These photos were taken in Red River Gorge, KY.  For many years while I should have been going to college, building equity in a house, saving toward my retirement, etc., I was involved semiprofessionally in an endeavor now known as "trad" climbing. Because I created many holes in the ground by falling from poorly protected rock climbs, occasionally landing on my head, I have difficulty remembering exactly why I was so completely engaged in this foolishness. As far as I can recollect, the objectives of this activity were to subject yourself to discomfort, physical trauma, alternating periods of boredom and extreme emotional agitation, long drives down gravel roads to nowhere, and generally to scare yourself - a lot. In all of this I succeeded spectacularly so at least I must have been OK at it.

Judging from the volume and tenor of email I get about this page there are a fair number of you out there who think that I ought to treat this period of my life with more reverence. Perhaps you just don't understand sarcasm, understatement or self-deprecation as humor. Oh well.

Or maybe you are one of those individuals who take climbing and themselves very seriously. If so perhaps you feel that my current disinclination to take what you take seriously is a vicarious swipe. If you are one of those people the only thing I can tell you is that you're absolutely right.
 

Close To The Edge (Fall 1984)
Vector Trouble (Summer 1986)
Insanity Ceiling (Winter 1981)

Gravitational Potential Energy

p.e. = mgh

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