Summer and Trying
I don't even know why I look at the forecast anymore. I guess I still have a minuscule inkling of hope that i'll magically discover a sub 80 degree day somewhere in that 10 day window. Yet I know the answer, 90 and sunny, 85 and raining, 94 and sunny... yet, the cold weather is bound to come. Someday in the distant future, I'll habitually open wunderground, and see that day at Great Barrington where it is 50 degrees and sunny, with low humidity, and I will have made it.
Its not just the high temperatures that make summer climbing in New England awful, its just how dark and muggy the woods get, its like all the air and humidity gets trapped beneath the canopy, and the woods are turned into a heinous insect infested sweat lodge. So for now, there is no point in trying.
Mostly this summer has been defined by spending a lot of time climbing in the gym, which unusually, feels quite good. I feel like i'm psyched on really trying hard for the first time in.. ever? Well, its not that I hadn't been trying but I had been trying in a different way. Traditionally, my approach to climbing a hard boulder problem has been to work the sequences until I can do every sequence in a way that feels easy for me, and usually, once I figured out how to make things feel easy, I would be able to connect the dots with little effort. I don't mean just figuring out a way to do it that feels possible, but unless I figured out a sequence that I could do roughly once out of every four tries, I would give up. I feel like i've never gotten through a boulder at my limit just by trying hard and giving it growl. So I developed a plateau. v11 seems to be the limit at which I can exclusively figure out a comfortable sequence, and so I spent lot of late last year falling on v12s and 13s because I was just physically exhausted, or because I couldn't do the individual moves consistently/at all.
Okay now comes the epiphany. About a month ago I was at a record low in my climbing psych. For the first time maybe ever, I didn't want to go climbing, or think about climbing, and whenever I climbed I failed. For 3 weeks I kinda just sat around and watched tv and ate ice cream. When I finally did go into the gym, I realized that I needed to make a change, so I turned my hope towards 'Green v7/8' a funky little boulder that I had done a few weeks before. I stared it straight in the eye and told it that no matter what, I would either summit it today, or leave the gym with every finger bleeding. My first three or four tries I climbed to the final crux of the boulder, and came off pumped and exhausted. "Its a nine move boulder, why am I getting pumped" I yelled at myself. And then I remembered... a week before when I was in the car with Nick, and we were talking about climbing routes or something, and he was saying 'yeah if I can just find a good rhythm of breath, then I climb really well' and I responded 'haha yeah I never really breathe when I climb, and when I do its really slow and soft haha, its probably why I can't climb hard haha.' I looked at that green boulder problem on the pillar at CRG and was like, 'im going to breathe like a fiend and conquer you.' It was a miracle on rock. I summited the boulder, didn't get pumped, and felt like I unlocked a key to my climbing. Not only does the fast aggressive breathing help me to get oxygen into my system, but it actually helps me try hard, it makes me feel like I can do hard moves even when i'm uncomfortable and have to force them. This may sound strange, but once I did that boulder my psych came flooding back stronger than its been maybe ever. And I feel strong too, certainly the strongest in a while.
Which is why I want the weather to cool down so that I can get on some of my projects! Smugglers Notch seems to be the only somewhat reasonable summer destination, so I am considering a trip up there this weekend, where I will hopefully try some of the good hard lines like Touching the Sky and Truth and Lies!!
We shall see.
Kai
Its not just the high temperatures that make summer climbing in New England awful, its just how dark and muggy the woods get, its like all the air and humidity gets trapped beneath the canopy, and the woods are turned into a heinous insect infested sweat lodge. So for now, there is no point in trying.
 |
| Trying for a summer repeat on Monkey Butt Love v8 ... Fail! |
Mostly this summer has been defined by spending a lot of time climbing in the gym, which unusually, feels quite good. I feel like i'm psyched on really trying hard for the first time in.. ever? Well, its not that I hadn't been trying but I had been trying in a different way. Traditionally, my approach to climbing a hard boulder problem has been to work the sequences until I can do every sequence in a way that feels easy for me, and usually, once I figured out how to make things feel easy, I would be able to connect the dots with little effort. I don't mean just figuring out a way to do it that feels possible, but unless I figured out a sequence that I could do roughly once out of every four tries, I would give up. I feel like i've never gotten through a boulder at my limit just by trying hard and giving it growl. So I developed a plateau. v11 seems to be the limit at which I can exclusively figure out a comfortable sequence, and so I spent lot of late last year falling on v12s and 13s because I was just physically exhausted, or because I couldn't do the individual moves consistently/at all.
Okay now comes the epiphany. About a month ago I was at a record low in my climbing psych. For the first time maybe ever, I didn't want to go climbing, or think about climbing, and whenever I climbed I failed. For 3 weeks I kinda just sat around and watched tv and ate ice cream. When I finally did go into the gym, I realized that I needed to make a change, so I turned my hope towards 'Green v7/8' a funky little boulder that I had done a few weeks before. I stared it straight in the eye and told it that no matter what, I would either summit it today, or leave the gym with every finger bleeding. My first three or four tries I climbed to the final crux of the boulder, and came off pumped and exhausted. "Its a nine move boulder, why am I getting pumped" I yelled at myself. And then I remembered... a week before when I was in the car with Nick, and we were talking about climbing routes or something, and he was saying 'yeah if I can just find a good rhythm of breath, then I climb really well' and I responded 'haha yeah I never really breathe when I climb, and when I do its really slow and soft haha, its probably why I can't climb hard haha.' I looked at that green boulder problem on the pillar at CRG and was like, 'im going to breathe like a fiend and conquer you.' It was a miracle on rock. I summited the boulder, didn't get pumped, and felt like I unlocked a key to my climbing. Not only does the fast aggressive breathing help me to get oxygen into my system, but it actually helps me try hard, it makes me feel like I can do hard moves even when i'm uncomfortable and have to force them. This may sound strange, but once I did that boulder my psych came flooding back stronger than its been maybe ever. And I feel strong too, certainly the strongest in a while.
Which is why I want the weather to cool down so that I can get on some of my projects! Smugglers Notch seems to be the only somewhat reasonable summer destination, so I am considering a trip up there this weekend, where I will hopefully try some of the good hard lines like Touching the Sky and Truth and Lies!!
 |
| Touching the Sky!!!!! |
We shall see.
Kai
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