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This is Ryan Utz, and this is his home climbing wall, or maybe I should say his home away from home climbing wall.

It's early fall in the summer heat in the desert and it's finally mellowed enough for Ryan and his close friend Captain Micahelser to climb during daylight hours.

They aren't alone. Over the last few months, Ryan and Micah have recruited a group of three or four other men to join them for after-work, bouldering sessions.

Come on, go for it, go for it. Sit the way up.

Warp 2x8's slung between steel i-beams support the 7-foot tall plywood panels.

The guy's strained for plastic climbing holds bolted to the wall. They encourage one another, they heckle one another.

They're trying a series of desperate gymnastic moves across a roof, and when a hand slips or a foot skates, they fall three or four feet onto stained mattresses.

Clouds of chalk billow into the stagnant air.

If you're a climber, the scene is probably quite familiar. Maybe even mundane. This might as well be your buddy's garage on the north side of town.

But for Micah and Ryan, this wall is more than just a way to train or blow off steam after a long day.

The wall definitely adds some normalcy. I have a half-hat in the past couple of places that I've lived, a small wall.

And so that kind of makes me feel like I'm at home in that respect, or I have something to connect with home.

But it's definitely the stress relief that makes you feel like you're still human.

It's not always that easy though. Here's Micah.

There's definitely moments when you're out there cranking that, you know, your mind might actually escape back to, you know, maybe some real rock or a climb wall back home.

Yeah, that's just bliss. But I hate to say it, but inevitably there's going to be some kind of diesel truck that drives by or the port of shit or skippers are going to be driving by.

You know, so there's always that stench of either diesel fumes or shit in there.

Burning trash. Well, burning trash, yes. Well, it's a burning truck.

Yeah, those things, a couple with the extreme stupid heat, tend to snap you back to reality where you have pretty quickly.

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