11/01/2026
Back in my 20s and 30s, I used to do a lot of rock and ice climbing. I lived as a dirtbag climber for a while. My only possessions were a TV, a phone that you plugged into a wall, my Thermarest, sleeping bag, climbing clothing, a couple of work shirts and pairs of pants, and a ton of climbing and backpacking gear. Everything I owned could fit in a rusty Buick Century that my parents either gave me or sold me cheap. When I got an outdoor job, the company I worked for shipped me out to Rapid City and paid for an apartment for me. It was two bedrooms, but I didn't have furniture to fill it up, so my entire time there I sat and slept on the floor. I wasn't in the apartment often, because when I wasn't working, I was climbing or spending time outdoors.
All that story leads up to this photo. I've been to the top of several of these spires, but I don't remember which ones. I do remember that climbing some of them was a little unnerving because they weren't well protected. Any fall would have been long and probably hurt a lot. Luckily the parts that weren't well protected were mainly the easy parts and when you got to difficult parts, you could either protect those areas with gear or there were bolts to clip your quick draws into. I remember once my climbing partner ran the rope out sixty feet between bolts. The rope wouldn't have stopped him from hitting the ground between the first and near the second bolt.
