No Such Thing As An Easy Climb

This is a story of a strong sport climber leading an “easy” trad route. Lots of lessons here:

• Always figure the weather will turn bad when you’re in the mountains. (This happened to us last week in the Black Hills on a short, 2 pitch climb. We started climbing in the sun and within an hour, it was snowing.)
• Trad climbing is time-consuming, especially multi-pitch
• Strong skills in one discipline may not transfer to other disciplines
• Wearing a helmet’s a good idea
• Carrying a cell phone can help. (We noticed this too in the Black Hills. We didn’t have any coverage at the base of the climbs, but near the summit, we did.)
• There’s no such thing as an easy climb