My aspirations are to finish climbing everything under 5.10 at Crowders Mountain State Park by the end of this year. At this point it isn't going to happen because I've been hired to dance in two different ballet productions of 'The Nutcracker'. One with Orangburg Civic Ballet in Orangburg, Sought Carolina and the other with Griffin Ballet Theater in Griffin, Georgia.
I'm finding it hard because a lot of the "easier" routes are kept traditional or Trad, meaning that you have to place your own gear for protection. Not a lot of people climb these Trad lines (literally lines or cracks because they accept climbing gear easily) therefore a lot of these lines still have a lot of loose, brittle, sharp, rock. I've recently learned that a lot of these routes may have been done Top-Rope. The ethic, 'rules', or 'guide lines' in the earlier years wasn't as developed so they didn't pay attention to aided First Ascent, top-roped First Ascent, etc...
The high traffic Top-Rope areas have been 'cleaned-off' so to speak due to rubber shoes, boy scout troops and easy access to bolted anchors.
A traditional climber must be well versed not only in gear placement but also in anchor building because most of the trad climbs do not contain bolted anchors. An anchor assembled from gear or near by boulders must be arranged.
What I've discovered over the course of my attempt to climb these "easier" routes is that the climbing is straight forward but the 'head games' play a more active role. When you fall due to a hold breaking off the wall, your 'trust' in the rock changes a bit.
Since my fall on Middle Finger (5.7) due to a hold breaking, I've been placing gear closer together, testing rock holds more thoroughly to the point of almost wearing myself out, and I am more hesitant to put my full weight on any solid looking holds.
I'm also finding that the climbing community puts more emphasis on 'hard' routes. Not much respect is gained from climbing a multitude of 'easier' routes. I feel that much can be said for the experience gained from easier routes, especially Traditional routes.
I myself have climbed a handful of 5.12 routes with only one being a mixed route (requires some gear but has some bolts for protection). Although these 'harder' routes were challenging, they were straight forward with the protection - clip a quickdraw into a bolt hanger and then clip your rope into the quickdraw. On a traditional route you have to find your protection with in the wall and place the gear or choose to not place gear in order to minimize your pump/muscle burn.
I am wondering if I should just give up on my project and follow the climbing community trend. That would require getting on nothing lower than (5.10). Then maybe people wouldn't give me a puzzled look when I tell them that I am trying to climb everything at Crowders under (5.10).
Just to test my theory, I am now going to work backwards on my goals. I'm going to climb the hardest first and work my way down to the mentally hard 'easy' traditional routes, I need the mental break from the choss.
With that said, I started working Fashion Direct (5.12b) at Crowders Mountain State Park on top rope. Thanks to Robert Hutchins for the tall man beta that helped me with my short man beta. Once I send this on lead I'm going to keep doing it for training and then I'm going for the Onsight of Welcome to Crowders (5.12a) and TKO (5.12a). Even if I don't get the onsight for these 12's I'll be happy with working them and checking them off the tick list.
A lot of people that know me personally know that I train for onsighting. Several have told me that I may be hurting my experience because I won't hop on everything in sight. I want to save some routes for the onsight because I feel like anyone can send anything with a little hard work, but once you get on a route that feeling of not knowing goes away and some of the mental experience diminishes. I'm picky about this because unfortunately I have to drive two hours to the nearest crag. I would hate to lose all that valuable (to me) onsight experience.
I want to end with asking you what you value more? Hard numbers? Developing your experience with easy routes? What motivates you? Should we all work hard routes, carry stick clips, veto valuable experience that develops mental strength? Am I the only silly one that wants to do it like the old days and work my experience 'pyramid' from the ground up? Anyway, thanks for reading.
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