We decided to go to the climbing gym last night. One last time of stretching the tendons before the trip. I resolved to go for a lactic acid bath over shoulder wrenching harder routes. I spent time doing laps on easier stuff until my forearms were as hard as a rock. It was surprising to walk out of the gym without extensive pain in my shoulders…win!

I wanted to take a few minutes to share about the person that has supported me through all of my climbing endeavors. The lady in the picture above is my wife. Chris enjoyed climbing, but I don’t think that she would have climbed if I didn’t. In the picture, she is climbing a route called “Mississippi Moon” at the Pocket Wall in the Red River Gorge, Kentucky. This was a favorite route of ours.

If you look through our picture albums, you will see many more pictures of me climbing. This is because I climbed much more than Chris did. By default, she belayed much more than I did. Belaying is the activity of holding/working a climber’s rope. This activity is extremely important. The belayer literally has the climber’s life in their hands. Chris has held my rope all over the United States. She has held my rope in freezing temps and scorching desert heat. Being less than two-thirds of my weight, on many of my falls, I pulled Chris up to the first bolt. On a few of my falls, I passed Chris on my way down. She has never dropped me!

I remember climbing a route one time that had several hard moves down low. It was unsafe for Chris to belay me without being anchored. Without an anchor, if I fell, she would go up, and I would fall all the way to the ground. So, I anchored her to a large boulder. I fell four or five times, and after I finished the route, Chris let me back down to the ground. As I untied my rope, I noticed blood coming from her legs. Each time I took a fall, her legs were bouncing off of the rock to which she was anchored. She didn’t complain. She didn’t whine. She never said that I would need to find someone else to hold my rope for me…just continual support.

Fast forward around 20 years, and we are planning this trip. All of the people that I climbed with “back in the day,” are old like me. None of them climb anymore, so when I needed someone to hold my rope while I trained, who stepped up to support me? You know it, my lovely wife! Last night, she belayed two-plus hours as I did lap after lap at the gym. She never complained. She never asked if I was about ready to leave…just continual support.

Proverbs 31:10-12 NIV84
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. [11] Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. [12] She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

I am a blessed man to call Christy Bridges my wife! Not because she holds my rope when I want to climb, but because she supports me in all that I do…because she loves God and loves people…because she is a great mother to our girls…because she loves others more than she loves herself. If you are a husband, love your wife like Christ loves the church!

Because He Calls, Old Climbing Dad