Posted on November 27, 2023
Summer in retrospect
I’m writing this post after Thanksgiving so it’s safe to say that summer is almost over. We had a great summer out here in Custer. I was slowly recovering from my knee surgery, doing a little bit of climbing but mostly just hanging out, making pizzas, and enjoying the long sunny days.
Below are a bunch of random photos from the summer.
We spent a long weekend in August camping and climbing in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. We spent two days in Tensleep canyon with Brandon and Sydney and loved climbing the slightly too perfect pockets and comfy grades. It was our first trip to that canyon and we’ll definitely make it back out there for future trips. After Brandon and Sydney had to return to SD, Kirsten and I drove up into the mountains and made our way to a climbing area called Crazy Woman cliffs. This was a smaller isolated cliff band up high in the mountains. Being high up above the trees we delt with some pretty wild winds, I think it was gusting around 25-35 mph for most of our first day up there. We enjoyed the solitude and sampled some of the climbing. You’re always reminded just how small you are when you’re up in the mountains.
Our campsite in Tensleep canyon. It was pretty cozy sleeping the in back of the truck 
View of Crazy Woman Cliffs from our campsite. We felt very “out there” at this wall. Up in the mountains and far from any paved road 
Kirsten fighting up high on a route and about to realize that she didn’t bring enough quickdraws 
Enjoying a delicious taco bowl made with fresh local produce and some lemonade beers after a long day of climbing 
View from the top of Crazy Woman Cliff. You can spot our campsite near the Y in the road
Billy and Alli came out to visit and wanted to check out Devil’s Tower. We spent two climbing days at the tower and were all pretty worked by the end of the trip. I was just starting to climb a little bit again after my knee surgery and luckily Kirsten was feeling good and was able to drag my out of shape butt up Soler. Billy and Alli jogged up Durrance and we all met at the top before enjoying a nice sunset rappel back to the base.
Alex, Sydney, Billy and Alli came out to visit for another year of Custerween. We all had a great time climbing, hiking, eating, sending rock jumps and going down waterslides. We were lucky to have amazing weather and just had a great time with our favorite people.
