face race |Asher/Private|

[gopher]

After having been exposed to the insane and wild world of the general populace, Milo finally had the chance to expand his horizons. While he still swam and ran daily, he was introduced to the intoxicating rush of adrenaline that came with the more dangerous outdoor activities. The one who had done the majority of the introducing had been a guy by the name of Asher. He and Milo had met sometime during Milo's sophomore year, but neither of them were the type to treasure the meeting as the single most important moment of their collective existence. Milo wasn't even really sure how exactly they became good enough buds to trust each other with the the other's life, but it had happened and seemed to be working out even after Milo started college.

Today's schedule had only one thing on it, and Milo had been looking forward to it the whole week before hand: rock climbing. Over the course of their friendship, the two guys - often accompanied by a few others, occasionally a large group - had gone on countless adventures all over state of Canada and the bordering U.S. states of Washington and Montana. From questionable ski courses down sheer mountain cliffs in the north, to white water rapids rafting in the south, the two of them had managed to receive quite the array of scrapes, bruises, and good memories from all the trouble they managed to get themselves into. Though rock climbing wasn't the most dangerous thing the two of them had done - on more than one occasion they'd had a faulty bungee cord -, the poor weather conditions made trip all the more exciting. Tempting fate was something that Milo had been a bit reluctant to do at first, but with the added excitement of one of his better friends... He succumbed not too long afterwards.

It was never really advisable to climb the face of a cliff in the rain, but Milo wasn't too worried about it. After all, if things proved to be a little too slippery, Milo could just waterproof the parts of the rocks they needed to handle. They had been planning this trip for awhile, but things kept coming up that had gotten in the way of it - including several trips to other places because the weather was just too good not to go. Milo had woken up before the sun rose, making sure to get everything together before heading out. Both he and Asher planned to spend the whole day at the cliffs. They had mapped out several paths to take and wanted to try racing (assuming the rocks weren't too slippery) to see which was fastest. Milo doubted they would need the entire day to do everything they planned, but things like this often had a life of their own. The two boys had learned to plan with very large time buffers to allow for the maximum amount of enjoyment from whatever crazy activity they were participating in.

They had decided to just meet at the perimeter of the school around sixish, so when Milo showed up near the end of five, he was happy to see Asher milling about with a handful of papers. Those papers were probably the routes he and Milo had drawn up a couple days ago, and from the look on Asher's face it seemed like he wasn't sure which parts were up and which were down. Milo gave his friend a wave and a grin as he picked up his pace to get within comfortable talking distance of the guy. "Weather is looking good so far. We should be able to get a few good runs in before any kind of rain, I think."

Milo glanced at the tentative "maps" they had created and rolled his eyes, muttering a "stupid" to himself. He'd drawn up the things in charcoal when the two of them were talking over Skype on where they wanted to go. Apparently neither of them had noticed, and neither had checked the papers before just then. The pages were completely smudged. All the important markings and details were just grey blobs now. Milo sighed and gave Asher an apologetic shrug. "Guess we'll just have to eyeball it." It wasn't that surprising really. The one time they had a definite plan, something like this would happen. It wasn't a big deal though, blindly racing up the cliffs would definitely be something that would probably land them in the hospital. The hospital of awesome.

Seeing all the climbing gear, Milo started rummaging through the bags, looking for the important pieces of equipment. Asher had always handled the technical parts of their excursions, so Milo just kind of guessed at things that were useful, even after all this time. "Someday, I'll be able to do this on my own." Milo grumbled to himself as he pulled out some clips and other things made of metal. He knew that the things were used to rock climb, but even after all the times he'd used them, they still seemed alien until his hands were gripping the solid - sometimes not so solid - rock face of a cliff. "This?" He held up a thick cord of rope. The stuff all looked the same to him. At one point, Asher had tried to explain the differences between the treads and whatnot that gave the cords different strengths, but it had just flew right over his head. Rock climbing was fun. The preparation for rock climbing? Not so much.