About Bedtime for Bonzo

"So, tell me about this Bedtime for Bonzo." My brother Chuck had called me on my cell phone the Monday evening after our second climbing trip to the Red.
"How do you know about Bedtime for Bonzo?
"Never mind how I know about it, just tell me what it's like."
"I'm not telling you anything until you tell me how you found out about Bedtime for Bonzo."
"You left your guidebook in my truck."
Ever since then he has become obsessed with this climb. Hell, he and Teri have been obsessed about climbing in general. We've been climbing every weekend since Halloween. Teri has convinced me, the anti gym climber, to visit the gym on Tuesday nights with her.
Whenever we get together to climb he questions Tony about Bedtime for Bonzo. How tall is it? What is the rating? Where is it?

I've wanted to get him on it, but with his fear of heights, I didn't want to do it too soon.

The past four weeks have been fun. It's exciting to see two people so turned on to climbing. They really want to do this and do it well. Each week brings new challenges, especially for Teri, who is hesitant to try anything out of the ordinary. But each week she surprises me and becomes not only stronger, but also more brave. She reminds me so much of myself when I started climbing. Once afraid to belay, she now can do both lead and top rope belay with confidence. I have total trust in her ability. More so than anyone else, with the exception of Tony.

Chuck has rapidly progressed. Tony once said that he is easy to teach because he catches on quickly and is observant. He will try things that would normally take a beginning climber months to catch on to. I was concerned in the beginning about his extreme fear of heights. That only seemed to be a problem on the first climb. After our second weekend out, when we climbed a 100 foot route and had to rappel down, Chuck came alive with ambition. I think it was when we were at the top of this climb, Tossed Salad, that he fell in love with climbing. "I don't know if I can do this" he nervously whispered to me as Tony rappelled down over the edge. "You have to do it or you can't get down." He gave it a try and succeeded. This is also when he became obsessed with Bedtime for Bonzo.

This past Thanksgiving week Teri and I had Friday off work. We decided to head to the Red with our niece Britney. She had never been climbing. On my way down there I had this great idea to put her on Bedtime. That would really show Chuck, who has been strutting around bragging about how much better he was than Teri. Hmpf!! I would put her on Bedtime for Bonzo and we would come back bragging of our accomplishment. The only problem was she was terrified of the route. I decided not to tell her what the route was we were going to climb that day.

I led the first pitch and she and Britney both climbed it with flying colors. I was terrified of the second pitch and cautiously made each move. When I got to the bulge, I placed extra gear to protect my follower. Britney decided not to climb the second pitch. Teri started it and did wonderfully on the traverse (this took me about a year to finally find the courage to do those moves). She had total control of her fear. She then came out on a ledge and slowly the fear began to take hold. I convinced her to just climb to the green cam. She made it to the green cam and started out towards the blue. She then lost it. I knew what she was going through. I did not try to push her anymore. I calmly gave her instructions and then lowered her to the ledge. She seemed to be mad at herself. It was then I informed her that I needed to tell her something. When I told her what route we were on, she surprised me and began to laugh. "I'm going to kick your ass." Her disappointment turned into pride. She almost finished THE Bedtime for Bonzo! Chuck would be so jealous that we climbed this route! That will teach him for not calling in sick! SHE has been on the route that he really wants to do! Ha!

We couldn't wait to get into cell phone range to call him. He could not believe it.
The next morning he called me. "Teri isn't climbing anymore." When I asked him why he simply exclaimed that he wasn't going to let her because he kept him up until 11:30 with chatter about the wonderful time she had. This wouldn't have been a problem except that they both had to get up at 4am to go to work!

I am proud of Teri. Not because she almost climbed Bedtime for Bonzo. But because she wasn't so hard on herself for not finishing the route. In the past, she really gets down if she doesn't perform up to the level she thinks she should be. This day, from the moment I told her the route we were on, she has beamed with pride.

As we were hiking down, she told me that she wanted to wait until next year to try it again. Two days later, she called me to tell me that she wants to give it another go as soon as possible. You go, Sparky!!