One year of climbing

It’s been a year. Well… not quite. Still have a couple days before I’m officially able to measure my time in more than just months. I’ve learned so much, but yet I’m still a little kid. I have a double tomorrow… so I really should be sleeping. I’ll make this brief.

I shot these clips to get my friend Kyle amped for next week. I head up to Seattle to hang out (and climb, of course.) and I wanted to share these with him. I’m excited. He should be too. The end. Haha

But as I watched these and prepped to put them online, I thought back to my goals for last year. It’s not often I fail when I set goals. They may be aggressive, but they’re generally realistic. My average for success was high. …Until climbing.

I wanted a v7 by the end of September, 2011. It didn’t happen. I got my first v7 on October 3^rd. I won’t rehash it, but you can find it on this page. Sorry the link’s on that page might be broken. I made a hasty decision and pulled my climbing videos.

I had planned to have my first v8 by the end of my first year. But in the last couple months I really had to take an honest look at my climbing. My sloppy footwork. My inability to read a route. My reliance on beta and finding something that was exactly “my style.” And that wasn’t the climber I wanted to be.

I took a good long look at that goal and asked myself if I could handle postponing it with the hope that I would build a better foundation for my climbing. The answer was eventually yes. I stepped back. Looked at my flaws and really tried to tackle them head on.

Over the next few months I really noticed a change. My breathing was more controlled, my balance was getting better. There was power in each foot placement. My onsight ability jumped from v5 to v6. V7’s we’re looking much less devastating. Granted… this is all relative.

So as I checked out these videos, I was proud of the progress I’ve made. The 2 v7’s I climbed tonight weren’t my style. Both extremely balance-y and much more technical than most would consider my preference… they just felt smooth and controlled.

So I’ve been climbing a year. I didn’t achieve every goal. But I’m satisfied in knowing this was a good decision. And I’ll benefit from it in the rest of my climbing life.

Thanks for sticking it out with me. :)

James

The stats:

2011- January

195 lbs (~88kg)

2012- January

168 lbs (~76kg)