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February 06, 2007
Typical Day On The Rocks
Ouch! This hurts. Typing that is. My fingers are thrashed from a RAD Hueco weekend! No major sends to report but both April and I are getting close on our current projects. Recently, after working on problems way at my limit I have had to adjust my mindset for the constant days of getting humbled. Many times when the climbing is really really hard and I keep failing I step back and say to myself, “This is fun, right?” “Hell yeah it is!” I usually get psyched at the thought and try again, try harder, and fall off. I look at my torn up fingers and feel all the sore muscles in my body, thinking am I ever going to send this thing? For me, this is awesome! The challenge of the problem lures me in and I can’t get enough even when I’m bloody and dead tired.
Although my enjoyment may be unique, shared by only the community of climbers like me. I often wonder what an “outsider” must think. What if someone who doesn’t understand what bouldering is just happens to look on at what we are doing? Ok so here is the picture: we are barely making any progress, trying sooo hard, nearly killing ourselves when we tear off moves crashing into the ground. Swearing, hi-fiving, yelling and saying goofy things. For example, the Brits we sessioned with this weekend were psyched. They came to the US to experience Hueco but recently the weather has been horribly cold and they got off to a slow start. Yesterday, after making great progress on Power of Silence V10 and falling off one guy yelled, “It’s been so F-ing Bloody Cold this is the first time I’ve been warm on this trip.” After hearing that all of his super strong friends chalked up and got in line to reach the same high point. To me, the 3 moves they all made was inspiring. I joined in and made it as far as them. When I fell off and caught my breath we all shared beta, “Dude, where did you grab that crimp?” “Grab the left part and smear on that shitty foot” “Toe hook with the outside of your left foot” “No no, use your heal and lean” “This is bloody fantastic!” Obviously, to us, each climber did something totally different. We were all psyched and kept at it.
Ok so back to the “outsider.” At this point they would definitely wonder what 6 guys are doing down in a hole where it’s super cold, speaking a weird language with a few expliciives thrown in. They may ask “What are you doing? Is that fun? Is that a sport?” “What are you guys doing, just walk around to the top of the boulder if you want to get to the top (you wouldn’t imagine how many people really have told us that).” What’s even better is when they go to the top and say, “Hey look how easy it is.”
Recently I’ve been laughing about what a non-climber would think about my attempts at problems that are really hard for me. I can see where they would come up with those questions but it was today that I found a moment where I seriously thought any non-climber would appreciate the scene of people bouldering.
I stood at the base of Mushroom Boulder, a super classic area with tons of awesome problems. My attention was caught when a few cheers eminated from Mushroom Roof V8. A British girl (from the crew of Brits) was cruising. She naturally locked off the crimps on the steep roof, exhibited no strain and as she neared the top-out, caught the last good hold with ease, flexing her muscles which were comparable to the guys that spotted her. To my right a guy grabbed the lip of a tall problem, cut his feet, threw his foot up to the top and cruised over to celebrate his warm-up send. In the distance there were three people climbing the high-ball Mellon Patch V0. Three, all on the climb together! Jokingly they were pulling on each other as they climbed as if they were trying to cause each other to fall off. But, really they were so calm that it appeared as if they were on level gound playfully bumping into one another like playing a game of tag. Everyone was demonstrating skill that seemed so natural. It was as if we, humans, were meant to climb. It was a display of talent from people all around the world. I would even compare it to the show that olympic athletes put on that impress viewers who have no clue what snowboarding is or what’s possible on ice skates. Today I saw a demonstration of climbing that would impress any non-climber and maybe interest them enough to try, to have fun and join our underground sport.
Too bad this scene was only shared by us, many miles from the nearby city, on the boulders in the desert, away from the spotlight and away from all the “outsiders,” the non-climbers. Maybe someday people won’t wonder what our underground sport is all about?
Sorry for NO video footage or pictures. Our video camera broke and our camera battery has seen its last recharge.
Posted by Paul at February 6, 2007 08:41 PM