Getting Married!

Noël's typical Friday night consisted of a combination of “New Girl” binges with her roommate and falling asleep face first on her keyboard while writing her thesis. Meanwhile Grant was busy at Fire Academy in Lompoc, waking up at 5 am every day for workouts. They each received a call the morning of March 23, 2018, from their friends Dane and Lexy, telling them to meet at the Libertine in Morro Bay at 7 PM. Grant was there at 6:45 PM and meanwhile, Noël was building a veggie pizza and drinking wine with her roommate, Ricquel. Time got away from her as they sipped wine. She eventually hopped on her bike and rode down to the Libertine where Dane was sitting there starring at his watch as she walked in, "You're one hour late, NoNo". Noël would later find out that the very punctual, firefighter, Grant nearly gave up on the idea of a second date prior to meeting this women because of her tardiness. Grant took one look at Noël and turned back to Dane and said, "She biked here?! I'm going to marry this girl". And the rest is history.

Lets hear both perspectives! She said vs He said

To start off, the bus broke down on our way to our annual climbing trip in Yosemite and we spent the night in a parking lot in Paso Robles eating Chilies take-out for dinner. Then our entire cooler of ice water that was located in the truck bed tipped over the morning of our engagement and we had to hang our turmeric-dyed bed sheets (who knew handmade turmeric dye on your sheets would look more like you accidentally wet your bed than trendy, yellow bedding), we got evacuated from our campsite twice because of wildfires & spent the nights at a RV park, and the air was so thick with smoke you could barely see across Tenaya Lake. There were many things that went poorly that trip but at the end of the week it didn’t matter. Halfway up the climb on the top of pitch 4, the “party pitch” which is typically where we take a snack break, I noticed Grant was almost rushing to get the next pitch set up. And if you know Grant at all, you know he takes advantage of every second to be with friends, to enjoy the down moments of climbing. I knew something was up when this wasn’t the case, and for the first time all week, and actually ever, I thought to myself, “Why is he climbing so fast?? Could he be about to propose?”. It wasn’t that I made the conscious decision to not think about the answer to my internal questions as much as it was that I was forced to concentrate on the rock, the texture of the granite, the chalky and dirty covered ropes in my hands, and recalling the route direction as I led the next few pitches to the top. I remember standing next to Grant to have our photo taken by our friend Katie, as he grabbed my hands and slowly dropped to one knee, everything else went blank and all I saw was Grant smiling. I don’t remember really what he said but I know I was flooded with emotions, it was everything I wanted and I cried because of that. And then I said “Yes”.

Purpose to an adventure is important. Hiking to flyfish, backpacking to climb, biking to lunch. Previously the purpose of summits of Cathedral Peak were to take an epic group photo or to descend (typically running) to get a reward of burgers and beer. However, the most recent summit carried a purpose that outweighed any other. To ask my best friend and love of my life to be my wife. Noël's previous summits of Cathedral, she was too scared to lead the final pitch. I don't blame her. This pitch is vulnerable (Stephen and Lisa I promise to always keep her safe). Topping out, you are left in an open place, the highest point around where the trees look like grains of sand on an endless granite slab beach for miles. This climb was different. Noël wanted to lead it. After a kiss and a few words of encouragement, she started climbing. Out of sight, I could hear her yelling with excitement as she stood atop a 10,912' summit no bigger than a tabletop, all by herself. So vulnerable and yet still so accomplished and even yelling with excitement. "ON BELAY!" I heard from above and I started to follow. I left the ledge and felt heavy with nerves. I climbed further and a sense of calmness settled in. Once I caught eyes with her atop that block I saw her joyful smile and knew this was the best choice of my life. Poised on the tiny summit you see below. she said, "Yes!" I became the luckiest man in the world. Following, still with tears in her eyes, she laughed "You would do it on top of this $!*&$#% peak!" yet another reason why I love her.