, Neil and I finally have red-pointed "The Road to Emmaus," a thirty foot length traverse in which you travel half way around the boulder and then up "Elmer Gantry" to sit on the peak, and enjoy the feeling of well earned accomplishment. Neil breezed cleanly through on his first attempt today, redeeming his five failed attempts yesterday. After he busted the mental barrier I jumped up and walked right down the same path with less suave but more drama. The moves were easy after we had rehearsed it into an intuitive state. It was awkwardly satisfying; there wasn't one of those moments where I pushed through pain and held on beyond previous conceived possibility, but at the end sitting up top I thought about how long we had worked to get to that moment, how much I had learned, and then the weight was felt. That's what this climb was, the weight of hard work, perseverance, pain, and obvious growth resulting in satisfied accomplishment - oh, and it's fun!
What a wonderful day! Strength and vigor was amply bestowed upon us, enough to start projecting a new traverse the back side, which I hope ends up including a reaching heal-hook. Give it a shot, first one over and up is non-rotten egg, and gets to name it.
