It might be the hardest lesson of all is learning when to bail. We all have our own brushes with mortality and in my case, more than a few could have been avoided entirely if I'd let reality seep in earlier.

This summer our group of three spend half a day trying to XC into a drainage that seemed TOTALLY DOABLE on the maps, yet we kept hitting dead ends and descents that warranted rope (and a skill set). I was really, really tempted to try a couple anyway, but hey, here I am typing about it instead. :-)

Changed most of our week-long itinerary too, but that's okay.

Cheers,