Can you blame us? Every season in Boulder is the best season for one or more of our local crags: summer for Rocky Mountain National Park, winter for sunny cliffs in Eldorado Canyon, and spring and fall for just about everything else. It's just too easy to not only climb year-round, but to try to climb well year-round.
Peaking year-round is an oxymoron, yet some of us morons try to do it year after year. This blind passion and ceaseless opportunity to climb our best all year is a recipe for certain failure. There will be weeks or even months -- every year -- when we simply suck at climbing.
I just returned from Las Vegas, where I spent two months attempting to climb the hardest sport route of my life. I trained hard in Boulder last fall and winter. I'd prepped specifically for this climb by succeeding on similar but easier sport routes. Every day for two months, I visualized myself executing each sequence of the route perfectly.
But I failed. Completely. I tried the same 40 feet of climbing 59 times and I just couldn't do it. Now I feel weak and unmotivated.
Silly moron. Some of us never learn.
But some do. My friend Bill Ramsey is much smarter than I am. He's a local Las Vegas climber who chooses one or two hard sport routes per year and prepares for them systematically. He trains in cycles to peak like athletes do in more conventional sports. He replicates crux moves on his home climbing wall. He pursues a focused regime that includes rest periods. Ramsey, 51, has not only avoided injury and burnout, he's climbing harder than ever in his 30-plus-year climbing career.
And then there's me, the obsessed, oxymoronic moron. I've literally thrown myself against the wall for nearly a year with the unrealistic expectation of steady progress. I really know better. I've studied most available literature on climbing training. Hell, I used to be a personal trainer at the Boulder Rock Club, where I coached dozens of climbers and helped them plan thoughtful training regimes.
I should really practice what I preach. I was so exhausted my last day in Las Vegas that I barely mustered the energy to warm up. It was my last chance of the season to finish my project, and all I could do was plop beneath the route and admit defeat. I smoked cigarettes, belayed Ramsey (while he made steady, consistent progress on the same route I was trying), and drank beer. I was like a crying kid, insisting that I wasn't tired, until I finally passed out.
The only productive aspect of my last day was that I recorded every detail for every move of the route. If I ever learn from climbers like Ramsey, and prepare for a real peak in my climbing, at least I'll have a head start on that climb.
But wait. That would mean I'd have to rest more. And climb less. And sacrifice short-term gains. It would require more discipline than this moronic, OCD child has ever exercised with climbing.
Why can't I just peak all year?
Chris Weidner: Boulder Daily Camera
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