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He leans a hip on the stove

Akara grows more serious “This is why you texted me?”

“Yeah,” I nod “I want to leave for the mountains today The earlier, the better And you can’t tell my parents”

It’s going to be a covert road trip out west With Akara

And most likely Banks

There’s no running away from this one

4

SULLIVAN MEADOWS

My dad has been on the cover of National Geographic more times than I can count He’ll be the first to say it’s a stupid fucking accooals are the ones to strive for

Personally, I thought he wouldn’t have taken it so hard when I told hioal That I wanted to free-solo climb his old routes

He taught me how to climb before I even learned how to read Plastic anchors and footholds spindled up my childhood bedrooye, and the euphoric feeling when I reached the top

My dad would swoop ether

As soon as I was old enough, I gripped real rock and ascended While I trained for swi in my teens, I climbed as a way to condition on dry land

Rock cli life Swi else If faht to watch Survivor or The Aht us closer Bound us together

Forbecame a part of our DNA

Our dad taught us how to sport cli preplaced bolts

He taught us how to trad cliear as we ascended

He taught us how to free-solo e craved to learn No rope, no harness No safety equipment Just your body, the rock, and a sack of chalk

My dad—Ryke Meadows—is considered the greatest free-solo climber in the world He’ll be the first to say, it’s not true That others are better out there He’s just the nizable The one who’s shown his face to the media

But at the thought of his daughters learning to free-solo froht us the safest way To never put ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t accomplish the task