Adventures of the Good Squad

Adventures of the Goon Squad

 

“Anything silly is worth doing well”

        -   a stamp my uncle uses on his letters

Climbing is one of the sillier human endeavors.  I recall that Sir Edmund Hillary, upon returning exhausted and battered from an expedition, was asked by Nepalese villagers why he tried to go over the mountain rather than walk around it to get to the other side.  The usefulness or practicality of the effort to climb up the steep sides of things can simply not be proved.  But climbing is, for many of us, a completely irresistible pull, and we bend our schoolwork, jobs, and sometimes entire lifestyles in order to spend as much time as possible in upward pursuits.  What drives young people with college degrees to quit work and spend months on the road, sleeping in drainage ditches outside of desert towns, wearing the knees out of their pants, eating carrots and peanut butter and goodies from the dumpster behind King Soopers, snooping around campgrounds avoiding rangers like outlaws, and despite the appearance of poverty remain totally psyched? 

morning niceties in the Brave Little Toaster

At Colorado College a core group of climbers coalesced around similar values: getting out to new places, trying really hard, not getting benighted, and doing it in silly costumes.  From afternoon excursions to the Garden of the Gods to spring break rambles across Utah and Arizona, we enjoyed a lot of fun rock and showed up at many a crag sporting outlandish outfits and awesome (hideous) stick-on tatoos.  At some point someone called us the “goon squad,” and I think that title fits.  Following strict adherence to a ratio of 30% try-hard, 20% silly costumes, 20% sending tattoos, 15% tasty summit snacks, and 15% Tecate (with lime, of course), we have been able to enjoy a decent amount of quality rock climbing, survive a fair share of questionable rock climbing, have a whole dang bunch of fun, and not get a car stuck (yet!).

three goons atop Lone Peak, Wasatch Mtns, Utah

 the DMFay topping out Monster Tower in impeccable style

the usual state of things

I assumed that David had brought is A-game for his impressive neon clown ascent of Monster Tower and Washer Woman; I was wrong.  The next day David busted a move that took the club down by debuting an authentic Colorado College baseball uniform on our free ascent of the precarious Standing Rock in Monument Basin.  True class!

Wild Iris, August, preparing for some serious sport whippin after a week of trad climbing.  Right now I'm thinking: "I either need to send, or I'll be laughed off the wall"

DBR going for the Fruit Bowl King Swing with some real chuztpa, no doubt encouraged by the Wal-Mart St Paddy's special on his head