Motivation, Ego, and Relationships

Here's the background for this post: Summer/ the busiest time of the year for me has ended. It was bittersweet this time. I loved the people this summer and hated to see them go but for once I was looking forward to the fall and the cooler temps.


It has been a year since I started climbing and 9 months-ish that I've gotten serious about training and improving. This summer was not so good for that - and I knew that would be the way coming in to it. It was slightly hard accepting that fact but my motivation level now is even higher. Right after summer ended, I jumped right back to outside (106 degrees, sweaty, dirty trad) route climbing. It felt amazing to be back on the rock.

However, it was a test of my self-restraint not to jump on something hard to work. Over the summer, my left elbow was chipped and the tendons in my left arm/hand were injured in an intense hurt horse experience. Let's just say that there were more of the leadership staff hurt than the horse (the horse ended up being fine, by the way).

Over the last month, I got in trips to Lost Wall (GA), the Red, and Obed. The Lost Wall trip was with Andrew H. It was a great rehab/ first-time-climbing-in-3-months trip. In between the LW and Red/Obed trips, I got some time in at Palisades. Took my first leader fall on gear - it was awesome (Box Lunch = slopey topout). Gear held the 12-14 foot whipper I took and I made another go at it without falling.

Booze and Broads (LW) - I want to do this line on the next trip

My Red/Obed trip was an eye-opening experience. I spent 9 days at the Red and I almost cried having to leave. The climbing of course was amazing but even more so, I absolutely loved the guys that were my climbing partners. Nick (met him at Miguel's in May) and Zach (met him this trip through Nick) were amazing partners [they even put up with me getting up late every morning]. We had a copperhead snake(s) experience and I worked 'To Defy the Laws of Tradition'. However, by the end of my time there my elbow/wrist/hand was hurting so bad I back off of leading 'Boilerplate' (an amazing 5.8) in tears. The guys were super great about it and I ended up napping/ watching them climb the rest of the day.

After we said good-bye, I headed down to Obed to meet up with some B'ham people. It was my first time there and it has some beautiful lines. I only cleaned a couple of really fun routes that I want to go back to lead. I was super worn out by time I got there and it was actually really nice to just to watch some inspiring climbing happen.

So for the motivation, ego, and relationship stuff... My motivation is super high right now. I've been able to keep pushing through anytime that I've wanted to stop. Endurance is want I'm needing for the routes I want to send. I'm through and through a trad climber, and mostly all I've climbed (except cleaning one route) lately is sport. I am missing the critical thinking, the risk/consequence debate, the trust that goes deeper with trad. I have loved the benefits from all of the sport I've done lately; it is more graceful and a different style of climbing. I'm battling with my ego in some of the climbing relationships I have. It is hard to trust, fall, and push my limits if the relationship is not open. I am so glad to have my friend Josh back around the climbing scene. We have a great friendship and are completely open with each other. I'm psyched to see what limits we push this fall.

Enough rambling, I'm going to get my train on... and I also kind of want to bake this!