Too Hot in the Kitchen

Summer has arrived.

The mercury has been hovering around 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity has been holding pretty strong at 70 percent in between massive rain showers. Suffice to say, conditions for climbing are so far from ideal at this point it is laughable. I have been getting at it anyhow, though, in some misguided effort to disprove the supremacy of Mother Nature and send despite her best efforts. I have so far had mixed success to this end.

Since getting back from California, I have been climbing up at Moore's Wall every moment I can tear away from other obligations. The park is open until 8:30pm during the Summer months, so I have been able to go up after work when the weather has permitted. Through some serious effort, I have made up for lost time at Moore's by logging an absurd amount of hours up there and thereby familiarizing myself with many of the boulders and ticking off a lot of classics.

After several months of effort, I feel as though I am finally starting to get my bearings of the mountain. As there is no guide currently available for the bouldering, everything is word of mouth as far as naming, grading, consensus and all of that goes. I have been able to find a few scattered resources online, but it has mainly been going to the boulders and being social with the people I meet. I have been lucky enough to have a great deal of the problems shown to me, and have even dabbled in tour guiding a bit myself.

There is so much rock up there, though, I still find something wholly new every time I go. There is a guy out of Raleigh working on a guidebook for the area. It is supposedly in its second draft, so hopefully the search for acquaintance will not be so exhausting for too much longer.

Luckily, I was able to tick off a lot of boulders before the summer heat really set in. I even managed to struggle up a couple after the fact. Now I am in recon mode. I have spent the last couple of weeks finding and trying the moves on a bunch of the harder problems I am psyched on doing next season. In the process, I have also been able to find and do a slew of new moderates and easier problems. As I see it, if I spend all Summer honing my beta and familiarity with the area, this fall/winter should allow for my best season yet. I am psyched to finally have a home crag that has such an abundance of amazing boulders. Mark my words, I will send everything Moore's has to offer, or I will blow tendons trying.

Maybe that is a little extreme, but you get the spirit of the statement.

Despite being consumed by Moore's, I have also gotten out to Chat a couple times in the last few months. My objective with climbing in Chat from day one has been to climb as many problems as I can of whatever grade so long as they are interesting and appealing. There are so many classics across the grade spectrum in the area that are worthy of doing, it seemed silly to me to quest after one problem each time in an effort to tick hard problems. After a season of climbing, I feel as though I am coming close to arriving at a point where I feel comfortable enough with my resume of classics to devote more time to working harder problems. Much like with Moore's, I am just beginning to compile a tick list for next season in Chat. There are still an innumerable amount of moderates and easier lines I am psyched on putting down of course, but I feel I am nearing a point where I have paid my dues to the boulders and would not be dishonoring them by neglecting the field for one problem.

I am all for trying harder problems and pushing the limits of what you feel you are capable of. It is what makes me tick as a climber and I do not see the point in doing anything in a state of complacency. That is to say, I lack the vision to see the merit in not striving to be better at whatever undertaking one set out to do. As such, I am constantly trying to get stronger and better for climbing. But I also feel like sometimes we as climbers get tunnel vision to this end and miss the big picture.

Climbing is fun. This is why we do it.

There are so many boulders/routes out there to climb. Some are hard, some are not. Some of my favorite problems/routes have been well below my maximum ability. That being said, all of my proudest problems/routes have been right at my maximum ability at the time that I sent them. I feel though, that to only quest after that which is hardest for us is misguided on two levels.

First, to refuse to climb something below a certain grade is to miss out. Just because something is easy for you does not mean that it cannot be fun. I cannot innumerate the times I have been surprised by easy problems/routes. Sometimes the funnest movement and holds are found on easy/moderates. I have found that if I set my ego aside and get on everything that looks quality rather than grade questing, I have much more fun and usually get to climb something really cool that I would have otherwise overlooked. Also, while a boulder field may have a handful of awesome double digit problems and a crag a small assortment 13s and 14s, there are almost always ten times as many moderates and easier problems/routes. Why miss out on all that fun? The same stone that houses that bad ass V11 or 13d is also what makes up that V2 and 5.9. Obviously there are gems and there are clunkers, but I have found that high quality rock makes high quality problems/routes regardless of grades.

Secondly, there is always something to learn. Every problem/route regardless of grade requires some sort of technique to send. I have learned more and honed my craft better on easier problems/routes than I have on harder ones. While my weaknesses are more pronounced on problems/routes at my limit, I have more of an ability to work them on lines well within my ability. Its much more beneficial for me to work moves I am not so great at on an easier problem than it is on something that has one hard move right at my limit. Furthermore, I think it is much easier to learn and feel body mechanics on lines you feel confident on that ones you feel you are wrestling your way up.

I have slowly adopted this philosophy over the past year and a half or so and have begun to see some concrete gains from it I think. By climbing as much as possible regardless of grade, I have started to see myself moving more naturally and understanding movement better. Beta seems much clearer and harder moves go down faster for me now. Maybe this is happening just because I am due for a performance gain and there is no corollary factor between the two, but I think if it is not broken, why fix it? Plus, I like where I am at. I work on things that are hard for me, and still want to progress to those levels that seem as if they border on unattainable goals, but I just love climbing too much for that to be my end all and be all.

I want to climb everything. Hard, moderate, easy...I do not care. If it is good, I want to conquer it. Hell, even if it is terrible, choss climbing can be fun in its own right from time to time. In the words of a friend of mine, Russ Clune, "He who dies with the most ticks wins."

Now go climb something!