Thanksgiving Challenge

Queen Creek from the ground.

 Another Thanksgiving Day has passed which meant for some climbers here at SBRG a couple extra days off. One of the ironies of being a climber is that days off from work does not necessarily mean days off from doing work. Case in point, I chose to do a grueling eight-hour, over-night drive to the sun scorched desert strip mall known as Tempe, AZ. I somehow convinced my climbing partner, that this was going to be a rad trip.

The Amazing Basalt Pockets of Queens Creek

After two days of recovery from both the drive and stuffing our faces, we received some beta from the local climbing gym about where to pull down on choice roadside choss. They suggested Queen Creek Canyon which is made up of 80 foot, slightly overhanging basalt cliffs that look like my cousins from Louisiana spent the weekend honing in there 20 gauge skills. Awesome little pockets with sneaky jugs hidden throughout. We spent the day getting pumped out of our gourds and relaxing in the desert sun, success. 

The take-away's from the trip to Tempe:

1. Never drive to Tempe again.
2. The climbing community is amazing because of folks willingness to share the things that make them psyched. The world at large can take a few pages out of the climber handbook for being awesome ambassadors for the things they love.
3. Training sports specific endurance is boring yet necessary.

So here are some tips for training climbing endurance.

Run- It's boring, it's not climbing, but it's good for you!

Traversing- Put on the headphones, turn up the hair metal, and stay on the wall as long as you can. Vary the size of both handholds and footholds to add pump. Remember to find those rest positions on the wall.      

*Try to traverse SBRG's bouldering wall for a terminal pump.

Up, Down, Up's- Climb up a hard route, down an easy route, up a hard route... repeat until your workout resembles the route your interested in trying. You can play around with the sequencing of difficult routes in your workout as well as how to rest and recover on the wall. The key is volume, so to stay on the wall.

Happy Trails!!