rshort1202

I am ascending some type of rock formation. It seems to be a tall (hundreds of feet?) spire of sedimentary rock. It is probably only ten feet or so wide. It definitely feels very vertical, yet there is a dirt path that leads up the thing. I hear voices nearing a pause. A group of two or so is coming down. The first is a paunchy older middle aged white man with shorts, maroon t-shirt, a mustache, and what looks like a safari hat. He is nonchalantly sliding down on his ass, bracing with hands and feet. He stops and begins telling us (I think there are about two others with me) a story. I think he is Doc Watson. He’s slightly below me, and I rest my left arm on a rocky protrusion jutting out from under some sand. Some displaced sand begins to fall off, taking more and more with it, falling down close to his face. I tell him to watch out, telling him it was my mistake for doing that. Now, enough sand has fallen away that the spot I needed to continue on has vanished. There is a large cavity now, encased by only stone, beyond which I see the ground vertiginously and frighteningly far below. It seems that the only routes left are to climb this cave roof (brave and perilous) or to mantle this stone above me. I test the holds, a slight edge, and a slight block, and they do not give me much confidence. I keep gripping and re-gripping until my hands sweat, causing me to slightly panic. I am acutely aware of the fact that if I fall I will die and so the only way to survive this is to not fall at any cost. There is now a girl, slightly younger than me and wearing black leggings and a grey shirt, on the rock slightly above me. She might have a harness on? Her underwear, a thin, black thong with thicker straps, is sticking up above the leggings, and I grab onto them like a hold. She has me go first, probably aware that this is going to expose her. Finally, we have summited this spire. The top of it is flat and maybe 20 or so feet across. There are a few artificial climbing walls. I think we’re about to start on them, but her grandma is here now and putting some cash in my left pocket for a gift card. I already have a similar amount of cash in there and wonder about it. There is a very slabby wall, a vertical one with a lot of crimps, and one with large, circular, inflated holds that must be for grip strength. They all seem easy and the walls are just barely taller than bouldering height. Looking past them, there seems to be no background, just an empty space/void. I now realize and dread that I have to go back down. I think of any other way, like getting picked up by a helicopter.




I am outside somewhere by or on a two lane asphalt highway. Suddenly the earth shakes - an earthquake, I realize. It’s steady in intensity, not enough to knock us off our feet, but enough to seemingly keep us magnetized down. It ruptures the highway in a fairly clean split.