RRC Archives

dustonian wrote:Seasonal climbing is lame. There is so much more to the experience than the numbers...if you send a hard grade, cool, if not, then there is still plenty of fun to be had regardless!

My problem (one of them anyways) is I fall in love with the aesthetics of a line. I end up becoming obsessed and HAVE to do it. Then I find out it is out of my skill set or fitness level. That is where the training comes in. And since I don't have the dedication to train during good weather, I do it in the summer/winter. If all the route authors would quit bolting beautiful lines, I could stop training.

I see this as THEIR fault, not mine.

OK, it's not lame necessarily, just strange to me... but then, I came from California where there is always someplace with good weather to climb year-round. To me, if you've got a free couple days and the weather is good (like the last 3), why not climb? Because of your training cycle or pyramid thingie or whatever? So weird... I just climb for fun. If I send something hard for me or a beautiful line, great, if I fall, whatever, if the weather's really bad then I just got bolt something, climb some trad, swim, or go on a trip someplace else if I have time. Staying inside to air-condition and overtrain yourself to death just because of a set of arbitrary dates is just a little strange in my opinion... but then I like to climb year-round and always have, and I hate training, I use climbing to train for climbing. If I don't feel like climbing now I bolt, if I don't feel like bolting I swim or run or hike or study or work. In fact, I would almost say I encourage this bizarre "seasonal" approach to climbing because it is so kick-ass to go to all the empty amazing crags between now and Sept 15, and then again between Thanksgiving and March 1!! Thank you, weather gods!!!

I used to climb year round and have just recently converted to the "seasonal" mindset. I gotta say, it has it's advantages. By training and getting stronger it has opened up a whole lot more of the gorge to me as far as routes I am able to get on. Also, it is nice to spend the summer not driving down EVERY weekend and I can focus on other hobbies that I have.

tcu wrote:Also, it is nice to spend the summer not driving down EVERY weekend and I can focus on other hobbies that I have.

other hobbies.... i didn't know climbers were allowed to have other hobbies.

I've got a few other hobbies, but they're all super boring compared to climbing.

I think it depends how far you live from the crag...if you are spending $90.00 a trip on gas...it is better to stay home and climb at the local gym or your home woody

dustonian wrote:I've got a few other hobbies, but they're all super boring compared to climbing.

Agree, but it is nice to broaden the horizons. Plus, I still climb 3 days a week.

WAY HOT