Near death experiance, formal presidency, girlfriend and general Matt Natti goodness.... it has been a good month!
So I led MUAC's annual Basic Rock climbing trip up to the Wharepapa region in the Central North Island. There were 10 instructors and 25 students.... we had a BLAST. There is something so incredible about bringing a begginer group out to real rock for the first time and helping them get to the top of a challenging climb. Due to the fact that I spent a lot of time instructing and belaying, I hadn't gotten much climbing in so at the end of the weekend I decided to try doing a trad lead on a beautiful crack that was JUST at my technical limit. The first bit was fun, the gear was good. The second bit was challenging and the gear was ok..... the top was hard. That's where I fell from. Sure, the drop was only about 1 meter to the big cam below me (making for a 2 meter fall), but as that it was a marginal placement..... I fell another 4-5 meters until the next piece of gear caught me. Bascially.... I fell. The first piece slowed me down a bit before it blew out, I fell to the NEXT piece (after a bit of smashing against the rock wall on the way down), the rope got tight, my weight sat into the harness and as I straighted up my body after the fall..... I was able to stablize myself by placing my feet on the ground! Had my belayer been a bit more slack I DEFINITELY would have hit the deck... not ANOTHER cast!!!
Ok, so that was the "near death" bit. So I know I said I had met a nice Swiss gal.... but due to the "live life for today" mentality I've adopted, I chose to keep my options open and have wound up with a very cute and cuddly young lady to call my own for a bit. Her name is Erica and she is doing a year abroad from Northern California. YES.... she is a bit younger than me Ok.... one night while cuddling she pointed out that she was in kindergarden when I was a senior in high school!!!), but as that she is only here for a short time ...... she decided a noncommital relionship was a good idea. I must say that I am QUITE happy with the fact that I still "have it" enough to be able to keep up with such a perky young gal!
So, in other news.... I was officially voted in a MUAC president at the latest meeting. I have gotten a full sponsorship from a national climbing shop to continue my local rock climbing development (free bolts and hardware, which is HUGE as that many of the climbs I have bolted before were upwards of $70 per route!). Work is great (I got a good raise and now can ACTUALLY save some money!). My boss just recently paid me to go to a 2 day climbing semenar with the international climbing champ.... it was SUPER cool to learn so many new tricks!
Besides that.... well, life is just pretty damm good. I hope everyone is well and I am looking foreward to catching up with Team USA in July!