It is a book about gaining faith in yourself and your abilities. I went through this journey in my mid-fifties as I was starting menopause and then found out I needed open heart surgery. I got back on track eventually and resumed my current obsession, sport climbing.

My first year of climbing had been very frustrating. For the first time I was terrible at something athletic. My prospects for improving were poor. Menopause, lack of climbing partners, a less than ideal body type and joints stiffened by thirty years of endurance training all worked against me.

Then after the surgery and change of life and other unpleasantness, it occurred to me I could figure out a better way to go and started going out on my own. My style of climbing ignored the rules for acceptable, proper climbing. But I stuck to my guns and it paid off in spades. Over the next six years I worked out an optimal self-belay setup, built a dozen or more trails for accessing local crags, created new climbing routes, restored abandoned ones, and found my way in the hills.

Along the way were beautiful sunsets, sunrises, endless vistas of San Diego's rugged backcountry, and discovering that having faith in yourself is the best kind of faith.