Spain!

One climbing day left

I'm enjoying my last rest day today. It's a beautiful sunny day and it seems like just over night all the leaves have turned yellow. Tomorrow's my last climbing day. I catch a train for barcelona afterwards where I'll meet up with colleen for 10 days. I can't wait to see you baby!

The last week or so has been interesting. Firstly, my iPhone crashed and I had to do a full restore which meant I lost all my music, photos, and applications. I was really enjoying all that music you gave me Dean. Thanks again by the way. Then there was the climbing. No accomplishments to speak of. Well, that is to say that I haven't redpointed any routes lately. I've been making some progress with my redpoint climbing issues. This trip has done a lot to help me identify and really understand most if not all of them. Climbing is such a mental game. Especially when your pushing your limit. It's a fine line between success and failure. The attitude you take up a climb with you can be the difference between sending and falling. One of my biggest problems when trying to redpoint routes happens at that crucial moment when you hit your limits and you need to dig really deep and give it everything you have plus a little bit more. Instead of doing that, I give up. I don't feel like I tried as hard as I could have. Part of the reason why I can't seem to really pour it on when I need to has to do with what I'm thinking to myself as I'm tying up my climbing shoes and getting ready to climb. Instead of focusing on how bad I want it, I hope and pray that I don't fall. I concentrate on not failing so inevitably that's what happens. If I was concentrating on success, on how badly I wanted it, I'd be able to dig deep when that moment arrives. I guess it boils down to desire. Your success depends on how bad you want it. I have to switch my thoughts to the posative side rather than the negative. Anyway, I'm going to revisit a project tomorrow that I walked away from and give it one my try. Let's see if the power of posative thinking helps.

A Climbing glossary.

Redpoint: climbing a route from bottom to top without falling or having to stop and hang on the rope.

OnSight: redpointing a route on your first try without any prior knowledge of the route.

Flash: Redpointing a route on your first try after gaining relevent knowledge of the route.

Send: see Redpoint

iBroke my iPhone!

Fuck fuck fuck. I fucking dropped my fucking iPhone on the fucking floor and now it has two huge fucking cracks in the fucking glass. Fuck!

It's a mental game and I'm losing.

Ok, the teeter totter that is this climbing trip has tipped the other way now. I'm not sending anything hard at the moment. In fact I eased off a bit, deciding I'd get stronger faster if I spent the next week or two getting tonnes of mileage climbing relatively easier routes rather than projecting ones at my limit. Instead of sending route after route with relative ease, I'm now struggling on everything. It's gotta be my head. The mental aspect of climbing is often key to your success or in my case at the moment, ultimate failure. I think all the expectations I brought with me on this trip have created too much pressure to perform. It's not that I'm not strong enough to do the routes I've been getting on recently, it's that I've been making mistakes and pysching myself out. It's time for an attitude adjustment. So what if all the training leading up to the trip didn't get me to where I wanted to be? I can't do anything about it now. I'm here in Spain climbing at what might be the best sport climbing area in the world. It's not about acheaving that 8a+ goal, it's about having fun. When you get really sucked into projecting mode you usually forget about that. It just becomes an obsession to redpoint your route at all cost. Success comes far easier when you set out to accomplish things for the right reasons. Climbing is fun! The routes I'm getting on have amazing moves and the rock has the coolest features. A route I was on yesterday called 'Nanuk' has this great kneebar at the top. As I'm restng in it, I looked out across the valley to see vultures circling the sky above some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. That was an amazing moment. Attitude readjustment beginning. No more chasing grades. No more beating myself up for not being as strong as I wanted to be. Today's a rest day. I'm going to spend the day solidifying this new attitude into my wacked psychy. Stay tuned. I'll report on how it went.

A great day at the office

I finally ticked a hard route yesterday. It's called "En busca del unicornio". It's a 7c+ (5.13a). It's located on the cave in the lower left hand corner of the photo. Finally! I was starting to get pretty frustrated with the trip. I was supposed to come to Spain, climb lots of hard routes and break some new ground. It hasn't been happening. Instead we've been sleeping in late, getting lost trying to find crags, and getting our fingers trashed on shit rock. But now we're in rodellar and everythings changed. Pete and Luke have joined us and they've brought more than enough psych with them. I started projecting this route the first day I got here and managed to get the redpoint on day 2, after 6 tries. Yes!! Evan's been cranking really hard and catching up to me. A "little" competition is always good and so I have to climb harder than him.

Run to the hills

I went for another run this morning. That's four so far colleen! If you've ever been to a soundproof party, timed "things" so that you're rushing at peak time during DJ James Fillman's set then you know what my runs have been like. The trails I've been running on are breathtaking. One morning i jogged through old spanish towns where the streets are all cobble stone. Not a soul around. Of course the trance would be playing on my iphone. Just as the track I'm listening to peaks, I jog up to the edge of a huge cliff at the end of the town were a have a 360 degree view of spectacular valleys and cliff bands. The sun's beaming through the valley and as it hits me, I get goose bumps and start feeling euphoric. Amazing! This morning I ran over this cobble stone bridge and through this canyon. There were wild flowers growing on the path and I didn't see a soul. Running on the seawall is great but...

Climbing Heaven

I've died and gone to climbing heaven. Rodellar is amazing. It's a climbing mega. Without a doubt the best sport climbing place I've ever been to.

Slacklining

A favourite past time for many climbers. I'm finally able to walk the length of the slackline and am now perfecting the 180 turn. They've been setting up slacklines 5 meters over the water. I got about 3 steps before bailing.

Jump!!

Climbers lead a sort of paradoxical life. Our biggest passion is climb up rock faces, doing everything we can to avoid falling off. Yet we seek out ways of jumping off of very high places for the pure enjoyment of it. Here I'm doing the mother of all swings. Two bridges, about 55 meters apart. One end of the rope attached to one bridge. Me standing on the other bridge attached to the other end of the rope. 1 - 2 - 3 - JUMP! With the slack and stretch in the rope, it ends up being about a 60 meter pendulum. Holy shit!!

DWS day 2: mankini day

Day 2 was mankini day. All the guys had to spend the day climbing in bikini bottoms. I felt sorry for all the families that were subjected to our foolishness.