Cambodian Rematch

It's time to "Nut up or shut up!" This past weekend was a 'nut up' kind of climbing day for me.

1) Cambodian Holiday (5.9)  second pitch
2) Cambodian Escape(5.4)

I escaped Cambodian Holiday (5.9) on my onsight attempt by traversing cliff right away from the exposed second pitch and onto Two Pitch (5.4). Since then I've been waiting for the opportunity to give it another go. I love when I fail due to fear because it challenges my ability to overcome.  The opportunity arose and this time around I was better prepared mentally! My belayer was nervous but encouraging.  I'm proud to say I overcame but it was still one of the hardest mental climbs I've ever accomplished.  I'm sure some of you are not impressed with a traditional (5.9) grade but I can only continue to sound like a broken record by always pointing out that the rock quality at Crowders is not confidence inspiring. This route was no exception, in fact it could be the poster child for mentally challenging routes.

Brandy Gibson Walters working on Burn Signals(5.10)-sport on Car Wall

After hooking up with other climbing buddies and letting them climb their projects, I kept my momentum going at Davids Castle Wall. I onsighted Respirator (5.8R) which sees very little traffic and had a couple rock chunks break off while I led it. I've learned that many of these untraveled traditional routes were mostly top-roped before being climbed ground up. I recommend this 'head point' style if you are familiarizing yourself with Crowders traditional climbing. The gear can be tricky and subtle but if you can trad climb at Crowders you probably won't have as hard a time at other climbing areas. 

Onsighting Respirator (5.8R)-trad on Davids Castle Wall

Also, noteworthy is that I did some trail maintenance at Davids Castle Wall. I removed a lot of briars and cleared some of the overgrown stuff covering up the less traveled traditional routes on the cliff right side of Davids Castle Wall. One route had briars growing out of the crack! It was a challenge to bushwhack up Handle With Care (5.6) while cleaning out the briars but it was worth it. This route is super easy physically but again the rock quality isn't the best but for the trained eye the gear is plentiful.

Matthew Stephens (13yrs) on his first traditional lead Handle With Care(5.6)

It feels good to get back on a route that scared me away. Coming out on top the second go around is a great feeling. It is this beautiful process of growing my skills that I'm so addicted to! Some are hung up on climbing the hardest grade possible but for me numbers aren't the only thing to aspire to. I love to be patient and work on being well rounded. This is probably because I want the mental, physical, and technical skills required to onsight harder and harder routes. I feel like I can probably project a 5.13 and eventually connect all the components required to send. It reminds me somewhat of my ballet years.

In ballet if we were learning a piece that had been performed before we would watch a video and pick it apart section by section and then put it together little by little until you had the dance complete. Some people were so good at learning dances that it could be equated to onsighting a route. I was not that skilled, I had to constantly rehearse in order to achieve what others could do in a handful of attempts. Partially because I started dancing at the unripe age of eighteen.




Projecting a route way beyond my onsight limit reminds me of having to rehearse over and over again in order to have a flawless performance. Although I enjoy this system of working out a route, I often prefer to work on a route closer to my onsight level in order to get a full day of climbing in.  Don't get me wrong, I love to perfect a route and then send if flawlessly but I prefer to not know the route and send it by figuring it out on the spot. For me, nothing quite compares to the first time you are on a route that you are not familiar with and everything goes just right.... or right enough to get you up the route on the first try.


All in all, to each their own. We all have different ethics that guide our climbing experiences and I'm not one to downplay others achievements. I am aware that I hold myself to a standard that not many agree with but in the end I climb for myself and not for others.  We'll save the ethics topic for another post. Happy climbing and stay hydrated!

Davids Castle Wall - I'm on Respirator (5.8R)