Getting Gnarly!

Like I mentioned… My focus over the last few months has been on training. My goal for this winter was to learn how to train. I felt that this would make the biggest difference to my climbing, because power is my greatest weakness and I have never really dedicated any time to training…

Thanks to my amazing friend and climbing/training partner, Ben Rueck who welcomed me into his world, I have had the chance to get to know and train with Rob Pizem and the crew at Grand Junction Climbing Center. This time spent here in Grand Junction has opened my eyes to another way to approach climbing.

Trying to learn to climb again at Rifle…
Photo: Randyl Neilson

I have dedicated time to training and improving my overall strength with the goal of then being able to climb routes in a shorter period of time, rather than dedicating a large amount of time to working on a route and gaining strength on the climb itself. In the end that total time invested may be the same, but the gain seems to be much more rounded and I am feeling much better overall than ever before! I have not yet truly tested how the last few months of training have really effected my overall climbing ability, however, I do know that I have gained a huge amount of strength, power and core tension. Now I just have to relearn the subtleties of climbing. I found over the last few days climbing that I was pulling way too hard and not really “climbing”… This was a rather amusing realization – I never thought that I would have an issue with forgetting to use technique, but definitely noticed myself  simply pulling at first.

A week at Smith Rocks fixed that pretty quickly though – There is no way you can get up anything there without using technique…

Beautiful, technical faces of Smith Rocks

I really appreciate the amount of help and support Rob and Ben have given me over the last few months. Having a coach is something I have always dreamt of, and over the last few months Rob has filled this role. He has written training programs for me and helped me decided how much and what to do. This really has been a treat for me – even if it hurt like hell most of the time! I completed two cycles which were designed to make me suffer and push myself to my limits. I am used to pushing myself both physically and mentally, but not over such a long period of time… This took a new level of mental grit just to keep going week after week!

Finding inspiration in the desert…

My first cycle went well, but ended a week early, due to the worst flu I have ever had – I was bed-ridden for almost a week… Which may have had something to do with being over-tired all the time and maybe not getting the right nutrients. So, for the second cycle I tried to be extra careful to take proper care of myself and coincidentally right at the beginning of the cycle I received a batch of Gnarly Nutrition products to test. There are many things that have an effect on my training, and it is always hard to know exactly what makes a difference… However, I made huge improvements over this last cycle. It is amazing how much power I have gained, and I am sure that using Gnarly religiously before, during and after training has helped a lot!

Check out Gnarly Nutrition!

Now I am happy to have be officially part of the Gnarly team and am excited to continue working with Gnarly and testing the products in the real world of climbing…

Thanks for reading my rambles… Stay posted for an updates from my time at Smith Rocks and fast approaching trip to Europe!

Changing seasons…

And motivations…

It has been a long, cold and  difficult winter. However, although it was often very hard it has actually been a very positive experience and rewarding time – A winter of challenge, learning and change in my approach to life and climbing. I believe I have not only learned a huge amount about how to further myself as a climber, but have also discovered much more of who I really am and what I want from life…

Desert towers at sunset…

I am currently in the final weeks of my second training cycle, and over the last month I have seen huge improvements in all of my weaknesses – I have been permanently tired from trying to climb and keep up with my heavy training load, and yet my strength, power and dynamic movement have been increasing in leaps and bounds.

At the end of last year I tried Just Do It at Smith Rocks, in Baltic conditions and I had the feeling that, though it was a long way off, it was something I could do with time, effort and training… Therefore, throughout the last 3 months of training I have kept that in my mind as a goal and motivator during those long hard training sessions.

On my way to the Monkey Face, Smith Rocks. Photo: Dana Bartus

Now, that the time has come to leave and test how much I really have gained where it really counts, I am finding that I do not really want to… That, because of a particularly cold winter I have barely even seen the desert climbing around here, which was a large reason why I chose to spend the Winter here. The sun has finally come out and temperatures are perfect in the desert right now, it seems a shame to leave when there is so much to do right here!

Getting Ben scared again… Descending from the Ivory Tower, Castleton

Also, over the last few months I have spent any half-reasonable day climbing at the Puoux, where my main climbing partner Ben Rueck, has been trying Gutless, a 5.14b/8c. This climb is up the hill from the majority of the routes, so out of convenience I ended playing on Fault Line 5.13d/8b – A relatively long climb with two distinct sections; the lower part which is totally anti-me, all jumps and big powerful moves between good holds. Then an amazing rest, leading to an extremely technical headwall with tiny holds. Until last week I could not even come close to doing the moves on the lower section, but the top was fun climbing and it was good training, so I kept playing on it, but never even thought I had a chance of doing it…

Fault Line, the Puoux. Photo: Peter Rueck

In my brain it was just training, until a few days ago, when I finally managed to do the moves on the lower section, and get good linkage on the top part! Suddenly my mindset changed and now I really want to do this route, that I have unknowingly invested a lot of time into…

Pulling onto the headwall of Fault Line…
Photo: Peter Rueck

After stressing about what to do for the last little while, I realized that Smith Rocks is not going anywhere, and so, even if I do not make it up there now, I will in Fall. My plans for April are still a little flexible, but regards what happens – It will be something good! Bring on Spring!!!

The Fault wall… A nice winter sun trap

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Chinese ISPO

A crazy trip and another whirlwind experience…. Twenty hours of flying each way for three days in Beijing to attend ISPO, their big trade show. Sasha and I were there as athlete representatives for Adidas and Five Ten. It was a totally foreign world and could not have been any more different from my simple van life here, where my life revolves around training and climbing…

Sasha an I at a media conference

Coming from Grand Junction, where I never drive more than 5min to get anywhere, the huge city of Beijing itself was a shock, with its constant noise, traffic jams and an insane amount of people… all speaking in rapid, extremely loud Chinese and barely any who spoke English. However, it was a really fun trip and an interesting insight into a very different way of life. It made me appreciate the freedom of my lifestyle,  which I generally take for granted too much. The beauty of the relatively untouched nature that surrounds me, where I go climb or run on a daily basis, and the clean air – A couple of the days we were in Beijing we so smoggy that I did not even want to go outside… I understand why they wear face masks now!

The view from my hotel window…

The Chinese looked after us like we royalty… We were put up in a beautiful hotel, taken out for incredible lunches and dinners, where although I rarely knew what I was eating, most of it tasted really good… And for once we (the athletes) were only required to be at the show for short periods of time – to do a few presentations, posters signings and media conferences!

Typical Beijing street life…

This meant that we were fortunate enough to actually experience a little of China outside of the ISPO. The highlights of my time over there were… Getting a “real” Chinese massage – an hour of intense but incredibly good pain, which came complete with a scorching foot bath, hot tea and sliced oranges. An interesting yet winning combo!

Eating speared Squid! Yum!!!

Wandering the streets of the Hutong with our lovely young guide, who introduced us to countless typical Chinese/Beijing delicacies, and showed us many of the classic Chinese shops, including an incredible tea shop – We spent about an hour there, testing delicious teas, browsing the beautiful ceramics and watching the store attendant making tea art…

Sasha with our guide and the tea pets, in the tea shop… Watching tea art

And a visit to the Forbidden City, where we were treated to a meeting with a nephew of the last great emperor, who is now one of the best Chinese calligraphers and sometimes works within the Forbidden City.

The forbidden city

Now, after only 6 days away, I am back in Colorado, finishing my training cycle and climbing as much as I can before hitting the road again… A trip like this was definitely a good way to make a week feel like an eternity!

Sasha and I at the Hutoung

 

 

Training and desert towers

Living in a true winter this year has made me realize how much I really do dislike the cold… It was snowy, with daytime temperatures well below freezing for almost a month straight. I struggled with short days, very little sunshine and it simply being too cold to go play outdoors. This made me realize how much I love and how much my general happiness depends on being outside in nature.  However, the positive aspect of this was that it really forced me to focus on training and spend time climbing at the gym, which I know is going to benefit me more in the long run… Yet, is hard to deal with at the time!

My mobile home under Castleton Tower, Moab… Thanks 5.10!

I have been based in one place for about two months now – A record time for me in the last few years! Even though it has been difficult for me in many ways, I have actually really enjoyed being in one place and truly focusing all my energy on training. Now, without me realizing it, Grand Junction has actually become some form home for me… And with the days getting longer, spring on its way, and weather warming up enough to get out climbing a fair bit, I am actually really starting to enjoy being here. I just started my second training cycle and now that I have become a little more accustomed to it… I am realizing that I actually enjoy having this focus and structure in my life. My entire body is hurting more than ever before, but I love the pain and thrive off the challenge to push myself to my limit in every single training session… To make the most of the short time I have to dedicate myself to training – I want to learn and grow as much as I can in the next month, which makes every session a vital part of the whole.

Loving the striking beauty of the desert towers!

I am seeing large gains in my strength, power and explosive movement, which is motivating me to push even harder and to find a way to incorporate some blocks of structured training into my life several times each year. Also, with the weather improving slightly, I have finally been managing to explore the large variety of different crags around here… Limestone, granite and sandstone are all right within an hours drive. Exploring the desert, learning to jam in the splitter sandstone cracks and climb some desert towers were big parts of the reason I came to this part of the USA… Unfortunately it has been un unseasonably cold winter, so that did not happen at all until the last couple weeks. Now, I am trying to make up for it – Squeezing in as many days as I can!

Castleton Tower – The Ivory Tower is on the left skyline

Last week went down to Caastleton Tower to check out “The Ivory Tower” a relatively new route which takes a stunning line up a calcite coated arete. The day I went to climb it was freezing, so all I did was boulder all the moves on the crux pitch to see whether I want to invest time and energy into the route. Of course, the answer was “Yes” – It is one of the most beautiful lines with fantastic, technical yet at the same time kind of powerful face climbing. In a breathtaking location.

Looking up the stunning arete of the Ivory Tower

Also on another freezing adventure with Piz, we succeeded in doing a first ascent of a small, perfect finger crack… My first new route in the desert on sandstone. Now, I am making a brief transition into another world – I am on route to Beijing, China for the ISPO. Stay posted for some stories from China…

New route!

Happy new year!

Another year and a new Mayan Calendar have begun without any change to the world (that I noticed anyway…) However there has been a big change in my approach to achieving my goals. I am finally doing what I possibly should have done a long time ago – Experimenting with training rather than just climbing, to see what this can do for my overall climbing ability. I have self-imposed a break from travel and any real climbing to focus on working my weaknesses, building my strength, power and explosive movement. Preparing for the craziness of 2013 – I am excited to see what it has to throw at me…

Training…. Photo: Ben Rueck

I have consciously placed myself in a difficult and often frustrating situation, and I am feeling a long way out of my comfort zone. Winter in Grand Junction – a small redneck ‘Merican town in Colorado?!  What I was thinking when I decided that this was a good plan… The whole region has just been hit by an abnormally cold winter – It has been well below 0 degrees Celsius for a good few weeks now, making climbing outside near impossible. The transition from climbing outside nearly everyday, and not really training on plastic at all, to suddenly spending all my time inside is difficult to bear. Over the last few weeks I have often found myself questioning why I am here when I could be anywhere in the world…

Dreaming… Ah Spain I miss you!

The answer is, because I want to learn to train. I know that my true passion is for climbing outside on beautiful natural features, yet another key part of my drive to climb is about extending my limits and attempting to reach my full potential as a climber. For quite a long time I have had the feeling that training is what I need to do to make significant gains in sport climbing. This is a side of climbing that I have never explored fully, having spent most of my time progressing through simply spending countless hours on rock. This feeling was strengthened by my brief experience with training before heading back to Punks in the Gym at the end of last year – I noticed a big difference in my overall strength. Therefore, I have chosen to base myself in a place where I am forced to train… I am determined to stick to my plan of doing several moths of true training, however, it is pushing my limits in ways I had not expected.

Stratocaster, Red Rocks. Photo: Rob Pizem

Having a plan to follow is new experience for me… For many years I have been structuring my climbing days around listening to my body. So, it is a big change just doing what I am told, learning to trusting in Rob’s experience and not thinking about the short term. Maintaining motivation by focusing on the long term gains. I am now a month into my program and I am trying to give each session everything I have… My body has been feeling totally destroyed most of the time, yet I have also been seeing constant improvement in my strength and have been learning a lot! Embracing this pain and documenting my improvements are the only things which are getting me through my internal struggles, and withdrawal symptoms from a lack of ‘real’ climbing.

Rob Pizem at the Gallery, Red Rocks

Last week Rob, Ben and I took a brief trip down to the warmth of Vegas last week to climb, which was a welcome break. It was awesome to be out in the sunshine and just climb again. It really made me notice how much harder training is than climbing… And interestingly enough, I quickly found myself missing the total body fatigue I have been getting from the workouts. Ah, life is fun!

Golden Piton Award

This was a nice little surprise when I opened the last issue of Climbing Magazine….