Well, I was in a bit of a more depressive mood last time I wrote, but today I’m in a great mood in regards to climbing! I haven’t gone on any particularly hard climbs lately but I feel strong and feel like my climbing ability is steadily improving this summer. And most of all–I’m just having fun! I often find that when you have fun climbing, success naturally follows. On the other hand, when you feel discouraged, and frustrated it’s hard to climb your best.
Not long ago, as per usual, I climbed yet again with Dad at Vertical World Seattle. I made considerable progress on a 5.12b I’m working on. I didn’t get the climb, but I got several holds farther than the last time I tried it before falling. It’s also significant that I fell instead of taking. Often I will take because I’m afraid I will not be able to get a particular climbing move since I’m tired (climbing 50 feet walls at VW is quite tiring). However, on this day, I did not take once but climbed until I fell on every single hard route I tried. In other words, I pushed myself to my physical limit on all the climbs I did that day and did not stop just because I was afraid I wasn’t capable of doing a move. Often I surprised myself and did moves I thought I wouldn’t be able to do.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a normal day if my old climbing coach from VW, Tyson, didn’t make fun of me at least a little. For some reason, Tyson always asks me to try new routes he’s set when it’s nearing the end of the day–and I’m really tired. This time he asked me to try a route that he promised was no harder than 5.12a. Although I agree with his estimation of the route’s grade, I, to put it mildly, did not climb the route very gracefully. Instead, I constantly got out of sequence and kept grabbing foot holds by accident (“foot holds” are only meant to be for your feet because they are so small but I can often manage to hold them, although it causes me to waste energy). I know I was grabbing footholds because I could hear Tyson below talking about how I was grabbing lots of foot holds–oh well. I almost finished the climb without falling but I fell when I grabbed a particularly slippery/bad foothold. Tyson laughed and asked why I grabbed the foothold (I thought it was a handhold, obviously, in my exhausted state) but then told me the correct way to finish the route. After that, I quickly finished up the route without much issue. I told my dad that it seems like Tyson is always watching me climb when I’m tired. My dad said that he’s probably doing that on purpose. Although Tyson does seem to be joking around with me, the advice he gives me on how to do climbs is actually really helpful and I try to follow his advice. Moreover, he’s pushing me to refine my climbing skills: if you can climb well even when you are exhausted, you can probably climb a lot.
Yesterday I climbed with Kayla at the Seattle Bouldering Project. Other than getting a v7 that seemed rather easy for the grade I didn’t get any really hard climbs but I enjoyed trying and falling on many hard climbs I couldn’t do. And of course I enjoyed just hanging out with Kayla. It’s always interesting when we climb together because we are drastically different sizes- I’m 5’3″-ish and she’s around 5’10” which results in us climbing the same climbs quite differently. Better yet, if the weather is good, there’s a very good chance I will be able to climb with Kayla next weekend at Squamish, a world class climbing area in British Columbia, Canada. I haven’t been there in years but I love Squamish!
Last but not least, I’m almost certainly going climbing outside tomorrow. I’m waiting for confirmation from the group I’m climbing with but the weather is for once in my favor with only a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow. We’re either climbing at exit 32 (also known as Little Si) or exit 38, both located in North Bend, Washington. I’ll write up on the exciting day (my first day climbing outside if all goes well) soon.
