Happy Mothers day to my beautiful wife Shea, my wonderful mom Fran, and my arizona mom Rhonda. I'm a lucky man to have those wonderful women in my life! Yesterday Shea and I tackled “pulpit rock”. Climbing as always been one of Shea's favorite things to do. So for a pre-mothers day celebration what better then a good climb. After Paul and I finished rounding on the hospital, seeing patients in the outpatient clinic, and doing a quick C-section Shea and I headed to climb the massive rock formation.(Its so nice to have a Grammy here for babysitting, and a little break from the kids is always appreciated). It sits about 15-20 kilometer's from Karanda, but most of it is bush roads so it takes about 30-40 minutes to get to the spot where we will begin our approach hike. Legend has it that hundreds of years ago pulpit rock was inhabited by the Zulu tribe. After conquering territories in what is now Southern Zimbabwe and South Africa they left there massive rock for a time. According to the legend they returned some years later with hundreds or thousands (depends on whose telling the story) of Zulu warriors to move the rock to there new territory in the south. Now if you were to see this massive 640 meter high rock structure up close you would find it hard to believe, but you know me.....I'm always up for a good legend! (Elvis still lives...right?)
It was interesting this was the first time Shea and I climbed together since before we had kids. In the past we have climbed some pretty “hairy” things, and probably taken some unnecessary chances. But now with kids back home waiting for us to return, the idea of taking needless risk, for risk sake seemed a bit less appealing. With those reservations in mind, we still were excited to have a couple of “kid free” hours outdoors, and looked forward to climbing again.
This climb was a bit unconventional. Shea and I are used to climbing shoes, a good rope, a harnesses, and some solid carabiners. (Not to mention a good belay device). Today we just had our tennis shoes, and Dan's old rope that he says he brought "only if the women need it" (Hey what about me, its not like I have the best Life insurance policy here). So that being said he planned that we would free climb the face of this pulpit rock. Well I guess we'd have to see about that.
So we drove our car as far as we could through the windy and rocky dirt roads. We stopped about 1 mile from the base of the rock. We hiked the last mile and enjoyed the scenery as we saw several villages scattered about between the road and pulpit rock. We got to the base of the rock and began our ascent to the top. The majority of the climb was steep, but didn't require any climbing. We just leaned up hill and maneuvered between stones, boulders, trees, and loose dirt, and used all 4's as needed. The last several hundred feet was a 4 sided cliff face without any significant switch backs. This was where it got a bit tricky. Dr Stephens, had done this climb multiple times in the past, and he was used to taking climbers of all skill level up to the top. There were two very difficult spots in the climb, the first at the very beginning and the last at the end. We all went up about half-way on the first part of the climb without any rope. But as the winds picked up and began to howl, we felt a little more comfortable at least having a rope in our hands in case a slippage were to occur. (Wasn't going to be a gentle fall to the bottom). Dan reluctantly agreed, and climbed up ahead and attached his unconventional rope to the base of a tree at the top of the first pitch. We all used this to aid in our climb to the top of the first part of the climb. As I said before it was awesome to be climbing with my wife again, and the risk of death is always a bit of a thrill, but the thought of Beau and Gracie without parents was a bit sobering. So we kept that in mind with every firm grip of a hand-hold, and securely placed foot-hold.
After finishing the first part, we gently maneuvered around a narrow switch-back and came to the base of the last part of the climb. Unfortunately, Dr Stephens left our only rope anchored back at the tree at the other part of the climb. So to enjoy our conquest at the top and the breath-taking views we had to free climb the rest. This last part was bit shorter then the first, and fortunately the rock formation formed a bit of a crack and we were able to snake/wedge ourselves against it. We would have much preferred to have a rope at this point, but aside from a loose rock encountered by Shea's right foot (took away our breath for a second), we all got to the top quite safely.
The view at the top of pulpit rock was magnificent! There were breath-taking views from all 4-sides and the beauty of Zimbabwe was so evident on the summit. What a powerful God we serve! The top of the rock was probably big enough to fit two moderate sized homes, and it even overlooked onto the Mozambique valley which lay about 20 kilometers to the east. We stayed at the top for about 30-45 minutes, but then envisioned Rhonda at home with a hungry Gracie (she still doesn't like to take milk from a bottle), and decided to head back down.
Going down brought a few hair-raising moments, but we made it down with all limbs intact and no major injuries. It was another wonderful adventure for Shea and I, and we were so lucky to have Rhonda here so we could share it together. I can't imagine raising kids with anyone other than my wonderful wife.The patience and love she displays on a daily basis to our kids never ceases to amaze me. Raising these first two kids has been so much fun, and really pretty easy I'm already looking forward to another. Although, I think we may still have to talk more about that one. :) Happy Mothers Day Shea and Mom!
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