.

But there were also preparations and many small details that I had to prepare for that I did not quite understand. John Middendorf and John Long, both experts in climbing big walls recently wrote a book on big wall climbing. They recommend that before a person attempts to solo climb a big wall that they have six big walls with a partner under their belt before attempting to climb one solo.

I had none!

Further, they said that if one is solo climbing one must understand that there is much more to climbing a big wall solo than technique. It was very sound information, but not very timely information. I did not read those words until six months after completing my climb. Heading up into the vertical world alone I was soon to discover some of those things that could not be explained with words.

.