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| Quest anyone? |
Like most climbers, we here at the gym have spent a lot of time and effort traveling to places that most people think only exist as an 800 piece puzzle solution. You know, the types of places Frodo often finds himself elbows deep in a quest. And we go for the same reasons that Ol’ Pete Jackson does: for the views, for the quiet, for the camaraderie, and mostly to see what we’re made of.
Why else would we spend our nights and weekends wrecking our bodies and minds training for and dreaming about the “BIG” climb?
And the big climb can be anything. It can be the red one in the back of the bouldering cave, it can be a tendon-popping red point at the Owl Tor, or it can be something that you haven’t found yet but for some reason you still feel the need to try harder, to do more.
But just like young Frodo, our quest to send the big one, to climb our...our precious...can blind us(i.e. me) from the other joys of being a traveling climber.
For example, I want to attempt to climb a handful of mountains under 24 hours. This means I have to spend a great deal of time training for these events. On one of my training hikes a friend who was accompanying me threw a wrench in the entire plan. As I related the goal he asked me, “Why would you want to rush through such beautiful places? I mean, you’ve never been there before right? So why rush the experience?”
Well it appears I have a history of this phenomenon. Six years ago I started a project at the New River Gorge that was supposed to be my first 5.12. In order to climb this route I had to drive 6 hours, hike 20 minutes to a place with only 2 other climbs, pray it wasn’t going to be wet or get wet, sucker in a belay partner, and try to climb through the last bolt that always shut me down.
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| "The Forest" |
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| "The Trees" |
The kicker is that in my 6 hour drive I passed 4 amazing climbing spots, I hiked pass 2 better climbing spots or could have hiked to a better location that would be dry and have a better selection of routes, and oh yeah, I wouldn’t have to climb and fail on the same move that, to this day, I have not completed.
You might ask if the route is awesome and no it’s ok. You may ask if the location is awesome and no there’s nothing particularly spectacular about it. That fact of the matter is I wanted to climb that one route so bad that nothing else would do and I may have limited my experience down at the New.
So what’s the point?
The point is that we here at the gym hope you keep going for those “BIG” climbs. We also hope that you enjoy the places you’re in, the people you’re with, and are willing to change the plans.
*I’m currently reevaluating my goals, maybe I’ll climb those mountains in 2 days.
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| Happy Trails |
322 State St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-770-3225
"Helping to foster and preserve Santa Barbara's Climbing Community"
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