Chasing Grades is Silly, Just Climb

When I started this blog, it began as a way to track my progress toward my goal of climbing 5.12 before 2017. Neither one of those things happened, but I did learn a lot throughout 2016. The blog devolved into more of a narrative sharing/ethical meditation on the sport rather than a training journal. And, let's be honest, training journals are booooring! Here's the only metric I'll share with you, and hopefully the only boring blog of 2017...

102 outdoor pitches in 2016 isn't bad, but I think I should quadruple that in 2017, a much better goal than trying to attain the illustrious 5.12 grade outside. Chasing this grade was the first reaction in the Rube Goldberg machine that lead to my failure to even come close to this goal and a sticky situation with a Denver gym. (That, you'll have to ask me about in person.)

It was too late for me to actually train and project to meet the goal, and by the time I started, 2016 was slipping away. I signed up with Training Beta for a little while. It is a pretty cool program that gives you excellent workouts to push you further in whatever discipline of climbing you enjoy. I highly recommend the program if you want to reach the next level and can't afford a real live coach to get you there. The problem was that I was looking to get better at route climbing and decided to join a bouldering only gym. They had a treadwall which enabled me to get the workouts done, but holy hell, treadwalls make me want to gouge my eyes out with a grapefruit spoon. Training began to suck in congruence with the weather, but I pushed on, I had to get better, had to meet the goal.

The weather didn't cooperate with "projecting" a dinky little route on North Table Mountain called "The Virus." It is a one move wonder of a 5.12a. The 12 move takes place right before you clip the second bolt, so if you dry fire or miss whatever hold is up there to grab, you better enjoy getting by on crutches. We went up there to look at it a couple times, but I never actually roped up.

The whole thing about this route is that I had zero drive to even try it. I believe there should be some mysterious intrinsic drive to complete a project route, or a route that is just above one's ability. This one was convenient and dry-ish in the winter, but didn't have the je ne sais quoi for me to go for it.

So this year I have a new philosophy: Climb it if it feels right. Also, climb a lot, climb hard, get scared, and have a good time. So here's to 400 pitches or more next year!