Dissecting a Climbing Mantra

The past four and a half years have seen long weekends, shredded fingertips, sore muscles, and an endless string of pull-ups. I have listened to those further along than I, and continue to learn and develop every day as a climber. Each trip is leaves me with something to finish up next time. Each training session is increasingly brutal, but I am continually amazed by what the body can withstand.

Reaching progressively harder levels has always been my main source of fun and enjoyment of climbing, however throughout the years I have realized that there are two fundamental aspects to acknowledge before I can push myself to the limit. My personal climbing mantra formed from each of these organically settling into their order.

Stay humble.
Stay healthy.
Work hard.

This simple six word reminder has helped tremendously to keep me focused, grounded, and thoroughly psyched.

Stay humble: It's far from coincidence that professional climbers are among the most humble climbers out there. There will always be a stronger or more experienced person to learn from. The second that I stop learning, listening, or observing is the second when my ego will slowly begin take over. Progressing to the next level after the take over is similar to wearing a permanent weight vest.

Stay healthy: Healthy can be a lot of things. For me it's a combination of mental and physical health. Keeping this in the back of my head helps me to recognize that I can't climb my hardest every day, and to monitor my body's needs. Simple things like getting enough sleep, maintaining a suitable diet, and keeping stress levels to a minimum are essential before performing at my limit.

Work hard: Without the first two I cannot reach this stage. That said, my aim is to stay in this "work" mode for as long as possible. Regimented training, pulling harder and harder movements, and most importantly celebrating the small breakthroughs have been key in chipping away at harder levels. Sometimes I'll only stick one or two moves in a row on a problem and leave happier than if I had sent. I have the most fun with these small victories and they do wonders for my motivation.

I hope that this very personal and specific mantra spurs you to share your own thoughts on the subject. I look forward to reading them!

-BLOCHEAD

Low Gravity Weekend

The motivation to gravity ratio this past weekend in Leavenworth was off the charts. Let's get into it.

Friday:

After a long breakfast and a slow start checking out some new areas in Tumwater Canyon we ended up in Mad Meadows. Lib almost pulled off a flash of Drugstore Cowboy V3, sending after only a few more tries. As the sun fell beyond the ridge I managed to flash a sharp one-mover named The Jib V7/8.

Setting up for the throw on The Jib V7/8.
Through the Mad Meadow.

Saturday:

Bring the Ruckus. After meeting up with the rest of the Portland crew and warming up it was on. Over eight hours the four of us racked up a 95 point rampage between Forestland and Mad Meadows. Having already done most of the problems we stopped to session on, I only contributed 9 points with a third try send of The Sail. Highlights included Andrew's third try send of Superman V10, Stephen's flash of Hanta Man V8/9, and the mass havoc wrecked at each zone. It had been a long time since we had all climbed together outside, and with the animals out of the zoo things got crazy.

I was also psyched to make good linkage on God is in the Details, V12 which connects Hanta Man into Superman with three hard transition moves for a full value line.

Bleeding, shredded, and throughly satisfied, we trudged down to the road, dunked our burning skin in the river, and called it a day.

About to slap The Practitioner V11 silly.
Stephen setting up on Coffee Cup, V9.
Andrew eyeing the lip.
The legendary Meinhold footwork in action.

Sunday:

Overcast with a slight breeze. The rock felt sticky and cool as we warmed up, muscles and fingers activating slowly. At the end of yesterdays mass murder session Stephen had been close on The Ram V12, so we headed that way to watch him string it together. I tried a few of the moves with some success between Stephen's redpoint attempts, however the tension required for the crux is unbelievable. It might be one of those tricky problems where it feels impossible until your body is arranged in such a way that some split second of weightlessness can be achieved. In any case it felt great to get on something at my limit.

We all took turns giving Stephen a break between burns, and Andrew managed to take The Sail down after only a handful of attempts.

Andrew keeping it together for the topout on The Sail V9.

After the peanut gallery was done slapping around Stephen promptly crushed The Ram with a rebel yell, leaving his mark on the problem by breaking a small piece off the center of the left hand crimp as he toed in to go to the finish jug.

Stephen about to crush The Ram V12.

Feeling inspired, we headed to the straightaway boulders to circuit WAS V8, Cotton Pony Dyno V10, and a problem on the river I had scoped, but wouldn't find out until later was actually a V12 named Turbulence.

I managed to reach the top of WAS on my second go, while Andrew came closer and closer and Stephen, still glowing from the send, watched and spotted.

Feeling the air beneath my feet on WAS V8.

The boulders proceeded to win each following round as we got shut down on both Cotton Pony Dyno and Turbulence .

Andrew cutting loose on the Cotton Pony Dyno V10.
Working out the moves on Turbulence V12.

The crew had to head back to Portland that night, so as a few raindrops tapped on the pads we said our farewells, talked a last little bit of shit to each other, and watched them head back down the road.

Lib and I stopped for a little intermission before heading back out to Forestland were she threw her shoes on and flashed Toto V4.

The rain was beginning to steady, so we called it a day.

Monday:

Rain dripped off the rooftops and specked our windshield as we silently drove to the Swiftwater area of Tumwater Canyon. I had wanted to work God is in the Details, but there was no way the top out was going to be dry.

Luckily, we managed to salvage the day by climbing a few steep, dry lines in Swiftwater. Lib nearly sent The Footless Traverse V5, while I struggled for a send of Raging Bull V7.

The windshield wipers hardly got a break on the drive back to Portland, but by now they shouldn't expect one.

-BLOCHEAD

All photos by Liberty Herring.

Equipment Envy

No, I don't have multiple cameras. Or lenses. My glass is scratched to hell and back, the body caked with sand and chalk, tripod broken and sketchy, but I'll be damned if it doesn't turn on and shoot. Grainy wide shots, mediocre light sensitivity, and a few decent close ups are all I can hope to get for now as I drool over beautiful videos like this:



Someday maybe I'll be able to afford to spend a years salary on multiple bodies, a remote dolly, monitor, and loads of glass. Until then I'll be in sitting in my $10 chair from goodwill eating Mac N Cheese.

-BLOCHEAD

Dangle

The final video from our trip to Leavenworth. This little line is definitely worth some skin if you're in Upper Forestland. Perfectly obvious holds on a sheer face spaced just far enough apart to a tough mantle.



-BLOCHEAD

Coffee Cup

Another video from last weekend in Leavenworth.



I'm also happy to announce that I have joined the blogging community at Cruxn.com! I've added a couple videos to their site already and look forward to posting there in the future.

-BLOCHEAD

Synchronized Sending

PLT and I pioneer a new sub-genre of bouldering: Synchronized Sending.



-BLOCHEAD

Superman V10

As promised, here is the first video installment of this past weekend. Although this line isn't in the guidebook it has great movement and finally gave me an excuse to dust the bits of Hueco off my kneepad and put it to use.



-BLOCHEAD

Leavenworth - Stay Tuned

This past weekend in Leavenworth was one of the best short climbing trips to date. Great weather, company, and granite made for a relaxed environment where I was able to try my hardest. Something must have gone right because I was able to reach the top of two boulder problems at my limit, both with dramatically different styles (Coffee Cup and Superman).

We got some great footage of the two aforementioned problems that I should be done editing in the next couple days. In the mean time here are a few photos:

Resting between burns on Superman.

Giving the Practitioner a hug.

Finding the subtle tension on Coffee Cup.

This gigantic mudslide totally blocked out some new areas we hoped to check out.

First three photos by Liberty Herring.

-BLOCHEAD

Dogboarding

I'm waiting for the day when climbing porn will become so thoroughly saturated and mediocre that people will start coming up with nonsensical reinterpretations.



-BLOCHEAD

Connect the Dots

I've served a long sentence of climbing indoors. Each day becoming further removed from real rock climbing, sliding into a vacuum of colorful tape, strange holds, and proposed grades spattered wildly all over the spectrum. Struggling not to slip into the feel-good ethic of gym grades takes complete discipline, motivated by the fear of becoming lulled into complacency. This past week I found a way out.

A couple of my good friends and I have been spending an increasing amount of time creating our own problems in the gym. Using anything and everything within reach to come up with the hardest move we can attempt. Once said move goes down it's time to make an equally hard or harder move to something else. Stick that move and repeat until linking into a full problem at your limit. Breaking down a session into a singular hard moves strung together into a problem takes the pressure of numbers out of the equation. I feel the satisfaction of just completing individual moves, and take the progress as a successful session.

This may sound simplistic, but that is the beauty of it. It can be all too easy to see a taped sequence with a number and before even pulling on conjure up all of these expectations, excuses, doubts, or attitudes about your performance. With all of that mental noise quieted I can feel free to just try as hard as my body will allow.

-BLOCHEAD

World's Smallest Cell Phone

Bonus points for naming the movie.

-BLOCHEAD

April Fools!

Belated, I know.

After spending all of yesterday setting two new lead routes (5.10- and 5.11-) I watched from a distance as they all crept up and looked with bewilderment at the new route tags. The best reaction came from some sleeveless hero trying to impress his climbing partner by saying, "No way that's 5.14. Pshhh."




-BLOCHEAD