Two Weeks
The first lesson of this spring is that you should never climb a problem in the gym that was set by someone with constant finger troubles. Their fingers are swollen/hurting/torn/busted for a reason and it is far too easy to fuck up tendons in the gym. Come to think of it, all of my tendon/pulley problems originate in the gym. Of course, the second thing that I learned this spring is that my exhausting training over the winter has resulted in a few gains. I’m rather embarrassed at the fact that I failed to complete the regimen that I set out for myself, but between various flu symptoms and general exhaustion, I think it’s alright that I completed as much as I could. There are only so many nights that I can stand campusing or working lockoffs and passing on actual climbing.
Upon heading back to the rock, I noticed first that I had no calluses and couldn’t hold on to a damned thing simply due to lack of skin conditioning. There’s nothing like doing backflops off of Dopeman because you can’t stick to the sun-warmed sloper. After a few days out with Chris to help him get his sends of Maxim and Gadgetry, I felt a little more in tune with things, although it seems as though I’m not exactly in tune with myself. This past weekend I set out to Blair Woods thinking that maybe I’d jump on a few of my old projects and get schooled, which wouldn’t exactly be a confidence booster. My body felt stiff to start and despite warming up and sending Burt, Damn the Man, etc, with ease, I still felt off. First up on the list of projects was The Extra Ion. Some days I hate the problem, others it intrigues me. The crux deadpoint to a three-finger quarter-pad crimp is attrocious. I can’t count the number of times I’ve simply swung off and lost mass amounts of skin in the process. It seems that each time I work on the problem I change my beta, mostly because I snapped a crystal off of the arete, but also because I’ve been looking for something that works. As I sat in silence between failed attempts, I couldn’t help but notice how silent the woods were. The warm sun provided a nice juxtaposition to the cold air, and all I can say is that it was beautifully peaceful. Somewhere in there, everything came together. Shadows cooled the crimp. My mind shut off. From the starting edges, I pulled up to the mini-sloper on the arete, set my foot on the smear and twisted up to the crimp without problem. Surprised, I nearly punted myself off. Continuing up through the sidepulls, I snagged the lip and pulled over the top. I can only wonder why it took me so long.
After a few miserable attempts at Giving Up Skin, I packed up and walked over to Expanding Man. For years, the first move has stumped me. I’ve never seen anyone do it and therefore can only keep trying. In the past I’d only been able to put in a few burns on this problem, but that day for whatever reason, I kept pulling and kept falling. That’s when something clicked. My toe stuck to something and I pulled the move statically. In shock, I fell off, took a breather, and tried again. Pull up to the crimp. Bump up the arete. Smear on the face and dyno. I blew off the finishing jug twice before walking away.
Good reading. I have similar thoughts about tendon problems originating in the gym, on routes set by climbers with tendon problems. It seemed like an obvious criticism, but when I brought it up to the gym’s head setter he got pretty butt hurt. Nice blog, more pictures!