Our vacations in Mexico and Colorado were amazing. The following video (almost) sums it up:
Before I tell you about my noteworthy ascents during the trip, you need to understand that before the trip started, I trained hard, but I set one simple goal: to try and get one high quality, hard send (for me that means 5.12a and above), but always limiting myself to three shots maximum.
Secretly, of course, I was super keen to finish up the base of my climbing grade pyramid (this is a strength and mind build-up idea that means, for example, that if one aspires to send, say, grade 27, one needs to have sent eight 24's, four 25's, two 26's and one 27), which for me meant to send 24's and 25's (which in Yosemite Decimal Scale are 5.12a's and 5.12b's), specifically one 24 and one 25 would see me having a total of eight 24's and eight 25's. But this was maybe too much to ask! I tried to convince myself not to get attached to that ambition.
First of all I want to say that I was really psyched about Maria's climbing, given that she seemed to have recovered pretty well from her wrist injury- it hardly hampered her at all this trip. She was back not only climbing, but always leading- commited! Really cool and inspiring!
First of all I want to say that I was really psyched about Maria's climbing, given that she seemed to have recovered pretty well from her wrist injury- it hardly hampered her at all this trip. She was back not only climbing, but always leading- commited! Really cool and inspiring!
Some noteworthy sends for me include:
- Blue Fin 5.12a (second shot), The Surf Bowl, Potrero Chico. This was also the very first route I tried on the trip, and the first one at the grade outside Australia! This, of course, set the tone of the trip, which, happily, went "in crecendo" from that point onward. This taught me that the importance of the first ascent of a trip, like that of the opening kickoff of a ball game, is the size of the psychological boost you can get. Of course, this also meant that the (unnecessary) pressure of sending at least one good and hard climb was lifted. As a matter of fact, in my first shot, despite getting to the top and doing all of the moves, I did not feel confident. It wasn't until Igor tried it and offered words of encouragement that I believed I could do it, so having someone that climbs the same level as you helps put things in perspective a lot. 'Twas a crisp, cloudy day; such was the proximity to the mist and the clouds that as a belayer, as your climber went up, he would be lost in the fog above! A steep, tufa-filled, knee-barry endeavor. Fun!
- Motavation 5.11a (onsight), Mota Wall, Potrero Chico. Within the style of pockety, vertical to slightly overhanging climbing, few, if any routes, have impressed me more. It's the kind of climb that seems to have been set by an expert routesetter, from the quality of the moves that one has to do! One of the nicest climbs I've ever done for sure.
- Bubble Boyz 5.12a (second shot), Mota Wall, Potrero Chico. Positive reinforcement! A completely different style from Blue Fin, as this consisted of a bouldery first half, followed by pumpy pocket sequences. To be honest, one major contributor to getting this route was the setting: amazing views of the Timewave Zero Buttress and the mountains at the back, with cool temps but with sun- this inspired me ("wouldn't it be cool to send this beautiful line in this beautiful place in this beautiful day?").
- Culo de la Negra 5.12a (second shot), Las Animas Wall, El Salto. We were pretty lucky to find a couple of people going to El Salto that day, because we forget our guidebook! They showed us the approach and told us the name and grade of many of the (mostly MEGA CLASSIC looking) climbs. The name means "The black lady's ass", and it is so named because of a feature on the top of the second tufa this line follows. Have a look at the video. You tell me. Anyway it's a beautiful line with a lot of character! They told us this one was a 5.12b, and I believed them, because the climb itself is about 35m long with multiple cruxes (two of which are about V3), but rests in between. At this stage I was getting psychologically confident and decided to go for the send. I think that if I hadn't had the psychological boost of what had gone down so far in the trip, I probably wouldn't have made it my second go, as on the first attempt I fell multiple times and it took me a while to figure out the moves- I really believe that my mind played center stage on the send. I was lucky that I stuck the crux move as I was falling (see if you notice in the video)! It felt amazing, and once more, the setting really helped, as El Salto is probably the prettiest crag I've ever been to.
The (wrong) crux sequence of
El Culo de la Negra 5.12a and...
..me paying the price
- Pangea 5.11d (second shot), The Spires, Potrero Chico. The classic Potrero 5.11d (hard at the grade in my opinion). Also featured in the video. Very last day, and Igor had tried it a couple of times before on a previous day. Pockets and cracks come in all shapes, sizes, and sharpness on this one! Despite having two no-hands rests, this gently overhanging line stands out for its pump factor! Despite having a really good onsight attempt, I couldn't get it first shot. Second go felt as hard, but held on! Probably the best line we did in Potrero. Just like Igor has helped me psychologically on countless occasions, I think this time it really helped him send to see me do it. I like it when that kind of help is reciprocal.
Me at the no-hands kneebar of Pangea 5.11d
- Seres Organicos 5.11c (onsight), El Chonta. THE most fun line I've ever done. Featured in the video. A climbing canvass, in that you can really get creative amidst the stalactites, tufas, and other unique features. This one really opened up my eyes to how wonderful climbing is at El Chonta, and probably the main reason I now call it my favorite crag in the world.
- Mantis 5.12b (onsight), El Chonta. Before coming to El Chonta, I had heard that Mantis really was one of the highlight 5.12b's to try at El Chonta, and before I got on it, Igor and I were working on El Jaguar (5.12d/13a), which seemed like it was going to take possibly many more shots than the established three, so because Mantis looked so cool, I decided that I would really try to send the thing (i.e. redpoint). However, as I always do, I decided I would give this a serious onsight attempt. The line was very long, so I didn't really bother reading it and figured I would just flow through. Fortunately, there were quickdraws already up, which is really quite lucky, because not only was I going to need about 20 of them, but in El Chonta they ALWAYS need to be long slings! I went up, let my body move by itself, and sure enough, my body's rooted engrams (gained through training and climbing experience) through the roof crux just about sufficed for me not to pump out, so unbelievably, I made it to the top first shot! Needless to say, I was walking on clouds at this stage!
- Mala Fama 5.12a (onsight), El Chonta. Last (bolted) climb of the trip. This onsight and Mantis' represent the accumulation of (limestone) climbing confidence this trip. At this stage, my confidence was sky-high to the point it even made me feel light. Having onsighted Mantis, I was sure I could also onsight this one before I got on. I decided to follow the same strategy of letting my body take over. However, because there were no draws up, I had to carry/place them myself. This took a HUGE amount of energy and route-finding, as the abundance of features in the cave camouflages the bolts a lot sometimes! After holding on like a leech to a foot, and pulling some amazing turn-around moves, I managed to get to the (very far away) top. There could not have been a prouder way to end the roped climbing on this trip, as this felt way harder than Mantis for me, it was a true expedition littered with classic moves! By the way, success on these onsights is in no small measure because of the superb bolting at the cave- so props to the setters!
- El Filo de la Escuelita V6 (1000th shot or so), La Escuelita, UNAM. I split from the group for about a week to spend Christmas with my family, so while they went to Quintana Roo, I stayed in Mexico City and Valle de Bravo. I took advantage of the opportunity to take my brother out climbing, especially because he was showing interest of getting into the sport, so I went to one of the token accessible all-levels area in Mexico City: the volcanic rock crags next to the UNAM Stadium. I had seen a video online of this guy doing a V6/7 there that I hadn't seen before, and it peaked my interest to try it, since I had been doing so well and I was going there anyway. So I went to La Escuelita (that's the name of the crag, "The Schoolyard") and did some roped climbing with my brother of some cool stuff I'd already done in previous visits so that he could try them out, but when he rested, I would work the boulder. It seemed really really hard, as I could not even begin to do one of the moves, but thanks to the confidence I built over the trip, I kept at it. Kept believing. We did three visits to La Escuelita, and as luck would have it, I began being able to get close to doing the move on that third day, the one and only day both my parents had seen me climbing (not to mention my close childhood friend Tirso was also there) ever! I got inspired and started having attempts at the whole thing, because, how awesome would it be to send your hardest boulder (and first at the grade and hardest rock climb you've ever done) in front of them? I got on a natural high. Before long, I was sticking the crux move, but falling right after. After a few shots like that, my parents had to go, but I stopped them and told them- "just watch me do this one last time", and deciding once more I would let my body move by itself, all of a sudden I topped out the Xitle volcanic rock and had done the most difficult thing I'd ever done in climbing- right in front of my family (my wife Maria was in my heart, as she always is). This was the last rock climb I did on the Mexico trip. It could not be any better... Check out the boulder here:
Another cool thing about the trip climbing-wise was that we actually got to go to these really cool climbing gyms: Sender One (Los Angeles), Movement (Boulder) and The Spot (also in Boulder, featured in the credits of the video). I've got to say that Sender One has got to be the dream gym of any climber- the size of the bouldering area (which has all styles of climbing including a multi-layered, variable angle wall) alone is bigger than my local climbing gym! And the setting! Oh, the setting... The lead climbing is just as if not more impressive, including grades that go up to 5.14c (when I was there) and about 20m climbing walls of all angles. Well done Chris Sharma! Well done...
The objective of climbing a 28 before the end of 2014 notwithstanding, since we arrived we decided to dedicate our training for BOULDERING!!!
The reason for this is that Chelsea, a friend of ours, got us pretty psyched on the idea of bouldering, so much that we decided to buy tickets to go to Melbourne so we can boulder at the Grampians on the Easter break! The bad news is that right now, Northern Grampians is closed because of the fire damage in late January... Hopefully some areas will re-open by then.
Grampians here we come!
So training has more or less stayed the same except that the focus is on power; we are now bouldering three times a week (once outdoors) and lead climbing once a week (also outdoors), so we're experimenting how well we fare climbing four times a week. Four and a half weeks into the hypertrophy phase, things are looking good! In my gym, I managed to send my first proper V6's and from what I can tell on the fingerboards, my crimp strength has increased, a fact evidenced by my send on the 19th of January of the long-unsent crimpfest sandbag "Shake and Bake" (24) at Brooyar. On a lead climbing note, I also managed to send on the 2nd of February "Cleared for Takeoff" (26) at Mount Coolum in a single day, on my third shot- progress!
Since then, it's been pretty much bouldering, but harder-than-V4 sends are yet to come. Confidence is high, though! Maria's wrist is healing nicely and she's getting stronger! Just today, she sent a (hard) V3 at the gym! Awesome job!
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