By modern standards I consider myself a reasonable climbing. I can turn up at a crag and happily climb in the lower extreme. However I have before operated at high grades, the one thing different between then and now other than an ageing body is that I find it all to easy to coast through climbing. Doing what I know I can climb without too much effort.
Having been climbing with a few very talented people recently, what I was missing was drive and motivation to push myself. So I have tried to make myself push myself physically mentally or both everytime I climb. Which in itself is both tiring and emotional. However I have reach a point where I don’t neccessary need to convince others that I can climb, instead I need to convince myself.
So anyway, I went out after work yesterday and and climbed the Dervish, I know I have do it before but hopefully in the next week or so the reasons will be come clear as to why I needed to run up it. At the very least I know I am climbing OK, when it felt reasonably steady away and a pleasure.
Today despite the rain, I managed to sneak out from behind the desk and go to Serengeti, where Charlie was so, so close to redpoint the Medium it was damn right unfair he narrowly missed the final throw, not once, not twice but thrice.
In between his attempts I warmed up on Seamstress, which was an error on my part, I the rush to get climbing I managed to start up the wrong crack! After another near miss from Charlie I set off up Heading the Shot, a classic E5 6b, and one with perhaps the most sustain cruxes out of all the Slate E5’s. I was a little psyched out, as it had been years since I climbed this and I remember very little about it, other than there were three hard sections, with an easier top out.
I cruised the first two sections and reach the second bolt. Then proceeded to cruise the crux and reach the traverse to the groove. I headed up the groove and then made an error by head back right rather than staying with the groove and fell off on what should have been easier ground. I think because the hard climbing was what I had focus my psych on I let go of my focus in the top groove.
So whilst I failed, to me it was a success as I climbed the 6b slab well, just blew the top out! Anyway it goes a way to convincing myself that I can bare down when I have too! What’s next?!