Confess
We are nearing the end of November. And as the year 2015 draws to a close so
does, unfortunately, our climbing season.
We were fortunate enough to have an incredibly extended season last year
and into this year but the tables have turned this Fall and torrential down
pours have greeted us here in the NW at every turn. I don’t mind so much. Last year was great but the weather never
really presented me with the excuse I needed to truly take some time off to
heal, recover, plan, scheme, and get into some other activities.
Since I’ve been back from the Red I’ve felt this
unquenchable need to get out and travel every weekend. That has manifested itself into driving to
Smith to struggle, crimp, cry, celebrate, and remember what the sun looks like
(although even now as I write this the sun is shining outside my window
illuminating the massive ship’s prows that lay in the Marina staring back at
me). I find myself getting torn between
two different emotional states of mind.
One mind state is that psyched, ready to crush, ‘let’s send everything!’
type of mentality that drives me out of bed Saturday morning and keeps me going
for the five hours it takes to drive to Smith.
The other mind state usually kicks in when I arrive at the park and feel
the warmth of the sun on my neck and realize that I just drove five hours to
get my ass kicked at a style I suck at in a place that scares me to death. So you can see how it’s been kind of a mental
struggle for me. Although, in the end I
love it. I love the fact that I can hop
in my car and drive a bit and find sun and dry rock, and a beautiful twisted
river running through a valley filled with new challenges. That’s why I keep coming back. Smith offers me a different kind of
perspective on climbing. It’s so
technical, slow, and calculated. The
holds are engrained in the rock and most of the climbing is so planar. I can never really tell what holds are what and
what the sequence is of anything. It’s a
style (for me) that takes a lot of time to really digest and get used to. So every weekend I say it’s my last, and then
I end up going back the next weekend.
And every time I’m there I complain about the crimps and the pockets,
and the crockets (crimp+pockets) and how badly my toes hurt and how inflamed my
skin is; yet during the work week all I can do is think about how much I want
to feel those sensations again. It all
melts away when you think of the next epic route you want to tackle or how the
sequence on the headwall goes, or how cool it is that every move on your
project requires some kind of hand foot match or a double finger stack or the
use of some miniscule polished slimper.
It’s quite brilliant.
Training
Fuck. Training is so
much better when your fingers are healed.
I just had my first session on the circuit board where I made up a bunch
of four to five move boulder problems utilizing pinches, pockets, and small-ish
incut crimps. My main weakness is finger
strength and power so as an introduction to this type of training I set mainly
doable problems with focused lock offs and static movements on relatively good
holds. I’m psyched with how it went,
being able to try really hard on crimps on a 35 is a good sign with no pain
post work out.
With healed fingers I’ve started to get a little bit more
creative with my training schemes and I’m looking forward to bouldering
more. I know how to get endurance now,
but I’m kind of lost when it comes to cultivating a raw base of power. I’m also going to start campus boarding again
very soon which I’m totally psyched about.
It’s been almost an entire year since I’ve set tips on a campus board
and as a result my power is in the toilet.
My goals for next year dictate that I not only have a strong base of
endurance but also a bulging sack of power (great route name BTW).
Since I’ve been actually training for climbing for the last
13 months I feel as if I should have learned something by now, and I have, but
the void of what I don’t know is overwhelmingly large at times.
What I’ve learned is how to hang board consistently and
beneficially. I’ve also mastered the art
of the ARC, so my endurance, recovery, and my strength feel pretty high. On the down side my finger strength has
really suffered due to injuries and not really training crimp or pocket
strength. I have also not been
bouldering consistently at all so while I have some power the majority of what
I used to have is gone and not being able to campus board, circuit board, limit
boulder, or do weighted dead hangs on small holds has noticeably taken its
toll.
I like to re-evaluate what I’ve done at the end of every
season to highlight my weaknesses but also to realize what I’ve done
right. I know several people who have
plateaued and always question why it is they aren’t simply soaring through the
grades anymore. I also know a few people
who refuse to change what they do and end up becoming stagnant and
injured. I want neither of these fates
and look to continual improvement and new strategies to accomplish this with an
open mind.
Winding down a long season like the one we just had is
always kind of a struggle. Like these
last few Smith trips I wear the desperation of knowing the season is coming to
an end like a tree with pale leaves facing a wind storm. Soon to be disrobed and left bare to face my problems
in the oncoming Winters’ cold and rain. I’m
trying to stave off the fact that I will soon only have the gym to climb in,
not even a Bishop trip to get all horny about.
But I’m optimistic and somewhat excited about the predicament of being able
to focus solely on getting stronger and more intelligent when it comes to my climbing.
2016
What will 2016 bring?
Who the fuck knows. I could be
training in the gym and blow a shoulder out or tear a tendon and then the best
laid plans of mice and men…
But I do have tick lists of course. Unfortunately I won’t be heading to Spain
anymore. I’m disappointed it didn’t come
together but I’m not worried. When I go
I want it to be a really good experience and I want to be ready. I see a Europe trip on the horizon in some
shape or form.
In the meantime there is so much climbing to be done right
here in Washington it boggles the mind.
Some of the crags I wish to visit more frequently or at least once are
Deep Creek, Newhalem, Split Rock, and Washington Pass. A lot of development has gone down in these
places over the last few years and some very high quality and difficult sport
climbs have been added to the tick list.
I would also like to get out to World Wall 2 and get my power endurance
on. And of course when the Fall rolls
around I have another RRG trip planned.
I can see myself going back to the Red every year for quite some
time. I love that place. But I would also like to mix it up a bit and
become a better boulderer. I haven’t
been to Leavenworth in years, and it used to be my usual haunt. In fact Leavenworth is solely responsible for
me falling in love with bouldering and eventually moving to Bishop so I could
focus on that discipline (oh yeah and live in a beautiful place blah blah blah). One of my goals for the next year is to send
a V.11 and nab a handful of solid V.10’s.
Mixing bouldering in with my sport climbing I hope will be beneficial to
both.
These are nice goals to think about but the grand daddy goal
of them all is of course going to be sending Pornstar. I will probably dedicate more time to this
goal than any other in hopes of coming one step closer to my ultimate goal of
sending 5.14.
My Life
In case anybody is still reading and/or still interested my
life has sunken into an unavoidable rut.
I work a dead-end job that I don’t particularly have any interest
in. While at said job I dream of doing
meaningful work that also allows me to chase my true love and indulge my
selfish need to climb rocks all over the globe.
The financial comfort and the stability of this job has kept me where I
am. Don’t get me wrong either, I am
fully aware and grateful for how lucky I am to work in a place that is flexible
about my schedule, offers me health insurance, paid time off, and is 10 minutes
away from where I live. But there has to
be a way to get all of this AND enjoy what I do.
On a previous trip to Smith I had a good conversation with a
friend of mine who let me in on what he was planning to do in his life. His situation mirrors mine in several ways
and his plan to escape the monotony of it was also a mirror of what I am
planning. He expressed his boredom with
his job and his goal of going back to school after a few more years of saving
and working. I’m on the exact same plan
and timeframe, the only difference between us is that he’s eight years younger
than me. Sometimes I view my age as a hazard. But I know that’s a fallacy. When I was in grad school there were people
of all ages in my program, one of which was a woman in her late 50’s who went
on to graduate and now writes and runs a very popular blog about honey
bees. The obvious point being that
school will always be there, opportunity will always be there. Will the motivation?
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