Sometimes it’s fun to go back through the archives and dig up some of the older shots. Here’s a photo of my friend Pat Goodman climbing a very difficult boulder problem called “Meatrope” that I took years ago on a cool Spring afternoon at Carter lake in Colorado. I shot it with a Nikon N90s on Fuji Velvia 50 slide film.
Pat is an incredible and very accomplished rock climber who has fingers of steel and unbending determination. He has dedicated his life to the sport and has done some amazing climbs all over the world, including this trip in the Indian Himalaya. He lived around the corner from me for a few years during my basement dwelling days in Fort Collins when I first turned pro as a climbing photographer, and we used to climb together all the time.
He’s a great climbing partner, a great photo model and an awesome friend. He always has the best of spirits, in the worst of conditions. One time we drove all the way back into Arch Canyon in southern Utah to spend a week climbing towers, but woke up the next morning to a dumping snowstorm. It was an epic adventure getting my truck back out of there with the fresh snow and rising rivers, and Pat got out out every few minutes to shovel snow and wet desert mud away from the tires with a little folding army shovel that his mom had given him while I steered. We laughed the whole time. That’s the kind of guy you want with you on a wall.
Pat and I live on opposite corners of the country now and I haven’t seen him in years. I miss his regular company and I still think about the unrealized Greenland trip that we tried to put together back in the day. What a grand adventure that would have been!