In the beginning of May, I booked a trip to Red River Gorge with Woohan, Ellen, and Alex. This would be the first new location I’d climbed at since Rumney back in September, and would also be my first trip …
Redpointing Lessons
Long time since updating/posting on the blog, but I’ve made it a 2019 resolution to keep myself honest and the blog updated, so here goes!
For the last two months, I’ve been trying hard and pushing myself on redpoint lead projecting in the gym. I came to a realization in early December after hearing the phrase “being afraid of failure” that I had been avoiding trying hard, and largely had been coasting when it came to gym climbing for awhile. Part of it was the pressure that always comes with projecting, which was exacerbated by the type of “always want to be making steady progress towards goals” type of person I am. Thus, if I never applied myself or pushed myself, I wasn’t achieving success…but at least I also wasn’t failing. This subconscious attitude was so pervasive yet unseeable to me until I heard my girlfriend Chloe use the phrase, and led to a lack of motivation and general “whatever” vibe during my gym sessions.
After identifying the cause of my rut, I decided to push myself and try a 5.12d project, which would have been the first of the grade for me. The project was a very crimpy, yet also very technical and sequence heavy climb up the tall wall arete. Many of the holds were solid 3/4 – full pad crimp squares that can be held as both crimps on the top and sidepulls on the edges. The angle of the wall was not inclined at all, but the climbing was sustained v5-v6 and offered little options for rests, even with heel hooking positions on the arete portion. I got it down to a one hang pretty quickly (1 week) at a crux move that transitions the climbing from delicate slab to arete hugging, but progress immediately slowed down. After another two weeks of attempts, I started getting frustrated with the tempo of progress; I felt that I had found all the correct beta dialed, climbed very well and arrived at the crux fresh, but always fell at that point. I felt that I had applied my lesson of trying hard and embracing failure, so why was it still taking so long? I couldn’t even realistically see myself sending anytime soon. Through the frustration, I decided to try and think more rationally and really analyze the reasons why I kept falling on the same crux sequence. I realized that my right arm was slightly too pumped for me to effortless pull through the sequence, and identified new clipping beta in the first half that allowed me to clip off my left arm instead of my right. After trying this new beta, I immediately blew through the crux and got a new highpoint, despite it being the 3rd attempt of the day. The send came quickly the following session, and I came away with a new lesson learned: When trying something above your limit, the amount of patience required was much more than I had ever previously needed, and I should try to remain level-headed, let go of my emotion/self pressure and attachment to the climb, and constantly reassess my own chosen beta and climbing.
WIth a new redpoint lead PR, I took a week or so to relax and finish up some low-mid 5.12s that I hadn’t finished. I also began to rope with a new partner (Woohan) who was much, much stronger than me, and inspired me to pick up another project: a 5.13a in the exact same section of the wall that the previous project had been located. This was the first time in probably a year or so that I was consistently partnering with someone significantly stronger/better than me, so it was refreshing to be able to pick up beta and options from my partner rather than having to brute force my way through the beta figuring process. I tried a few of the 5.13a’s that he quickly dispatched, and decided on this particular climb to project as it was similar to the most recent climb I had done, and was also incredibly fun with unique sequences and movement that I had never done before. Some examples include a toe hook crucial for an early clipping stance, a triple left hand bump into a wide foot stance clip, and a brutal undercling match that was one of the early redpoint cruxes for me. Although he finished the climb very quickly, we were both able to help each other in finding beta as the two of climb in very different styles. But after he had moved on from the climb, my painful 6 week road to sending had just begun…Some highlighted takeaways:
- Even more patience:
- After getting the one hang, the improvement process was a serious grind, with each new highpoint barely a move or two higher than the previous highpoint.
- Don’t force it too much:
- The last 3 weeks of the projecting process, my climbing routine was pretty much identical everyday, consisting of 4 warmups and then 3 – 4 attempts on the route, 4 – 5 times a week. I knew I was atrophying in other types of movement/muscle memory that weren’t being used on this project (like overhang climbing ability, dynamic movement, slopers, etc.) but I also thought that if I took the focus off of my project, I would start to forget the muscle memory that I had drilled. And of course, mentally the process of drilling the same climb every session and making little progress is demoralizing and hard to push through.
- Remember to breathe; don’t let yourself autopilot too much
- I think the climbs where I’m most in the moment are when I’m onsighting something near my limit. When I’m “in the zone”, I feel that I have a hyperawareness over how my muscles feel, the holds just feel “right” when I flow through the sequence, and I can feel my weight in toes/trust my feet. The opposite of this feeling would be to be in autopilot, which happened after I had drilled the beta down and continuted to fall at the last clip. My mind felt detached while I climbed through the route, and I felt like I was in third person point of view experiencing the climb. I realized I was not breathing while going through moves.
- Phsyical ability, beta rehearsal…but mental resilience/positivity might be the most important aspect of redpointing
- With another Red Rock trip coming up, I wanted to taper in the week prior. After trying for so long to finish the project and losing motivation again to climb, I decided to give it up and climb moderates to get back in shape in all the aspects of climbing that I had been missing. When I finally sent the 5.13a, it was on a busy day at the gym, I had brought my dog Scooter to hangout and have a chill session, and was just hanging out and casual climbing with my friend (Sabrina). Inspired by her try-hard on her projects and how she persevered/pushed through the pump, I hopped on mine for one last attempt, and was in the perfect relaxed state of mind, having fun and enjoying myself throughout the day, with no expectations. I’ve read of professional climbers who have experienced the same state of mind before they sent their big projects, but had never been able to really decipher what they meant from their emotional Instagram posts (aka the Pringle paragraph). If there is anything I will take away from this experience, it will be to strip climbing of all the training, the numbers, the self-pressure, and remember why I enjoy it so much in the first place.
I had started to recognize these lessons from prior trips (Rumney, Red Rock in October) and started to wonder if perhaps I took climbing/myself too seriously, but those thoughts never really coagulated into solid insights until I went through this process. Now, as I prepare for Red Rock again next weekend, I feel that I can go on this trip weightless and untied to any expectations for progress or numbers. Some say losing weight is the easiest way to climb harder, and if that’s the case, well, I certainly feel loads lighter (where’re those cookies now..? )!
I attached a video of one of my many attempts on the project (please excuse the portrait mode). If you made it this far, thanks for trudging through all my wordy thoughts!