Let it happen

Hello everybody!

I thought it’s a good idea to write one last post in 2014. I have not been climbing for 20 days now, as I usually take a break at the end of the year, in order to recover completely from the annual training. So there’s not much to write about recent climbing activities, but I would like to tell you a story about a climbing experience I made this summer.

Right now a lot of people make up their mind, what they want to change in their life. Some want to live a healthier life, others may like to advance in their job and many of you probably have some specific climbing goals for 2015. I think it’s good to have visions and ambitions, but often we stand in our own way while pursuing our goals.  What do I mean by saying this? I mean that we don’t let things happen. Well, I know at first this sounds incredibly cheesy but let’s consider my story at this point:

There is this Route at a crag close to my hometown Graz. It’s called Stalker (8b) and it’s kind of a classic in our area. Basically it consists of two boulder problems, a lower one, which probably is the hardest part of the route, followed by a good hold in the middle, leading to the second boulder which is a bit easier than the first one. The finish is relatively easy but still no walk in the park.

This summer I decided to concentrate on this route. I’ve already tried it sometimes before, but back then I couldn’t do the first boulder. This time I felt much better on the route and after recalling all the moves I was prepared to start serious tries. From that point on everything went wrong, my skin got very sore after a few tries, when I came back it was very hot, next time I just messed it up. So I had around ten tries distributed over three days and I wasn’t getting any closer to sending the route. I was pretty frustrated, as things started so well.

A few days later I drove to Fürstenfeld, a small place close to Hungary, in order to participate in a route setting course. As usually, I took two pairs of climbing shoes with me. The first one was a very old pair with two big holes and damaged Velcro fasteners. I intended to use these shoes just for route setting because they are comfortable, but still more suitable for testing routes than normal shoes. The second one was my newest pair of shoes, which I normally wear for training and rock climbing. So I threw both pairs into my backpack.

On the first day of the course there was a suitability test which consisted of climbing a specific route. I wore my new shoes for this route. The day went by and in the late afternoon after the course our two instructors Flo and Mark decided to go rock climbing. Matthias (another participant of the course) and I joined them. Spontaneously we decided to drive to the crag where Stalker is situated.

After one hour of drive I stood again in front of the route, completely unexpected, but I didn’t mind, as we all had a great time and I felt very motivated to try the route again. Unpacking my backpack I realized that I had forgotten my good shoes in Fürstenfeld. I just left them in the gym after climbing the route of the suitability test. The only shoes I had taken with me were the old ones which were still in my backpack. At that point I was very angry with myself. With resignation I told my friends that I had to climb some easier routes, as I didn’t see any chance to climb Stalker with the damaged old pair of shoes. Instead of accepting my statement they encouraged me to give it a try and not think too much about my shoes. I’m a competitive guy so I couldn’t resist and gave it a try after warming up. Well, I did the route and it didn’t even feel hard. Back on the ground I couldn’t believe it. Did I really just climb a route which provided me a serious challenge over the last weeks, with shoes barely more suitable for climbing than any trainers? Actually, yes, I did! I thanked the three guys for their support and slowly I started to feel very happy. This was just the beginning of a short, but absolutely great climbing session. Matthias also climbed Stalker, Flo did Public Enemy (8c) and Mark came very close on Stalker and onsighted an 8a. Thanks guys for this experience!

That was my story and maybe you understand now what I mean by saying that we often stand in our own way. I think it’s extremely important to realize how empowering it can be to stop wanting something too badly, to think too much about a goal. Of course you need to internalize your aims but after you’ve done that, let things happen! You’ll perform at your best when you stop thinking and just concentrate on the thing you do. That applies not only to climbing but to anything you are pursuing. So, whatever your resolutions for 2015 are, make sure you deeply internalize them, but then relax a little bit and enjoy the process of achieving your goals. 

me in the lower boulder of Stalker, © Jakob Glasner

me in the upper boulder, © Lisa Komposch

 

One day after Christmasm, no climbing for now ;) 

That’s it for this time, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR and lots of good dreams to pursue ;-) !!!

Jakob