There’s something about the shoes.
“There’s so much magic in these shoes,” Craig Richard says.
He’s lacing them up now here at Garden of the Gods — his climbing shoes for these rock walls and towers he’s scaled for almost all of his 40 years of life. He remembers being 5 here at this formation alongside his father, the accomplished mountaineer Ron Smith.
Here the two are now, returning for another day at this very same formation. At 78, Ron doesn’t climb anymore. But he’s more than happy to regularly belay his son here at the Garden.
He’s more than happy to watch Craig lace up these shoes, these tattered and torn, patched-up shoes that are tight on the man.
“These climbing shoes used to be my dad’s,” Craig says. “He gave them to me when I was 13 years old. I’ve used them ever since.”
The shoes go to show this bond between father and son, this bond forged by climbing. It’s a “sacred bond,” Craig says. “The thing that’s just always held the family together.”
It’s a bond that has held fast in times good and bad — most dark and unspeakable. It’s a bond that runs deep.