There was no doubt in my mind.
Countless weather stations were reporting 80%, 90%, 100% chance of rain at Crane Mountain on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but for some reason I still wanted to go outside. Even I was beginning to question my sanity.
I found a ride with Aaron, who seemed to share this reckless passion, and we agreed to set out on Friday.
When I woke up Friday, the ground was still wet from an evening shower... but it wasn't pouring as the weather report suggested... before heading out the door I quickly re-checked my sources... still 90% chance of rain.
Yet, as we drove to Crane, patches of blue sky could be seen, and sure, it was overcast, but not dark, foreboding rain clouds, more like light, fluffy, nice clouds... Neither of us wanted to say those magic words "It's hasn't started raining yet" for fear of falling off the thin weather line we were riding.
The miracle had already begun.
We arrived at Crane and found mostly everything was dry! It made no sense, sure there was some wet rock, but most of it was climbable... weird. Still scared at the clouds that loomed above the trees and the fog that coated distant mountains, we got to climbing.
A few percipitationless hours later, we were at Swillin' through a headnet - V4. Probably one of the better problems at Boulderwoods. Aaron flashed, and in another strange act of the weather... something started to fall from the sky... what could it be? It wasn't rain, no it was... oh my god its snow. It was snowing. The first snow I had seen of the season.
Wow.
Even with the snow, it was less than a small flurry, we continued to climb a little longer. Aaron had been telling me about some huge, awesome looking boulders a little lower on the mountain, so we went to go look.
Wow.
What we found were huge, incredible boulders, despite Aaron having a camera in his pocket the WHOLE TIME we failed to take any pictures, so let me describe this to you. 20 foot 45 degree sections of grey, yellow and orange colored rock. Neon orange rock dotted with patina crimps, huge, dimpled slabs and incredibly sustained overhanging fingercracks. Giant caves littered with very hard lines on devious little crimps.
Unfortunatly we lacked the tools to clean these giant boulders, but during our search in the unknown we were suddenly face to face with a blue, taught wire that ran for several yards at the base of the hill... it lied very close to the ground, close enought to trip on. Aaron described how he was a little paranoid of things going BOOM if we touched the wire, so we tried our best to avoid it... weird.
Finally, the sun began to set, and we realized something, besides the few flakes of snow there was not 1 rain drop on this 90% chance of rain day... We had truly lucked out.
It seems the climbing gods shine upon those that dare to go out when no one else will and that dare to go where no one else has.
-WB
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