2019 has been a good year for top shots- I found rock and people to climb it with in Spain, France, Switzerland, Canada and the USA. I climbed with my brother, my dad, my girlfriend, as well as with good friends and friendly strangers.
These were beautiful days, the best days; days spent outside solving nature’s craftiest puzzles. Each approach was a discovery. Where should we go, and what should we climb when we get there? What will the routes be like, the people? Much of the time not spent climbing was spent in anticipation of the next climb or reminiscing the last one.
For me the most memorable climbs were the humbling ones, the ones that made me dig the deepest and struggle to surpass my own physical and mental limits, the ones that scared me. Those climbs remind you that the rock is bigger and badder than you are and it’ll always be that way no matter how good you get. Knowing that takes some of the pressure off, lets you enjoy the challenge for the sake of it. A challenging climb makes you feel both big and small. Big like you just grew a bit, and small like that bit doesn’t make one whack of difference in the scheme of things. There are worse things to be gained than an elevated perspective.
Days Reclaimed
Every one of these days saw the phone off and in the pack. To declare it like that’s some sort of triumph is a painful admission, but so be it- it always made me happy to hit that little airplane symbol. A reclamation of my time, to waste as I see fit; no incoming messages or algorithms deciding how to waste it for me. I’d say it was also an escape from consumerism, but let’s be honest- there’s always more gear to buy. We humans have always held a fascination for tools.
In the end it’s a nice paradox: time well spent doing something admittedly useless. Time disconnected from the modern world and our endless worshiping of productivity; and connected to the things that matter: nature, good friends, a good challenge. Objectively climbing adds very little to the world, yet it fills a deep need we have to explore and challenge ourselves.
We’re all still kids climbing trees, we just get better at it.
Val David, QC 
On the Sentinal in Switzerland 
Crans Montana, Switzerland 
Rumney, NH 
Rigaud, QC 
Rumney, NH 
Montserrat, Spain 
Bolton, VT 
Rumney, NH 
Val Belair, QC 
Montserrat, Spain 
Middlebury, VT 
Rigaud, QC 
Wheeler Mt, VT