Off Route

Going off route happens to every climber at some point in time. Maybe it’s a sucker hold, tantalizingly chalked but undeniably terrible. You thought the line meandered. It didn’t. Now you’re pumped, tired, holding onto something awful and wondering what’s next. Sometimes, you retreat, back down, regroup, and try again. Sometimes you can’t reverse course, and you’re airborne.

Since I moved to Chicago, I’ve felt like my life is off route. I’m still struggling to find a way to integrate my climbing life with my life-life. I fought all winter to survive, to stay excited about climbing despite a lack of time outdoors, and to fullfill my work obligations in the face of mounting dissatisfaction.

At some point, I stopped working towards my climbing goals.

At some point, I stopped caring that I wasn’t making progress.

At some point, making it to the gym at all became victory, even if I was too tired to train or even climb well.

Before my week long trip in early April, I called home. I was limping through a busy period at work, stressed out of my mind, and worried about my upcoming trip. I desperately needed climbing to be there for me. I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the trip, or climbing itself.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Sanity was temporarily restored. I had an amazing week sleeping burrowed into my sleeping bag (it was cold!), meeting new folks, and steadily destroying my skin. Though I had wandered away from climbing, it was right there waiting for me when I got back.

But it had to end. As I got back to work in Chicago, the same frustrations returned. Logistical issues and the lack of a like-minded consistent climbing partner made the status of future trips uncertain. So for some reason, I stopped writing. I meant to. I knew I ‘should’ write. That I would lose readers if I didn’t. Somehow though, I couldn’t make myself do it.

This post isn’t an apology, only an explanation. I’m trying to find a way to be true to myself and get my life back on route. I’m working on finding ways to be happy in the circumstances I’m stuck with until I can make a move to change them.

How to Make Up Your Own Routes at the Climbing Gym

Juniper commented on my post the other day that she doesn’t think there are enough routes in her small gym to try out the training wheels for training workout I stole from Kris at Power Company Climbing. So for Juniper and everyone else, here’s a whole post about how I got into ‘setting’ my own routes at the gym.

Inventing or setting routes is a learned skill that gets better with practice!

Basic Method

1. Look – Find hold(s) on the wall that you want to use! This is the fun part! Pick anything that appeals to you.
   
2. Sequence – Make up a sequence that will take you from the ground to the top, using the hold you picked
3. See  – Visualize the movement of the sequence. Decide which hands will go on which holds, think about the feet. What will your body look like at various points on the route?
4. Climb – Climb your new route and see how it feels.
   
5. Revise & Repeat – Think about what you’ve just climbed. Was something to hard or too easy, too close or to far?
   

When you first start, it can be hard to visualize movement accurately, or to remember all the holds you’ll need (without the visual cue of tape). This is ok! Do as much as you can. Here are some ideas that will let you practice routesetting skills and movement visualization which aren’t as memory-intensive as making up a new route from scratch.

First Steps: Modifications to Existing Routes

These are the easiest ways to make up your own routes (in order of increasing difficulty). Routesetting for yourself can be a great tool to prevent warmups and other climbs you repeat regularly from becoming stale.

1. Track Feet – on easier routes (think warm-ups) can you use tracking feet only? Why or why not? What foot (feet) are absolutely essential?
2. Links – take two different routes and find a way to link them together, using holds on the routes themselves or by adding extra holds.
3. Delete – can you climb a route without using all the holds? Which ones can be removed?
4. Replace – take a hold on an existing route, declare it off bounds, and replace it with another hold. Does it make the route easier or harder? This can help get you familiar with hold types you avoid–replace a jug with a sloper or a pinch on a warm-up, for example.

Making Up New Routes Using the Holds that are Already on the Wall 

The easiest way to start making up whole new routes is to pick a sequence of hand-holds, leaving the feet open. This way, you have fewer things to remember. To get the most out of it, it’s best to plan, visualize, and then climb, instead of adding holds one by one to the route.

Walls with high hold density tend to work best for making up problems. This is the 45deg wall at the gym where I train–it was crazy empty the day I took this picture!

Sometimes I pick a start hold and ‘build’ the sequence in my head from the ground up. Sometimes I pick a hold (often part of a route that’s too hard for me, or one that addresses a weakness (bad crimps, pinches, slopers)) and make up a way to get to it instead. Sometimes I just decide the general path I want to take, for example, all the way across the base of the 45 and then up. Or sometimes I want to find holds that put my body into a cool position. It’s up to you!

How to Make Your Routes Better

If you’ve made up routes before, but didn’t like them, keep trying! For some ideas, check out posts over at Power Company Climbing, one consisting of tips from Kris, and another which is a truly awesome interview with Chris Danielson, including his thoughts on Kris’s tips! Here are some things I do to make my own routes better…

1. Find a friend: It’s much more fun to work on making a route with another person than by yourself. It’s more fun to discuss how a route climbs or how movement feels out loud than in your own head. 
2. Practice: Then practice some more. This makes a huge difference in the quality of the routes you invent. If you keep at it, you will see improvement, and feel it in the way your routes climb.
3. Break the ladder: Routes that climb like ladders–left, right, left, right, hand, foot, hand foot, all the way up are boring! Try setting routes that traverse, or set a bump move. Find ways to break the pattern, and your routes will become more interesting.
4. Specify Feet: Take off the good ones, or allow feet only of a certain color. This requires you to keep more information about the route in your head, but will add another complex and interesting dimension to your routesetting.

 

Finally, remember that the folks that set routes work from a place of powerful passion for climbing and love of movement–which, as a climber you already have. You already have what it takes to ‘set’ your own routes.

But, I climb 3 – 4 nights a week, and EVERY time I climb I am routesetting.  No matter where I am climbing or what gym I go to, I am always creating boulders based on existing holds on the wall.  For me, this is, without question, the best way to better understand how to create movement, and also understand the movement itself better.  On your gym’s wall, or a home woodie, with enough density of holds, you can make up a dozen or more new climbs every night. — Chris Danielson, interviewed by Power Company Climbing, in a post you should go read right now

Track It!

Today’s post is all about training logs! Many people think that training logs are only for people with training plans, or only for people who are ‘serious’ about their climbing and never play in the gym. Nothing could be further from the truth! Tracking what you’re doing with your time in the gym is valuable for climbers of all skill levels and ages, even raw beginners.

Some examples of what your training log can do:

• Allow you to see progression and improvement 
• Document and prevent over training, keep track of ‘tweaks’ and injuries
• Prevent you from rewriting history with overly-rosy or overly-critical lenses
• Help you set goals and hold yourself accountable to them
• See how your motivation and interests change over time
• Inspire confidence, as a record of commitment and effort
• Allow you to reflect on past training and plan for the future

In the gallery below, I pulled a couple examples from my winter training log, to illustrate how I’ve been tracking my 1+1 training wheels workouts. In a more commercial gym (1st picture) everything is graded, and I’ll sometimes keep track of grades/colors in detail. In the bouldering gym where I normally train, I just keep track of the angle. For the second hour, when I’m working on harder climbs, I sometimes take more detailed notes, but usually not.

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What should you write? I think there are three things that every training log should capture in some way–status of injuries, difficulty, and training volume.

The first two items are fairly straightforward. All climbers are prone to injury, but you’re at extra risk if you’ve recently increased the difficulty or volume of your training, or both at the same time. If you do get injured, your training log can be an invaluable tool to help you figure out why.

In my logs, I always keep careful track of training volume–how many routes I’ve done or attempted in a particular session in the gym. The original inspiration for this post was my realization that when the gym is crowded, I don’t get much done and I’m overly negative about my own climbing. Your training log can help you see what affects your training volume, and adjust it according to your own goals.

For some, the climbing gym is a place to see and be seen, and a great place to socialize. If you don’t have a training plan, it can be easy to get distracted and climb a very small number of routes or problems during your time at the gym. For new and intermediate climbers the most important thing to do is get lots of volume to develop and refine your technique. You don’t have to stop being social–but be aware of how it affects what you’re able to get done in the gym!

If you do have a training plan, it can be difficult to stick to among all the opportunities and distractions in the gym. Instead of finishing your planned warm-up sequence, you get sucked into trying the new sloper problem with a crowd of your friends. I use my training log to see how well I’m sticking to my training goals and plans. I try to find a dynamic equilibrium between doing planned and structured training and seeking variety and inspiration.

Below the cut, check out some thoughts from climbers @Senderhq and @drglasner on tracking training, as well as a couple do’s and dont’s for your training log.

Begin Again

I need to buy a plane ticket. After a few months of Chicago winter, with ever mounting stresses and pressures at work, I should be jumping at the chance to escape on a climbing trip. Instead, I’m afraid.

I wrote before about a scary fall that happened while I was climbing in the Red this autumn. Since then, I’ve been working to regain and improve my leading confidence, but it hasn’t been an easy road. I need this trip, I need this time in the outdoors because daily life leaves me tired, stressed, and depleted. But I’m afraid, because I’m worried that I’ll want confidence and mastery that I probably won’t have on my first outdoor trip in over 3 months. I’m wanting climbing to be easy and restorative, but I’m not sure that it will be.

I’ve recently started practicing yoga. It’s been more challenging and rewarding than I thought. One of the things I’m learning in yoga is to accept what my body can do on a particular day, to not force poses I’m ready for.

Great blog post from Heidi Wirtz over at the North Face website, and some beautiful photos. Click through for the post.

I want to try to take what I’m learning in yoga and apply it to my climbing. When I get back out again, I want to be present in my body and my mind–accept what I’m ready to do and try not to force the rest. Though it’s not in my nature, I want to trick myself into becoming a beginner again.

Everyone takes time off, from the most earnest beginner ripping off skin on huge jugs, to the seasoned climbers who suffer injury or accident. Sometimes it’s work that gets in the way, sometimes it’s family, or travel.

To get started again: Let go of what was, what you used to be able to do. Accept where you are right now and be present. Do what you can one day at a time, listen to your body. Breathe in and begin again. 

Training Wheels for Training: A Review

Climbers are endless consumers of information about climbing. There’s always one more blog to discover, one more video to watch, and one more slideshow to click through. We’re also inundated with information about how to train. As our sport matures, we’re discovering more and more about how to achieve peak performance.

When it comes to training advice, it’s important to find the voices you trust among the growing cacophony. For me, one of those voices is Kris Hampton, who writes the blog Power Company Climbing. His training content is consistently high-quality and relevant.  After a 3 week break from climbing in mid-December, I re-discovered this post by Kris: How to Climb Harder than Other Newbs. The guidelines Kris lays out have been the foundation of my training for the last two months. They’re simple, and they work.

My sessions are almost all structured the same way–in two hour-long blocks.

I spend the first hour warming up by climbing new (to me) easy problems, or repeating moderate problems perfectly. No flailing feet, no muscling up the wall. Focus on feeling and improving the quality of your movement, not whether or not you get to the top.

The next hour I spend working problems that are hard, but achievable. Kris recommends something you think you can send in 5-6 goes. I try to carry the smoothness and precision of movement from the easy problems through to the second half of my session. If I’m too tired to climb well on the harder stuff, I either end the session or climb a bit more on easier problems.

That’s it. Simple.

Even better, it works. I am having tons of fun during the first hour, and feeling more solid on problems closer to my limit. Some suggestions and tweaks for tailoring the ‘newbie’ workout are below. Remember–it’s never to early or too late to be beginner again!

Antagonist Muscle Training for (Intermediate) Climbers

Confession time: I can’t do a real push-up. Not even one! I’m a perfect example of the imbalance that many climbers have in their upper bodies–our pulling muscles are way stronger than our pushing muscles. Correcting or avoiding this imbalance is an important part of injury prevention.

Maggie says: You really can’t do a push-up!? What are you doing in the dirt? Can I play too?

One of my training ‘projects’ is improving my the strength of my antagonist muscles to correct my own imbalance. You don’t need a fancy training program: you can fit pushing muscle exercises into whatever workout/climbing schedule you already have. Here are three suggestions…

#1 Stick, Meet Carrot

During your next bouldering or routes session, work in a light number of push-ups in between routes or problems. Decide on a specific ratio–for example–do 5 (or 10) push-ups for every two boulder problems. If your gym has free weights easily accessible, you can mix it up and do other antagonist exercises.

When I do this type of workout, what I’m usually doing is ‘rewarding’ myself for doing exercises I’m not good at by doing things I like to do. For example, I do push-up progression exercises in all of  my workouts: lifting or climbing. Sometimes, when I’ve done good work in a session, I’ll ‘reward’ myself by hopping up on the bar and doing a few pull-ups for fun.

You can work push-ups in between routes into your warm-up or cool down, or do them throughout a session. Don’t give yourself a break when you get outdoors–you may feel silly doing push-ups at the crag, but injuries are far worse than feeling silly. Ask yourself–if not now, when?

#2 Self-Assigned Homework

As Tony would say, I stole this idea from Tony Gentilcore, specifically from his pull-up progression series. Tony gives his clients ‘homework’ to do a certain number of reps per day, 25 or 50, for example.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Intermediate Climbers

#1 Find Strength in Numbers

Community is one of the things (for me, the thing) that makes climbing so amazing. Make it your goal to reach out to somebody new in 2013. Include the person who’s looking for a partner in your group–even if it makes odd numbers. Help out the beginners in your gym or at the crag! Make sure the guy in his street shoes and a harness in the bouldering area gets a good spot–sometimes beginners aren’t as in control of where they land when they fall. Be warm, welcoming and supportive.

#2 Use Outdoor Time Wisely

You should have three modes:

1. Onsighting 
2. Working
3. Redpointing

Most intermediate climbers spend too much time trying to onsight and redpoint, and little or no time at all working or projecting routes. If you’re trying to send the minute your feet leave the ground, every time, I’m talking to you! If a route is too hard for you to onsight, you should be working it! Test out beta, try tough sections multiple times, rest on the rope, and plan tactics for your redpoint go.

#3 Work on Your Footwork 

Let’s be honest guys–we’re never going to be done working on footwork. There is no final state of footwork nirvana in which no improvement is possible. Now that we’ve accepted that, resolve to work on footwork in some way in every training session. One way to do this is to play the silent feet game–find a friend to make sure you stay accountable!

Fancy footin’ on the cigar in Ten Sleep Canyon, WY

#4 Be a Beginner Again 

Once you’ve been climbing for a while, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing what you’re good at. Trying things you’re bad at makes you look silly, it’s hard, and it often feels like you’re not getting anywhere. Do it anyway! Are slopers your nemesis? Replace a hold on a moderate (for you) route or problem with a sloper and see how it changes your beta? Technical masters, try something with a roof ! Jug haulers, try something balancy. Don’t spend any time telling everyone around you that you’re bad at whatever it is to lower expectations before you try it–just do it! You don’t judge other people when they fail, odds are, no one is judging you!

#5 Give Yourself a Break

When you have big dreams, it’s easy to fall short of your expectations. When this happens, don’t beat yourself up about it. Keep dreaming, and keep working! Someday you’ll get there, and in the meantime, there’s lots of fun to be had along the way.

What are your resolutions? What are you working on in the New Year? Want me to bother you about sticking to them in June? Post up in the comments!

Climbing-Related Things I Have Bookmarked In The Last Year [An Exhaustive List]

In case you’ve already read all the books you got for the holidays….

Climbing Community/Culture/Meta

1. Women, First Ascents, and Competition, Article by Thomasina Pidgeon [Gripped] 
2. LT11’s Jordan Shipman on Vision and the Lack Therof in the Climbing Industry [LT11]
3. Ten Top Tips for Staying Alive [UKClimbing]
4. Collette McInerney on Women Sending Hard [Five Ten]
5. Sonnie Trotter on Dave Graham’s Secret and Hard Climbing [Sonnie Trotter]
6. NYT Profile of Ashima Shiraishi [New York Times]
7. It’s Not Cool to Care [The Stone Mind]
8. Spiral of Death [Rock and Ice]
9. Women and Development [B3 Bouldering]
10. Climbing is (Not) the Best [The Stone Mind]
11. Exorcising Dirtbags: Let the Right One In [Climbing Magazine]
12. Return To Sender: Writeup of Sender Films [NatGeo]

Long Term Road Trips

1. Getting Out of the Midwest, Trip Budgeting [MP]
2. Western U.S. Road Trip, Planning Details and Destination Recommendations [MP]
3. How To Budget for a Climbing Road Trip [Roll Global]
4. Guide to Safely Sleeping In Your Vehicle for Free [Roll Global]
5. 9 Traits of the Ideal Road Trip Companion [semi-rad]
6. Hobobo Guide to Free Wifi [Roll Global]
7. Steph Davis on Living in Your Car, Safety Issues [High Infatuation]
8. Steph Davis on Food on the Road [High Infatuation]
9. Steph Davis on Where to Sleep While Dirtbagging [High Infatuation]
10. Steph Davis on How to Set Up Your Truck i.e. the Shelf! [High Infatuation]
11. Simple Living Manifesto [72 Days Project]
12. Making Your Road Trip 40% Better [semi-rad]
13. The Ultimate Road Trip [semi-rad]
14. Interactive Map: Breweries of the United States [Pop Chart Lab]
15. Active Fire Mapping Program [US Forest Service]

Lifestyle/Road Trip Blogs 

1. Mike D’s Climbing Roadtrip Blog
2. Furgonetten
3. Peder and Jess
4. Dirtbag Life

Interviews 

1. Really Great Interview with Alex Johnson [DPM]
   
2. Interview with Collette McInerney on Bolting and Climbing Hard [Climb Find]
3. Zen Quotes from Chris Sharma [Climb and More]
4. Interview with Chris Sharma in Ceuse [Petzl]
5. Chris Sharma Interview [UKClimbing]

Mental Aspects of Climbing

1. Fear of Falling – Article Explaining Clip Drop Training Technique [UKClimbing]
2. Attitude and Climbing [MP]
3. The Rotpunkt Method [The Stone Mind]
4. Escaping Climbing Grades [Alli Rainey]
5. Escaping Grade Imprisonment [Alli Rainey]
6. Mental States, Peak Performance, and Big Dreams [Alli Rainey]

Training for Climbing

1. Climbing and Training for a Half-Marathon [MP]
2. Exhaustive Collection of Mostly Horst-Authored Training Articles [Nicros]
3. Upper Body Strength+Power in Climbing & Training [Alli Rainey]
4. Hangboard Training with Ryan Palo [Metolius]
5. Sport Climbing Training Plan, Discussion [MP]
6. How Do I Get Better Faster? [Power Company Climbing]
7. How to Climb Harder than Other Newbs [Power Company Climbing]
8. Relationship Between Lock-Off Ability and Performance [Eva Lopez]
9. Training Tuesdays: Training Program [Climb On, Sister!]
10. Training for the Red River Gorge [MP]
11. Pushing Through Plateaus [Alli Rainey]
12. How I Broke Through My Biggest Climbing Plateau [The Morning Fresh]
13. One Workout Every Climber Should Do [DPM]
14. Training Wonks Discuss Training [MP]
15. Spice Up Your ARC Training [Lazy H Climbing Club]
16. Training Obsession [Will Gadd]
17. H.I.T. Training [Cragmama]
18. Article about Professional Climbing Coaching for Adults [Climber Magazine]

Climbing Videos 

1. Tomorrow I Will Be Gone, Bouldering in Rocklands [Outcrop Films]   
2. Zombie Roof Solo [Will Stanhope, filmed by Dave Pearson]
3. Red River Gorge: Gray’s Branch [Colin Delhanty]
4. Cell Block Six [Sean Stewart]
5. Protips 3 Jason Kehl [Climb X Media]
6. Protips 6 Lauren Lee [Climb X Media] 
7. Protips Slopers [Climb X Media]
8. Climb Like Sharma [Rock and Ice]
9. Demon Seed [Sean Stewart]

Destination Specific Links 

1. Ten Sleep, Wyoming [Roll Global]
2. Ten Sleep Canyon Camping Options [MP]
3. Climbing on Cayman Brac [JB]
4. Fired For Sandbagging route page [MP]

Gear

1. Blank Slate Page Where You Can Buy the Ten  Sleep Guidebook [Blank Slate]
2. What to Put in the Ultimate Back Country First Aid Kit [Roll Global]
3. 12 Reasons the iPhone is an Awesome Piece of Climbing Gear [Adventure Journal]
4. 10 Cheap Substitutes for Expensive Camping Gear [Adventure Journal]
5. Bliss Wrap [Icebreaker]
6. Foam Mattress Topper [Walmart]

Miscellaneous

1. Pretty Nice Climbing Photo Which I Bookmarked For Unknown Reasons [tumblr]
2. Elvis Leg of The Climbing Soul [Tara Reynvaan]
3. A Zen Story [Stone Mind]
4. Making a Crimp Mug [?]
5. Excellent RouteSetting Blog [RouteCrafting] 
6. Dream World [The Ascent Blog]
7. Finding the Power of the Unplugged Mind [Proactive Outside]
8. Physiological Responses to Rock Climbing in Young Climbers [British Journal of Sports Medicine]

Have more links or better links? Did I forget to bookmark something good? Post up in the comments and let us know!

Gift Ideas for the Climber in Your Life

#1 What They Ask For

Relatives and non-climber friends of climbers can have a hard time figuring out what it is you want. A few years ago, my brother walked into a book store and asked for a book about climbing for his sister. He walked out with a copy of 127 hours.

If you do your best on your own, your climber will still love their gift. But climbers are pathological collectors of climbing year. We have a wish list, trust me. We can always think of something we ‘need’ that you can get us! Read on for more ideas for (affordable) gifts for climbers…

#2 Something to Put on Their Hands  

For a detailed and hilarious overview of “crap climbers put on their hands”, check out this post over at The Stone Mind. Despite carrying it around with me everywhere, I never lost my little tin of Skin Doctor while I was on the road this summer. It was too precious to lose! The Climb On! products also get rave reviews from climbers I know.

Climb On! Lotion bar. Also comes as a creme, and (newly) with a manly scent!

#3 A Bail ‘Biner

This suggestion was inspired by my lucky bail ‘biner. It was one of the first pieces of gear I ever owned. Whenever this bail ‘biner went up a hard route on someone’s harness, the route got finished, and the ‘biner came back down. Once I noticed, I started taking it with me for a little bit of extra confidence.

Get your favorite climbing partner a lucky bail ‘biner of their very own for the new year. Write them a note. Tell them about the mystic powers of the lucky bail ‘biner, and remind them to dream big and try hard in the new year. If the ‘biner eventually gets left behind, its newness and shininess will make someone’s day.

From Trango, the Superfly. Your favorite climbing partner could be super fly too!

#4 Really Fancy Socks

This suggestion came from one of my followers on twitter, @climbing_strong. Having the right thing in between your shoes and your feet can make a world of difference in comfort when you’re out tramping. Even better, sock sizes are easier to guess correctly than other clothing sizes. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with a merino wool, but some folks are fond of synthetic technical fabrics as well.

I love all things colorful, and Icebreaker doesn’t disappoint. Their apparel is a bit pricey, but the performance you get is worth every penny.

#5 Reel Rock 7

Nothing says “I love you, man” like giving your buddy climbing porn for the holidays. This year’s Reel Rock is now on sale at www.reelrocktour.com. I think it’s worthwhile to support the folks that are producing top-notch climbing media. Reel Rock is consistently entertaining and high quality. This year’s films are no exception.

#6 Rope Wash

The year after I found 127 Hours under the tree, my family upped their game and bought me rope wash. On their own. Despite knowing barely anything about climbing. I was surprised and touched.

The question of whether washing ropes actually does anything has been debated endlessly on the internet, and eventually boils down to personal preference. Several different washes are available, but I’m inclined to trust something from a rope manufacturer over and independent product. Follow these tips from Splitter Choss if you end up putting your rope wash to use!

Sterling’s Wicked Good Rope Wash

#7 A Petzl Draw

Tried and true, these draws are beloved by climbers the world over. They can be a bit pricey, so most climbers I know acquire them slowly, a few at a time. Help your favorite climber out by adding a few to their collection.

Big beefy dogbones make great emergency nylon jugs when you’re trying hard at your limit.

#8 Your Suggestions

What did I leave off? Leave a comment to let me know!

[Dear Beloved Family, Please refer to #1, then talk to Mom. :)]

Performance Paradigms

What happens when you don’t live up to your own past performance?

What happens when you get worse instead of getting better or staying the same?

I wrote earlier this year about some of the transition blues I was having after my move to Chicago. I made my goal of 20 days climbing outside this fall, but if you asked me, I would tell you that I had a mediocre season.

I’ve written before about the negative impacts grade-chasing has had on my climbing experience. In July, I was dreaming big and getting disappointed when my expectations didn’t meet reality. This fall, I expected the numbers I was climbing to stay the same, despite drastically reduced training and outdoor time, and the added stress of a move to a new city and a job.

Smith Rock, May 2012, when life was a bit simpler.

Grades are a measure of performance. One measure. The easiest measure, not the only measure, and not the best measure.

I have always had high self-expectations. My analytical self loves grades, precisely because they’re an easy measure of performance. Did I send the grade I wanted to? Am I meeting the expectation I set for myself? These questions become easy to answer when your metric is whether or not you sent a particular grade. A simple metric is attractive, but it causes you to lose sight of the incredible richness of the climbing experience.

To let grades and sending define performance as a climber is to narrow the whole spectrum of climbing experiences to a single binary measure, a black and white vision of success or failure. 

As the season wraps, I’m trying to appreciate how I’m growing as a person and as a climber as the result of my experiences, not worry about what grades I’m climbing. Since it seems (to me) to be related, I’ll close this post with this great quote by Alan Watts:

Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.