My fingers traced the delicate cracks and striking exposure of the route while my mind went back to the images that brought me here. The most striking of these was of the late great soloist, Derek Hersey on the route. I never met the man, but his enigmatic smile and outrageous laugh have become synonymous with having an adventurous life. Sitting there where he sat, looking toward the climbs above, where he climbed, and believing in the impossible, as he believed, I paid homage. Bird closures kept me from pressing onward above, or maybe it was shrinkage of the nether regions, but now I had a reason to come back.