I like to climb, and I have dozens of stories to prove it. My climbing urge began early in my life as it probably did with most of us. As a toddler, I was always being pulled off of a counter or table. When I was five, I attempted to “tight rope walk” the top beam of my family’s Sears & Roebuck backyard swing set aiming to impress a neighbor girl. It ended in a trip to the emergency room and a half dozen stitches. It was a great lesson about gravity, which has been haunting me ever since. However, gravity did not sway me from my desire to climb and I took every chance I could to see if I could “get up there.” At the age of eight I climbed to the top of my dad’s barn and attempted to balance walk across a 1” X 8” board which promptly gave way and dropped me forty feet. I landed on a log floor and I had my first experience with unconsciousness.
