Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be climbers

My Number Two Son is back from his climbing trip in New Hampshire. 17-year-old Ian is camera shy, so there are no photos to prove he climbed Mt. Washington "the hard way", via Huntington's Ravine. And he got only a handful of pictures of the scenery, like this pretty shot of a ridge (they climbed straight up the crack you see in the middle of the picture) before the batteries in his camera froze.

Which is just fine with me. He had no business fiddling with his camera when he should have been hanging onto that stupid mountain for dear life. But there I go, being a mom again.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that an avalanche buried 1-1/2* people in O'Dell's Gully the day before my son's team climbed there. But he had a great time, and right now he's in his room playing some really awful music way too loud and I'm not yelling at him because I'm too busy thanking God that he's home again, safe.


*One guy was completely covered, the other just buried to his waist. They both lived to tell the story.