This could be your year 鈥� the year that鈥檚 been sitting patiently in the back of your mind when you reveal to friends and family your dashing, daredevil, adventurous side. You are going to learn to climb.
Just wait one moment though, and hear my two polarizing tidbits, my morsels that could either convince you or repel you from this activity.
Climbing is relentlessly goal driven. On Dec. 31, I waged a text battle, the likes of which I have never seen. The battle involved three good friends, all passionate climbers of at least two decades each and, because of their With Child status, all with such a short time window to spare that even the text battle itself had begun to eat away at their climbing time; it was already nibbling at the cold, dry, high friction-creating conditions which they were all so excited to experience and bend to their wills. One player wanted to go to his project, a boulder problem that he was intent on slowly interpreting and learning to make a successful ascent. The other player was deadset on his own separate boulder project because he too was in the midst of learning and making headway, aiming for a successful ascent.
The third was me, and I believe in the social powers of climbing, that the overarching message within climbing is that it isn鈥檛 what you are climbing but whom you are with that creates the experience. However, I also had the competing mental hurdle that I too shared the same project as player two and really wanted to climb it. These projects don鈥檛 climb themselves, they take dedication and work to complete, so we all went our separate ways. We鈥檙e three friends who rarely get a chance to get together and choose to climb apart because of our personal goals. What a way to celebrate the final day of 2014.
The story, luckily, is one with a happy ending, a bit of blood and a lesson learned. Climber one bouldered alone, working fitfully in the frigid shadow of the Chief on his difficult project. He was making gains until he ripped, tore and slashed two gaping windows into his fingers. He dropped by to show us the carnage while cursing the sharp quartz before he headed home. Climber two and I were joined by a third friend and had a great, albeit unsuccessful time on our chosen project. We laughed, we learned, we left with tired arms and cores.
Back at the van, we ruminated in the golden end-of-2014 light on the Grand Wall, Western Dihedrals and Tantalus Wall looming above us. What adventures were still contained up there; what challenges lay dormant? Our final day of 2014 was a balancing act between solitary, driven obsession and social, community camaraderie.
I found climber one鈥檚 solitary drive inspiring but also enjoyed the close kinship of our group, how it put the climbing challenges against the bigger picture of why we were even out there at all. Ultimately, as one improves in climbing, or in any activity, is it essential to stray away from the community and pursue your goals alone? I hope not, because in the end we鈥檒l remember the days out with the people before we remember the moves on a certain boulder problem.
May our year be a balance of driven inspiration and passion set against the backdrop of the community, our friends, our family and our colleagues. Happy New Year.
