It's cold now...freakin' cold. I was looking at the forecast this morning and it said -18 (for Cranbrook,BC), then i checked the forecast for Canmore, Ab, as i was supposed to be headin' there for some climbing...it read -35. Forget that! It's only November but it feels like January. Within 2-3 days the temps went from chilly rock climbing to chilly ice climbing. I guess on a brighter note, there was no in-between slushy sleety, miserable transitional period. It went right from fall to winter. And quick. Ok, enough about that...
A couple of weeks ago i attended the first "mixed comp" of the year (http://rockandice.com/news/1241--indoor-ice-comps-next-big-thing). It was fun. I ended up comin' in third place, which i'm stoked about. My buddy spainer took first, stoked for him. There was a few things i noticed about my climbing at the comp: 1. I'm stronger...which is cool. I noticed, whilst climbing, that i had more power this year. I was able to lock off on a lot of moves enabling me to reach higher holds with little to no struggle at all. Training is paying off, Splice, Tabata, levers, campusing, figure four/nines, intervals...all of it–thanks Gadd for direction. Cool. 2. I'm still climbing slow. All be it a bit faster, but still too slow. However, realizing this is a good thing because i still have time to sort through it. My main goal from last year was to increase power...i'm beginning to believe that i've attained that. The comp ended up comin down to time. My coach stated, "it's a bummer that it has to come down to who fell off the fastest". As i think about it...i tend to agree. There must be a better way to resolve who wins when several competitors fall off the same hold. I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on that. Next comp: World Cup South Korea. Really excited about this. More on world cup stuff in a bit.
For the last month or so i've been traveling to Canmore a lot to train. Lots of people there are motivated to get out on early season mixed/dry tooling routes...so it's motivating to get over there and join in. Locally, though, I'm lucky to have the Bull River. Timing is everything, however, with the bull as there's a raging river that needs to freeze so that you don't float away. Luckily this year it's frozen over early. Wicked! Last season myself and a few others joined forces and put up a bunch of mixed routes. All super fun. But i've recently realized that i need something harder. There's of course much harder routes abroad..but gas gets expensive, roads are terrible and scarey to travel on...factors that easily put a damper on things.
Pushing in a sport allows for growth, gains, and results. I've been training my ass off this year and i'm happy to see that it's paying off. With any gain in any sport your mind begins to open to certain possibilities that it just didn't see before. For me, just recently i was down in the bull river canyon, looking around for new lines and was blown away by what i was witnessing. Huge routes, 100+ft of overhanging solid rock. Line after line, turning a full 360 degrees, with my jaw dropped, salivating at what i was looking at. I had just realized that I was staring at everything i would need to continue pushing in my sport.
As i began to take a closer look at certain potential lines I quickly became worried at whether or not they would actually go. There was a lot of blank spots that interfered with potential lines being climbable. My first thoughts were, "guess it won't go". My second thought was, "well maybe i could 'help' it along". After hinting at that idea to certain people there was instantly a lot of negative feedback with any "help" going into routes in general. The idea of chipping is definitely a hot topic amongst the climbing world. It's been goin' on for years and it's still an unsettled debate. People do it, people get scolded for doing it, other people still climb it. Tough call. Anyways, today i took another look, rappin' into where the lines might go. I bolted an anchor that will be an epic finish to some rad climbing. As ilowered further into the canyon, i began to see little features, just big enough for the big show to go. My mind turned into its creative mode and i began to see lines that would allow for some top notch climbing.
Talking with a bud of mine online last night, he encouraged me to look real close at the rock, to try my best to make these new lines go naturally, without chipping i mean. I was inspired by that as it presented a challenge. I was challenged to open up my mind and see if i could create something epic without enhancing it. And that i did. I broke free of the box i was stuck in and began creating a work of art. These lines are going to be amazing, surrounded by a very picturesque setting. I'm excited. Once these new lines are complete i'll have the opportunity to train on new, hard lines, pushing my limits of ability, growing all aspects of my climbing...and all this within a 40min drive from my house.
I'm not sold on either side of whether or not chipping is good or bad. I'm still fairly new to the climbing world and perhaps haven't vested the time into such a topic. People have their opinions that are on either side of that endless debate..and that's cool. Me, at this point...whatever. I respect both opinions and that's that for now.
After a great day of climbing today (in the freezing cold) i was super satisfied by my performance. I'm at the point now where i actually (most times) believe in myself and my growing ability. Routes that were "testy" last year, were pretty manageable today. More power = more manageable movement. When i got home after climbing, hung with the fam, did some dishes and then headed back out for a training session on the "splice" (steep plywood ice). And it felt good.
I guess that's that for my random rant on various topics. If you stuck it out for the whole read...thanks for listening. Appreciate it.
More to come soon.
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