And, for me, going with mom and dad doesn't hurt. I'll make sure my lil' sis will be fine.
"Li'l Sis" is the biggest problem, Joe. She's all for the MR, especially if Laura is with her, but is adamant that she doesn't want to climb the Final 400. Imagine that - she wants to go all the way to 14,100' and turn around! Of course, that's now - maybe her perception will change over the next few months. Kids can surprise you. She did great scrambling up the C4 MR on Cathedral last year with Steve, despite being scared s**tless. Steve's presence was a
huge confidence-builder for her while I was over on the technical side of the mountain with Bob. And you remember how wiggy she was crossing the snow chute on the 97th switchback last year without spikes, but she did it just fine - going and coming.
She's just twitchy about exposure if she's not harnessed and roped. She's only 12, so I guess it's only natural. She prefers tackling a 5.7 wall rather than an unroped C3/4 scramble. In the climbing gym she's almost completely over her fear of heights - she just concentrates on solving the climb and ignores the exposure. No rope though, and all she can think about is falling. An Alex Honnold she ain't. Bottom line though, I'm not going to ask her to work an unroped C4 climb that she's uncomfortable with, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens as we get closer to July.
And the routes on Sanny J and Baldy are definitely your call.
