Tenacity, Pictured

Clayton talked about Austin's intensity and focus while climbing, and, yeah, the kid is fierce. Here is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago when Austin and I went to The Helmet. Austin was leading some very difficult 5.10's - bolted sparsely not for the beginning 5.10 leader but as warm-ups for the 12's and 13's - and took a bunch of good falls. Undeterred by repeated blows to his knees, shins and elbows, Austin would take whipper after whipper, then get back on a keep going. Here was the end result from the first 5.10 we did.