Freedom of the Old-School Hills

"Climbing is a joyous, instinctive activity; unless restrained, most children will scurry up trees, garden walls, building facades, and anything else steep and enticing.  While society, in the form of parents, teachers, and the law, discourages these activities, some determined individuals persist and eventually find their way to the peaks" (181).

PSA: your REI dividend is cash, not credit

It's a moment of excitement, peeking into the mailbox and finding that slick slip of paper.  How much is it?  Are we talking just a few new biners?  Maybe a whole cam?  A chunk off a new rope?  What gear from REI are you gonna spend it on?

Well, turns out you don't have to spend it at REI at all: As the REI Memberships Benefits Page explains,  "You can use your dividend notice as soon as you receive it to purchase gear and services at REI.  Or you can redeem it for cash after July 1st."  You can redeem it for cash!  News to me.

So the real question is, do you really need a few new biners — or some gas money for you July 4th road trip?

gym notes: 50% and 1/2

I sent a project in the gym tonight.  Breaking news, right?  Well, it was a near thing.  After warming up I topropped the thin, vertical route, probably my fifth time climbing it with no hangs.  White tape marked the holds, a fitting color for a route that had become my white whale.  On previous redpoint attempts the tenuous clips had startled me, pushing me over the line from tenuous to desperate.  Unlatching my hand for the second clip meant putting almost full bodyweight on a grimy smear, one I could just feel my foot popping off.  I took, then limped up the rest of the route, greasing off the hold before the dyno to the finishing jug.

Next go I was anxious to make that clip and pulled the rope up at an earlier stance — only to find myself short of the draw.  Then I did it again.  Premature E-clip-uation.  Managed to get the rope in from an awkward but secure cross-body reach from a little undercling, but the rope shenanigans left me weak.  When I got to the movement crux, an off-balance foot sketch, I took again.  Crap.  Finished the route properly, though, but that only added to the disappointment.  I know how to do this!...So why can't I? 

My fingers felt pathetic, but I figured having one more go while I was tired would ease up the moves for next time.

...And I sent.

It's a measure of my inexperience that I've never worked a route this many times.  A half-dozen toprope burns is nothing in the world of hard sport climbing, and even this relatively little bit of work  affected every single move.  The insecurity was still there, but the confidence of rehearsal overcame it.  I knew the way through.  Yup, it's going to feel sketchy committing so hard to that smear, but hit the next crimp efficiently and you'll stay on.  It feels better to put your foot on that knob now, but in two moves you'll be a lot happier if it's on that edge instead.  After the crux I thought, You're about to send this thing.  Is this over-confidence, something to be suppressed?  Or is it conviction, which can carry you through?  Either way, I stayed calm and stuck the dyno.  All business.

When I got down I noticed the route's name scrawled at the bottom.  50% and 1/2, 5.11-.  Whatever that means.

on belay

Over the past month a direct relationship has revealed itself: Days I climb, I go to bed content and with a sense of possibility for the next day.  I sleep deeply.  Days I don't climb, I don't sleep; when night falls I'm too restless, a mind churning, a body buzzing.  This embodied fact makes it clear how critical climbing is to my wellbeing.

I don't want to be an addict, but I already am.

--

I'm a beginner.  OK, I've been climbing for a year and a half, but I still count myself a novice.  Because I feel like a weak klutz 90% of the time I'm on the rock.  Because I have so, so much to learn.  Because I still haven't sent 5.10.  Because I say shit like "Slab climbing is so relaxing."*  Noob status!

I live in Santa Fe, NM.  Don't tell, but it's a local's climbing heaven.  Within an hour and a half's drive you can climb granite slabs, overhanging conglomerate, monzonite mulit-pitch, and a slew of basalt crags — year round.  I've never had to worry about the weather, just how many layers to bring and whether I need sunscreen.  It's a privilege to get to learn the craft here in the high desert.

--

So, I started this blog.  "Climbing really straightens me out," as a friend of mine once said, and I feel the same way.  Afterwards I'm at once relaxed and focused, and insights flow.  I'd like corral them here.  My interests run from climbing as a movement discipline to its gear to the cultural and political implications of the sport.

Thanks for reading.

--

*actual quote.