Music memories

I had a song on today, Wagon Wheel by 'Old Crow Medicine Show' (last.fm link and video link here, direct YouTube link at bottom of post) and I instantly relate to my very fond memories of my time in Carbondale a month or so ago and with my two awesome friends Cari and Scott (Cari is centre with the coffee, Scott is just behind in the middle). The rest of these fantastic people are those that brought us around Colorado and southern Utah and made us feel as if this was our home - I'll forever be thankful to you!
It got me thinking about music that I can relate to different memories in my life and how you'll always be stuck with fond (or maybe not so fond!) memories of a specific location or people that you were with.

I won't bore you with two examples but here's two:
- my first long road-trip around Europe with my buddies Rob and Andy will forever be imortalised by the music of 'Jimmy Eat World.' Back in the good old days of Minidiscs (remember those - still a better system than CD's?!?!) and I'm sure we must have almost worn out my player before we got home :)
- my first world trip and the supplied music of YOU because of this post :) The 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah' track, The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth, will be the music for 2007. Ahhh, fond memories!

What memories can you think of? is there trips (or anything that will forever remind you of a track?)

I'm in Gorge Du Tarn

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For anyone around France, I'm based in Gorge du Tarn (beside the town of Millau) for the next three weeks so make sure to give me a shout if you're around and keen to climb.....

Working hard in Rifle, and getting experience counts for A LOT

I already described in this post what the reputation of Rifle is.
"Lots of ego among the climbers.
Hard grades.
No easy climbs.
Polished.
Honestly, some of it lived up to it's reputation but most of it didn't. The climbers we met were so friendly, coming looking for me after I'd left my shoes accidentally at the bottom of a route, throwing out advice, sharing information, warning us to move our car when they were bolting. Even the super-heroes were inspiring with a certain Dave Graham admirably going to warn some locals who were climbing with some kids that they were in a dangerous location for rock-fall and that they should move to a better location (unfortunately, said adults followed their own ego first and refused to move much to everyone's horror as they used the top-rope to knock rocks off.....).

And yes, the grades feel hard. Like most of the top-class crags in the world, Rifle does everything in it's power to show you your weaknesses. I learnt that while I'm relatively strong considering I haven't bouldered/trained in months, I'm still lacking in lots of power on routes. Anyone who has been to Ceuse or Siurana will know that for both, you'll find that if you haven't put in the effort, you won't get the payback on the routes you try. Rifle is no exception.
But there was amazing positives. As a post on Joe Kinder's blog said recently, experience on different rock does wonders for your climbing as it increases your range of techniques to use while climbing.
I've been lucky in that sense as much to my surprise, after realizing only a few weeks ago that I've climbed in 15 countries, that experience counts for a lot. I was still onsighting 5.12's in Rifle and it only came down to my experience. I'm not overly fit or super-hero strong right now but I managed to climb some routes in a style I never expected. I tried what for me is hard, a 5.13a (7c+) onsight one-day. I got 6 bolts up it before a silly mistake led to take the plummet off the route. But from there, there was only one other move that confused me enough to fall off. My experience of climbing on so many styles meant that I saw knee-bars, squeezes, presses without even thinking about it. For anyone climbing, make it a goal to climb as many different styles and locations as possible. It'll increase your range of movements exponentially.



For those of you who are having to be indoor climbers regularly, stop climbing your own problems and start trying your friend's. You know those ones that your friend does first-go but you can't even pull onto? Yep, they're the problems you should be trying more often. If you can't do it easily, it means that you can only learn something by trying them.
For those of you who are setting problems for yourself, I always had a benchmark that if I could do the climb in less than 10 goes, it was too easy. Make it a goal to set problems that challenge you, you're always getting better then and won't get stale.



Image Credit:
1) The park entrance sign for Rifle National Park
2) Onsighting the tricky 'Feline' 6c/5.11b/c - a great route for finding out what your onsighting experience level is like. Tricky from the 4th bolt all the way to the chains!
3) How more psyched and motivated can you get?!? Cari, our awesome host, STILL climbing with a ruptured tendon. Thankfully it was on the back of the hand so as long as she didn't bend her finger it was fine :)

Surviving Indian Creek

I've been reading and thinking a lot recently about my own thought processes. An interesting insight happened recently - I found a piece that showed that I automatically think of the pessimistic view when it comes to something but that I'll then come up with the positives for it and let them override the negatives as I realize there's more positives. As it happens, I wrote this post in exactly the same fashion. Interesting to see my quirks showing up and learning about myself. What way do you work?

So, Indian Creek....For me, honestly, I struggled at Indian Creek. I found the climbing frustrating and sore. Jamming my feet and hands in cracks only seemed to cause blinding pain and lead to me "feeling the bones in my joints moving around" (as one person described it to me and perfectly described what I was feeling). I left with a sore wrist and a very sore ankle from stuffing them in cracks. And it was frustrating that if the crack was a perfect size for me, it didn't even feel like I was getting a work-out, but if it was too thin/fat, it felt near-impossible.

But there were loads of positives from it. I did get to experience one of the most beautiful places in the world and I did get to learn how to improve my crack-climbing technique for other locations (and have already been used at other crags where I'd least expected to). I also learnt that I'm a very 'wide' climber, i.e. I spread my body out wide and like to make the most of all features around me to climb. Climbing in a very straight line felt horribly claustrophobic for me but I also learned some new movements from it that have already benefited my climbing in other locations. And I also started to trust in Cams/Friends, something I haven't done since watching a friend badly break his ankle from one not holding a fall. So, all in all, it was a worthwhile experience and while I won't be rushing back (Of course, from my last post, it does mean that I should be going back there cause I need to put the time in - 3 days isn't going to cut it to become a proficient crack climber :)., I did find the experience truly amazing.

And who knows, maybe I'll be walking up routes in Fair Head at some point in the future!







Image Credit:
1: Indian Creek taped gloves. An interesting skill that you pick up at the Creek is the manufacture of these. They definitely make a difference!
2: Indian Creek guidebook sitting below the crag as Pepper shows us how to really climb cracks. Humbling.
3: And I thought I was fanatical about climbing. Finn the dog, chases a tennis ball 24 hours a day, every day. Psyche!!!!!
4: avoiding crack climbing in style. myself getting shut down on a 5.9!

Indian Creek is like Rifle

o.k., bear with me on this one - I know that post is going to sound crazy to a lot of people! I know I'm going to get a lot of incredulous looks from this title from people who've visited one or the other, or even know what the climbing is like at either location.

Firstly, a primer. For those who don't know of either (especially non-climbers), on paper both locations are well-known in climbing circles but of very different character.
Indian Creek, about 40 minutes south-west of Moab, is a crack-climbing mecca. Basically it's giant cliffs of orange-red sandstone with perfect splitter cracks running up it. There's little or no friction on the front of the cliff, and with no edges, it means you have to climb using only the crack for your hands and feet. A very specific style exists and it's well known that anyone who visits always performs terribly until they learn how to do it.




Rifle, on the other hand, is based in Rifle State Park about 12 miles outside of the town of Rifle. It's narrow gorge, 1.5 miles long and the rock is limestone. But it's blocky and not very pockety like the limestone that most people know of in Europe.

Rifle has a very mixed reputation and quite a few people I know and have met don't like the place.
Hard grades.
No easy climbs (about 40 of the 300-odd are 5.10/6a and less).
Lots of ego among the climbers.
Polished.
Busy.
And some of it is most likely true (we visited on weekdays only to avoid the crowds). The grades do feel stiff at first and there's definite evidence of the rock getting polished. But.......
On one of my first days in Rifle about two weeks ago, we met one of the local climbers who quite definitively stated that anyone who doesn't like the place, just needs to spend more time there to get used to the place. Honestly, he was pretty blunt about it and it could be so easy to take offense. But you know what, he had a really good point. Just like Indian Creek, where for the first few days you feel like an absolute beginner climber, it's pretty similar in Rifle. My first two days in Indian Creek, I couldn't even climb a 6a/5.10/E1-ish clean, it just kicked my ass and I had to just suffer it through and gain knowledge of how to climb splitter cracks. It wasn't fun, but by the end of it, I was starting to see some sort of light about what you're meant to actually do (managed to second 2 5.11's clean).
And in Rifle, it's a similar experience. Your first few days (at least), it's hard. The routes are long, really physical and really intense (every move feels as hard as the other), and lots of the moves are amazing but tricky and not just pulling on a hold, but involving knee-bars and squeezes. It's hard going and takes a few days to get used to. Sound familiar?
Just like Indian Creek, which takes time to get used to, it's no different for Rifle..

If you're struggling on something, it usually means you need to put more time and effort in. For me, that goes at Indian Creek (another post on that soon).
What do others think?

Image Credit:
1: Pepper on Scarface (5.11), Indian Creek, Utah. Notice the lack of holds either side of the cracks!
2: Naomi on Feline (5.11), Rifle, Colorado. Notice the sheer number of blocky edges on the whole cliff.....

Other people's blogs to keep you motitated over the summer

I'm a big believer in the power of getting motivation by sharing so , in that interest, I thought I'd ask everyone...

Stick your own blog addresses in my comment field for others to check out - I know a few of my regular readers and I don't know their own blogs so want to check them out myself.
don't be afraid people, I love getting motivation from others! :)

In the meantime, check out Irish & Irish-related Climbers (where are there more of these?!?!!?):
Paul Brennan
Pierre Fuentes

Great blogs for international info:
Cragbaby

and of the people who make money from climbing and are super-psyched!!!!!:
Joe Kinder: http://www.joekindkid.com/
Isaac Caldiero
Chris Sharma
Belgian Sean
Sonnie Trotter

For all the sites I've subscribed to (only takes a few minutes to scan every couple of days), here's my Google Reader public pageGoogle Reader public page. if anyone wants this, I can send you a file that you can import into Google Reader yourself.


Image Credit: Naomi onsighting a 5.11c in Mill Creek, Utah.

The 10,000 hour rule: The benefits of experience

There was a post on Will Gadd's blog a good while ago about a book by Malcolm
Gladwell's called "Outliers."

Here's a general excerpt from the post and referencing one of the main
ideas in the book:

The best piece of information in there so far is the idea
that to be really good, approaching mastery, at something you have to
put in about 10,000 hours at it. The second is that there are
thresholds for natural ability; to be a successful lawyer you need to
be "smart enough," but not necessarily brilliant. To be a good athlete
you need to be good enough, but not necessarily the most talented.
They are plenty of smart people doing very poorly at the game of life.
There are plenty of climbers with natural talent who do very little
with it. Most of the really good athletes I know in any sport were not
the most naturally talented when they started, but they practiced like
demons. Maybe for about 10,000 hours...

This is something to think about. If you want to be a really good
skier you likely need about 10,000 hours of thinking about snow,
skiing in snow, rolling in it, whatever it takes to get to that level
of understanding and skill.

What a fascinating thought! Obviously some skill at whatever item you
want to achieve at (be it in a sport, hobby or work) is required, but
unless you put in the time and dedication to it, you won't achieve
your potential. This isn't to say that you must sell your soul to
whatever you do (or quit your job and go climbing for example ;), but
it does mean that the more time you put in, the better you'll do :)
As the famous Wolfgang Gullich said, "The hardest part about training
is making the first decision to do it." I know what my mantra for the
rest of the year is.....what's yours? have you some goals and
ambitions you want to work towards?

On a side note; Will Gadd's blog also got some great blog posts for
those interested - see this example basically talking about the fact that situps are pretty rubbish when it comes to developing good core strength).

Image Credit: My good friend Scott putting in the time on some technical climbs (5.11-ish) at Mill Creek, Utah