trip | Abigail Thompson Photography

**Prepare yourself, this will be a long post.**

This Christmas I went along with Scott (the boyfriend) and his parents to visit his sister and her family in Tucson, Arizona. It was my first Christmas away from home, which I was a bit nervous about. But, his family was so very welcoming, the scenery was beautiful, and we managed to climb nearly every day; needless to say I was sufficiently distracted from being homesick for most of the week.

During the early part of the week any trips into the mountains (the Catalina Mountains to be exact) were fairly quick, or were filled with climbing or climbing instruction. I didn’t even bring my camera with me onmany of those adventures, so a fair amount of these images are from my phone (just a little disclaimer).

The trip down to Arizona was quite the adventure since we got caught in a major snow storm. We knew it was a two day trip, but got stuck in Dalhart, Texas, which was not even close to where we had planned on spending the night. This image was from when we were stuck in traffic in Dalhart, before we heard it would be at least 4 hours before we would start moving again. Luckily we made the decision to stay in Dalhart fairly early and were able to find a hotel room, and one that was rather nice and clean for that matter.

Our first day there we hired a climbing instructor for half the day to show us some multi-pitch and trad climbing techniques. It was an incredible day and we both learned so much.

Christmas Eve was a rather busy day, but we managed to fit in a quick hike early in the day to scope things out, and later a quick climb before the sun set.

Christmas day was probably the most memorable day of climbing I have every had. Most of the day was spent with Scott’s 2 nephews and brother-in-law teaching the boys how to climb. Once they headed home for the day, Scott and I stayed to climb a pinnacle that we had been eyeing since our first trip into the mountains. Luckily there was a woman there with her kids who had climbed the same route before, so she helped us much sure we were on the right line. We were climbing right near sunset, so the light was rich and golden. It was magical I tell you.

Scott on the top of the pinnacle, preparing to rappel down.

The rock was glowing.

Together, post-climb, in the magical light.

Our last day in Tucson was entirely dedicated to climbing. We went out to this amazing canyon that seemed to have endless climbing just in the one area. We also talked to quite a few local climbers there, and I was blown away by how tightly knit the climbing community in Tucson is. It was a fantastic end to the week.