What better for a rest day than a visit to the largest hole in the ground in North America?
On the way to New Mexico we saw these yucca or joshua trees or something like them in bloom with their flowers sprouting out doing their best impression of something you'd find in a Dr. Suess children's book.
We also paused by what looked to be a salt flat. Its apparent whiteness unconvincing, Masa placed a piece in his mouth and exclaimed, "Salty!" We all admired his brave demonstration of the scientific method.
On the descent into the cavern, our resident geologist Mark was very excited. I pretentiously opted not to use the audio accompaniment, as I was not in the mood for recorded chatter while in the presence of nature's miracles. The caverns were so vast they probably could have contained ten thousand sport routes if climbers had discovered it first... I'm kinda glad that didn't happen. Unfortunately the bat show (a zillion bats fly out of the entrance that Mark is approaching above) only occurs between May and October. Right now I guess they're hanging out in Mexico (no pun intended.)
Ansel Adams said these caverns should not exist in relation to man. That's how out of this world they are. Seeing all the formations provided an organic view of geology; rock formations actually are born and die just like living beings. Only, the interval between the life and death of a geological formation is imperceptible to our hyperactive and greedy sense perceptions. We don't even grasp the interval between 75 years of human life and death; so when somebody dies we think it's the end, but it's only the beginning of another life. We are like rocks, just much softer and rocks are like us, just much slower. In climbing, that softness meets the slowness, but everything is moving - just at different rates.
I like the pic below of Takako jumping for joy. It's how I felt being on a bouldering trip for a week with good friends. Yusuke's wide angle seems to have caught Satoshi on a his way to relieve himself by the side of the road. I was going to crop it out but what the hell.
On the way to New Mexico we saw these yucca or joshua trees or something like them in bloom with their flowers sprouting out doing their best impression of something you'd find in a Dr. Suess children's book.
We also paused by what looked to be a salt flat. Its apparent whiteness unconvincing, Masa placed a piece in his mouth and exclaimed, "Salty!" We all admired his brave demonstration of the scientific method.
On the descent into the cavern, our resident geologist Mark was very excited. I pretentiously opted not to use the audio accompaniment, as I was not in the mood for recorded chatter while in the presence of nature's miracles. The caverns were so vast they probably could have contained ten thousand sport routes if climbers had discovered it first... I'm kinda glad that didn't happen. Unfortunately the bat show (a zillion bats fly out of the entrance that Mark is approaching above) only occurs between May and October. Right now I guess they're hanging out in Mexico (no pun intended.)
Ansel Adams said these caverns should not exist in relation to man. That's how out of this world they are. Seeing all the formations provided an organic view of geology; rock formations actually are born and die just like living beings. Only, the interval between the life and death of a geological formation is imperceptible to our hyperactive and greedy sense perceptions. We don't even grasp the interval between 75 years of human life and death; so when somebody dies we think it's the end, but it's only the beginning of another life. We are like rocks, just much softer and rocks are like us, just much slower. In climbing, that softness meets the slowness, but everything is moving - just at different rates.
I like the pic below of Takako jumping for joy. It's how I felt being on a bouldering trip for a week with good friends. Yusuke's wide angle seems to have caught Satoshi on a his way to relieve himself by the side of the road. I was going to crop it out but what the hell.
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