Climbing trip report!

[Najati Imam]

Hi PSLers!

I mentioned to several of you that I was staying in NM an extra day in order to do some climbing in the area. My climbing trip turned out amazing - I thought I'd share with you what I got into that day :-D

The guide picked me up at about 8 and we drive around the back side of the Sandia Mountain Crest, the large face underneath the communication towers. We hiked through woods for about 20 minutes to a small clearing on the front side of the mountain, divvied up gear, and hiked down into a valley between two faces on the crest. The scenery at that point was already amazing. There are a few pics of that in the (small) gallery from the day, linked below.

Some technical details for the climbers in the group: I followed everything that day and just let the guide do the leading. I'm still new to trad leading and decided to let the day be more about climbing and seeing what Sandias climbing was about, instead of spending time on instruction.

After about 20 minutes of approach hiking we started up a climb called The Second Coming. It was of moderate difficulty, but still on the beginners side of things. The climb is about 500 feet up and we did it in four sections (called "pitches"). The climbed was truly amazing. Even though it was a bit easy, it was still super high quality. Great moves, amazing exposure (how open the space is around you), and good rock quality.

We finished up The Second Coming a little after noon and hiked back to the clearing to refill on water, take a little break and decide what to do with the rest of the day. Of course, we decided on another huge climb :-) so we hiked back in to climb a route called Excitable Boys.

Excitable Boys more than lived up to it's name. It was truly amazing. 700 feet of just perfect climbing; easily some of the best I've ever been on. We took a little break about halfway up on a grassy ledge, had a snack, and finished the day topping out the Sandia Crest around 4:30. There are pics of the view from the top in the gallery, including one with some landmarks from our training marked on the image.

I find that it's hard for me to describe what I get out of climbing. That's probably because I get so much out of it. In practice, it's a perfect mix of mental and physical activity. But it's more than exercise or meditation, it's really about getting connected to existence, as cliché as that sounds. There's a state I get to when climbing when I'm in it, and my balance is on, and the moves are good, and it feels like I can't tell where my hands and feet end and where the rock begins. I feel like I'm doing exactly what I should be doing, what I'm made for doing. I feel more like I'm a part of the planet than at any other time in my life. So, after 7 hours of that, and getting to the top of the crest and getting to soak in the amazing New Mexican sky, and being able to see other mountains 70 and 130 miles away, and seeing Albuquerque spread out before be like a stage for the last week of memories I share with all you amazing people, and watching the horizon blur away in the distance ... it was like I was experiencing everything all at once, at it was good :-)

This is the (small) gallery from that day. (I'm not very good at the whole picture taking thing.) The images have categorical titles and explanatory titles.

http://imgur.com/a/7fbKU

These are the two climbs I did that day, for the curios:

The Second Coming: http://www.mountainproject.com/v/the-second-coming/105789961

Excitable Boys: http://www.mountainproject.com/v/excitable-boys/105903385

Thank you all again for an amazing week!

Peace,

Najati

[Lisa Crispin]

Hi Najati,

I was just thinking of you today, I was watching a TV show where someone had to climb a rock face that honestly looked impossible to climb. They were showing how he used his hands and feet. And I thought, Najati knows how to do that!

Your photos are stunning, what a beautiful experience! Thank you for sharing it. I didn't realize the climbs all had names, and what fun names!

-- Lisa

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Lisa Crispin
Co-author with Janet Gregory, _Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams_ (Addison-Wesley 2009)
Contributor to _Beautiful Testing_ (O'Reilly 2009)
http://lisacrispin.com
@lisacrispin on Twitter
http://entaggle.com/lisacrispin

[Corey Capel]

Najati,

Here I am, sitting at a desk, in an office, with Chrome staring back at me, and to my surprise I get to go on an adventure on New Mexico rock faces. :) Thank you for sharing the details of the climb. Your writing was exceptionally engaging and I could easily imagine myself there - which is a great way to begin a Monday.

Looking forward to more details on your climbs,

 - Corey

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 - Corey

[Joseph Granville]

Well said Corey! The only climbing I will be doing today is on a ladder.
Thank you Najati for sharing the excitement of your adventure through words and pictures!
Joe

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[Najati Imam]

Glad you all enjoyed the post! If I end up in any other particularly amazing places I'll be sure to share again. Everyone else should share adventures, too!

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[Joseph Granville]

Hello Jerry,
I am writing to say hello and hoping that you and Dani and your puppies are all well.
Thank you for providing the forum for such an impact full learning experience.
I truly benefited from being immersed in PSL with a group of folks whose technological backgrounds and project management environments are mostly unfamiliar to me.
I was delighted to recognize how applicable the lessons from PSL are to all of us, no matter our backgrounds or work environments.
If I may indulge in sharing with you what I have taken away from PSL to this point:

Slow down. A slower paced investment of focus at the beginning of a project pays dividends later on in the project. If I were president and going to Muletown to find my company's fortune, I would first begin by taking a vacation in Muletown. One of my favorite things about visiting a new city is discovering the character and characters of the place. How do you even know if you want to do business in a place until you uncover the opportunities.

Coalescence only comes from an environment of trust, where each member is heard and each member has ownership.

And, "It's only pizza"
My mother in law Milli is a generous, thoughtful and sometimes controlling woman who I genuinely love. She organizes family trips to wonderful destinations in celebration of milestone family events.
While on one such trip to Denmark,( in celebration of my wife's, grandmother's 90th birthday) my brother in law (Bob) and I offered to go get pizza from a local pizzeria as a simple solution to the problem of dinner for 11 people.
My lovely mother in law became visibly agitated at the idea. She began with stating that the local pizzeria would not sell pizza to Bob and me. Then suggested that "they might not be open" on a Friday evening at 7PM.
Finally she agreed to the idea but only if she could go with us. On the way she felt it was some how necessary to clear the plan with the concierge of the hotel we were staying at.
As she frantically left the car to enter the hotel lobby, Bob turned to me and said "It's only pizza Milli, it's only pizza".
It is easy to recognize the controlling behavior of a well intentioned micro managing boss.
But there is another lesson here:
During our Red team's final group meeting before being presented with the Black team's challenge; one of our team members expressed anxiety at the idea that we might fail. Somehow the groups failure would be a direct reflection of his competency. I asked, "if instead of measuring how successful we are by how well we complete their task, maybe we should measure our success by how much fun we have trying to do the task".
How much in life is only pizza? How much of our own anxiety is only pizza?

Joe

[Duncan Nisbet]

It was a great write up Najati & some great pics as well - i'm not jealous at all :-)

Duncs

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