This is a pretty wild story. This is a photo of me soloing a route call Pratt’s Crack, a 510b in the Needles of South Dakota. (I have a rope and I’m wearing a harness because the route ends on top of a pinnacle and I rapped off it rather than down climb.) Back then, I think this was the summer of 1979, it wasn’t uncommon for me to solo routes at that grade so when We came around the corner and looked at it I told Max Jones that I was going to solo it and put on my stuff and headed up it. There was a big flat boulder a few feet away from the route and after I did these moves right here, the crux, there was a little spot that I could stop. I turned around and there were six guys sitting on the ledge, wide-eyed and quiet as mice. I said “Hey“ and they all grunted “Hey”. I continued on, finished the route, rapped off and those guys were nowhere to be seen. Flash forward 25 years or so to Smith Rock when I met Todd Skinner. He said to me “You’re not gonna believe this but you inspired me to become a great climber“. He told me the story of how he and his friends, Paul Piana included, had heard that Max and I were in the Needles. He told me about the day I had soloed Pratt’s Crack and had turned around said hey to a bunch of guys. “I was one of those guys." #climbing #tradclimbing #rockclimbing #climbing_pictures_of_instagram #climbing_is_my_passion #climbingtraining #climbing_worldwide #climber #rockclimber #sportclimbing #climbingtrees #climbingtrip #tradisrad #bouldering #climbingtrip #bouldering #climbingrocks