Monday, April 30, 2012

Synopsis of a Season


Indian Creek is—in my mind—a kind of outdoor monastery; a place of quiet repose. Protected by monolithic canyon walls that shut out the world, I perceive myself to be inside of a great outdoor room: roofless and sprawling, yet containing its own space, and even its own interval of time. This, because the walls as seen from the floor, create their own horizons from which the sun springs each morning, and below which it sets every evening, seemingly independent of the outside world.

A place of isolation like Indian Creek lends itself to quiet introspection I rarely find time for anywhere else.
Here, I posses luxuries of time and solitude. These luxuries make ample compensation for some things that I now see as amenities (as opposed to necessities).

There are counterpoints to this description that would make it seem that I was reporting with a bias. For instance, the campgrounds are apt to fill up on weekends, campsites overflowing with interloping (everyone is an interloper) climbers or tourists just here for a few days. The scattered parking lots, too, will randomly fill up as unassociated climbing parties choose a particular wall for likely the same reason (a classic route, shelter, shade or sun, and etc.). In this way, The Creek sometimes feels like the popular international climbing destination that it is. Accepting that fact allows me to appreciate the population fluxes as part of the larger cycle of processes ocurring in the Creek ecosystem.

On the whole, the Creek is unchanging, and the minor interruptions and a passing storm or two does not change the larger perception I described earlier.

I sent Annunaki—a route that I worked longer than any other at the Creek (3 top ropes, 3 leads, total). Finding a route that I enjoyed working, and found rewarding to complete helped to remind me why I climb. Annunaki will be the highlight of my climbing for this season at the Creek, but it certainly is not the only highlight. There have been countless days spent with great friends (new and familiar) and many days spent exploring and living in a fulfilling way.

With that being said, I'm planning to move to Yosemite Valley soon. I'm not motivated to climb here any more, and some of that is due to the repetition of the climbing, and some of it is due to my own desire to branch out and focus on some other climbing styles.

I have bouldering on my mind, and I'm looking forward to working on my familiarity on granite and improving my flow and ability to read sequences. I wish I could push my personal grades but I'm afraid I will be pretty weak, so I will mostly push my technical skills instead of my physical limits.

So, here I am in town, wrapping up loose ends and getting ready to to go, at least mentally. I hope to be in Yosemite within 2 weeks, sooner if possible.

Once I am there I will have more access to electricity and the internet and I'm hoping to do a little retrospective on my season here at the Creek as well as just staying a little more up to date on the blog.
I'm still meditating on my motivation for climbing, and I have spoken with many people about it. At some point I want to define my motivations and figure out what makes me tick and how much I want to climb and at that point I will be better able to shape my life to emphasize what is important to me most.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Chilling in the Desert

So I'm a little over a month into my stay in The Creek and I'm still loving life. Every day is different in some way, but there's also a comfortable routine here, and it's nice to live in a place of such amazing beauty and opportunity for exploration and climbing.

So far, I've only really touched on the logistics and more general aspects of living at The Creek without much mention of the actual climbing or anything else that happens here.
I have a few goals I'm trying to meet while I live here: I'm trying to climb better, become more fit, and overcome and heal several nagging injuries.

The climbing has been spectacular. You couldn't ask for better weather, and the cracks? They go on forever. I've climbed on, looked at and attempted so many varied, beautiful lines it's hard to keep track of them all.
My primary focus for climbing while I'm here is to work on crack sizes that are difficult for me, and to round out my skills.

I've also met a lot of wonderful people here, and that's one of the rewards of this lifestyle that's very hard to quantify.

After Indian Creek, I will be going to The Valley.
It had been my original plan to work in Yosemite Valley for the concessionaire but  I didn't get the job--it's nice that I'll still be able to spend time there.
I have high hopes to do a lot of climbing and continue meeting awesome people.

I feel I should mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that I've had a bit of "climbers block", aka loss of psych.  All I mean by that, is that there has been a surprisingly frequent and numerous number of days where I didn't want to climb. A lot of it, I think, comes from feeling pressured to go climb with the group, even though I may have other things I want to do.
It's all well and good, and I'm not too worried about it, but it does give me pause and cause a fair bit of introspection when I'm ostensibly on a climbing road trip and I have little desire to climb.
That being said, I do still climb and I had a great climbing day yesterday when I climbed the second pitch on Supercrack and then tried leading Ananaki (it's a ways off).

This blog is not as frequently updated as I had first imagined, and I regret that I'm not able to be more thorough in my updates, but it's nice to check in from time to time and write about whatever it is that seems most relevant at the time.