What made you love climbing this week?

Dan Booklesswrote:

Doing a long flowy warmup, I've done many times and realizing that It was just as fun and rewarding as sending my project:

Having the epiphany that I love climbing for the sake of climbing and not for the sake of achievement or progress. 

Same here. 26 years into climbing it's not the temporary ego boost of an achievement (and let's knock achievements, I'd be lying if I said they don't feel good for a bit) that keeps me coming back, it's the movement, at any grade. Grateful to have found a passion in life I can enjoy to the fullest even as I age.

This past weekend had me cat-napping in the warm sun watching friends put up a route. As we began riffing on some silly joke the feeling of camaraderie and a sense of belonging was like a nice hug. Then I got to hop on it and enjoyed a delightful moderate slab/vert climb with a good little beta puzzle to work out.  

Bliss, pure and simple.

I met one of my dear friends T a day ago at my local crag. I hadn’t climbed with her since we got weathered out of Moab in November and she had been dirtbagging since then with her partner while I’ve been at home.

T’s a wonderful human and an excellent climber with a terrible lead head. I have seen her break down over a specific move: leaving a secure hand crack to an exposed unprotected face move. It doesn’t matter how easy the face is, the fear of that sudden exposure will tear her down. To the point of lowering off the pitch sometimes.

Not yesterday. I have been the rope gun almost the whole time we’ve been friends, but not yesterday. She led three routes in absolute style and confidence. Way better gear placements than me (except one hilariously beautiful but useless shallow cam placement, that’s a whole other story). And the top-out was that exact move that used to swallow her in fear. I even heard the usual beginnings of the breakdown: “Fuck, I don’t want to be here.” she’d whisper to herself.

I don’t know what the fuck happened to her this season we’ve been apart. Instead of breaking down, she finished the move dynamically, quickly, with no other placements until a happy click of the PAS into the anchor. A sigh of relief then a huge burst of laughter from all of us. T was a straight gangster yesterday. I have never been more proud of someone else’s send.

Enjoyed some steep, clean, classic moderate grade III/IV trad routes at Red Rocks with perfect weather and great friend. Smooth belay and rappel transition all the time. Marveling how much we have improved over the years. Enjoying the view and exposure high up on Aeolian Wall. Amazing and affordable Asian/home-cooked cuisine, hot shower and warm house to sleep.
Having not climbed any multipitch for a while, this reminds me how much I love long trad/alpine rock days, and I should set my life up to do more of that.

Sometimes distance makes the heart grow fonder. I loved climbing this week by not doing it.

Climbing introduced me to friends I’ll have for life many years ago when I was greener while living in San Diego and climbing allowed us all to get together this past week which filled my cup quite a lot. No better excuse to travel and recreate and enjoy fellowship with friends than climbing!

I went to Indian Creek to climb with my life partner this past weekend/early week. I had hoped to come back to talk about how time spent in a quiet desert, climbing splitter after splitter, rejuvenated my desire for trad and reminded me how much of a playground this earth is. Unfortunately, my dog ended up needing some emergency healthcare, basically as soon as we got there. He had been diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease (Evan's Syndrome) with an uncomfortably high mortality rate. The Mill Creek Animal Hospital in Moab took great care of him and got us situated to give him the best chance of surviving the 6-hour ride back from Denver (he did.)

We're still not in a stable place with him, and the reality is, there's a chance he could spontaneously die at any moment until the heavy immunosuppressants he's on allow his body to get platelets back in his blood and his RBC count up so that he can fully breathe. So, how did this make me love climbing this week?

The night after getting him into the clinic, we went down to the Creek, knowing it was going to be our only chance to see it before the end of our trip. We got invited to share the evening with a friend and a stranger, who cooked dinner for us, shared alcohol, and admired the full moon lighting up Bears Ears. I ended up sharing some about it on my Instagram story when I got home, and I had dozens upon dozens of responses of support about the situation. Multiple vets offering to read over his test results, give their second opinions, and provide additional treatment options. A person who has a dog who had been through the same situation. People offering to help get groceries, make dinner, etc. so that we could just focus on spending time with our pup. Every day, I get messages from folks checking in. Almost every one of these people are folks I met in the climbing community - many I haven't even met in person.

At a time when it's likely going to be a few weeks before things are stable enough that I can get out and climb again, I'm feeling more appreciative of the sport and the community behind it than I have in a long time. 

bryans wrote:A little bit off topic but The Rock Warrior Way book has some great advice on how to systematically pick apart and cope with that… 

I, like T and many of my friends, bought that book waaaaaay too early in our climbing careers to really understand what Arno was saying.

Wouldn’t be bad to revisit though! T’s so psyched she’s currently hyping us into our first big wall and I can use the solid mental foundation. For her personal reasons, it needs to be a female send, and I guess I’m the best female aid partner she knows! I’m just gonna bask in that and take that as another pure joy in climbing for today. 

(Then I’ll start to get worried, because if I’m the best female aid climber she knows we’re lowkey fucked.) 

Tal Mwrote:

I went to Indian Creek to climb with my life partner this past weekend/early week. I had hoped to come back to talk about how time spent in a quiet desert, climbing splitter after splitter, rejuvenated my desire for trad and reminded me how much of a playground this earth is. Unfortunately, my dog ended up needing some emergency healthcare, basically as soon as we got there. He had been diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease (Evan's Syndrome) with an uncomfortably high mortality rate. The Mill Creek Animal Hospital in Moab took great care of him and got us situated to give him the best chance of surviving the 6-hour ride back from Denver (he did.)

We're still not in a stable place with him, and the reality is, there's a chance he could spontaneously die at any moment until the heavy immunosuppressants he's on allow his body to get platelets back in his blood and his RBC count up so that he can fully breathe. So, how did this make me love climbing this week?

The night after getting him into the clinic, we went down to the Creek, knowing it was going to be our only chance to see it before the end of our trip. We got invited to share the evening with a friend and a stranger, who cooked dinner for us, shared alcohol, and admired the full moon lighting up Bears Ears. I ended up sharing some about it on my Instagram story when I got home, and I had dozens upon dozens of responses of support about the situation. Multiple vets offering to read over his test results, give their second opinions, and provide additional treatment options. A person who has a dog who had been through the same situation. People offering to help get groceries, make dinner, etc. so that we could just focus on spending time with our pup. Every day, I get messages from folks checking in. Almost every one of these people are folks I met in the climbing community - many I haven't even met in person.

At a time when it's likely going to be a few weeks before things are stable enough that I can get out and climb again, I'm feeling more appreciative of the sport and the community behind it than I have in a long time. 

Sending positive thoughts for your canine companion. 

I just replaced the bolts on a route at my local crag yesterday. They were pretty rusty around the collar (wedge bolt) but looked fine on the surface. One was pulling out of the wall a bit so I replaced them all. They all came out pretty easily and I was able to reuse all the holes. So a good day of perfect replacement with no problems.

As I was finishing brushing off the dust and lowering to the ground, two people showed up and jumped on one of the routes I put in a few years ago. We got to talking and one of them mentioned they always wanted to try the route I just rebolted but were intimidated by the grade. The route is 5.12 and he’s never successfully climbed a .12. After some encouragement and light beta, he decided to jump on it and give it a try. Emboldened by the new bolts and beta, he was able to pull off a desperate but epic send! Afterwards I had the pleasure of telling him the route is actually a .12b, and fairly solid at that. 

50F temps & hero ice!

I have not been able to go climbing for the last bit due to a small injury.

But what I miss most about climbing right now is what I love about climbing:

the movements on the wall

finishing a climb that I wasn’t sure I could

struggling to open my truck door after a session (meaning my hands are spent)

watching my 15 year old son get excited as he completes his first V3 (epic!)

and dreaming about what next adventure I can share with him and others

(I really like this thread!)

Went to the climbing gym on my birthday with my 18 and 21 year old sons!

:)

Sent my hardest route ever very unexpectedly (that I coincidentally scrubbed). And felt the warm sun. And spent the whole day talking about life with a buddy (and there was no cell service). And Rosie (the dog) was there, too. I was offered a beer at the end of the day, but I celebrated with a kombucha (coincidentally my 65th day sober). 

Climbed an awesome historic Harvey Carter route for desert tower #47

Jason Millswrote:

Sent my hardest route ever very unexpectedly (that I coincidentally scrubbed). And felt the warm sun. And spent the whole day talking about life with a buddy (and there was no cell service). And Rosie (the dog) was there, too. And then celebrated the day with a kombucha (coincidentally my 65th day sober). 

The miracles keep coming, one day at a time!! Nice work🙏

My 13 y.o. daughter led her first routes this weekend!!!  Sharing the stoke is the best 

Finally FINALLY got some today!!

H.

A perfect weather day spent building community, improving trails, and revisiting some routes I bolted too quickly to really enjoy got me hooked for at least another week! And got me stoked on some more new lines to put up

I had a day of failures today. 

Nothing but difficult/slick routes, taking at every other bolt, bushwhacking, whippers, hands felt like shit, risky clips, back felt bad, misread every route, ankle is aching again...

But I can't remember any bad day I've had on the rock and I'm sure I'll forget this one