ok, we're live

i figure i'll start this thing off with a recap of how my climbing year has gone this far.

i apologize in advance about the spray, feel free to skip this paragraph if that's not your thing. this time last year, i was a v2/3-ish gym climber with almost no experience climbing outdoors but a deep yearning to figure it all out. now i have successfully sent a handful of v5's and can at least work a few v6's and v7's, as well as redpointed a couple of 5.8-5.10's and miraculously onsighted a 5.10c. i have lead exactly one route in the traditional ethic, scaring myself senseless in the process, and know a good deal about building safe and equalized anchors. finally, i managed to get a job at the clemson climbing wall and next semester will be a climbing guide for c.o.r.e. (clemson outdoor recreation and education).

talk about a the difference a year can make, huh?

there are three main things that made all this possible.

1) getting a job at the climbing wall - this was awesome. i was getting paid to do what i would rather be doing anyway. in learning how to set anything worth climbing, i spent tons of time thinking about climbing movement and understanding how ones body wants to move over rock (or plastic, in this case). i felt this, as well as the exorbitant amount of climbing i was squeezing in per week, led to a huge improvement in my climbing ability. probably the greatest perk of working at a gym was getting to know almost everybody that comes through the place on a regular basis, which leads to...

2) ...awesome people to climb with. a lot of my improvement as a climber can be chalked up to friends pushing me to get on stuff that i would have scoffed at as being too hard, or finish something that i would have otherwise punted off of. positive encouragement is a huge part a successful climbing session, and if there is anything the three of you (or so) that are still reading can take away from this, here it is: dump all your climbing buddies that are super negative or tell you that you can't do it when you think of pushing your personal envelope. besides climbing with positive people, climbing with people much stronger than me also helped a good deal. i found out that sometimes linking 2 or 3 moves on something three grades harder than my current best can seem almost as satisfying as sending an easier problem. plus, it gives you something to work towards.

it is also fun to have friends that prefer another type of climbing than just bouldering. without the constant "when are you going to get on a rope/lead climb/learn to place gear?" i would have never gotten seriously interested in those things. that's actually a lie, but it probably would not have happened this year without their nagging/encouragement/invitations to go.

3) shoulder surgery. now i know it seems like going under the knife to have my labrum repaired, and not being able to climb all summer may not seem like something that made me stronger, but hear me out. before i dislocated my shoulder playing rugby, i was starting to plateau around the v3/v4 barrier. realizing that i only had a month or so of climbing before 3 months of no climbing motivated me like nothing else. i started taking each and every session, indoors or out, much more seriously; this lead to my bursting through my plateau right before (2 days, in fact) i went under the knife.

there was a bad part of surgery too: then end of my rugby career. i love the sport and loved playing even more. i miss it greatly, but finally found a positive way to look at it. without rugby practice everyday from 5-7, i am able to climb without being worn out beforehand. it also freed up my weekends for climbing trips; used to, after a match on saturday, i would sometimes be so beat up that i could not physically climb come sunday. not playing rugby also caused me to approach climbing differently. for the first time in my life i am not playing a competitive sport, so i figure i might as well be the best climber as i physically can; especially considering how much time i put into it.

i'll get something new up soon