So, this week’s column turned out to be a before-and-after piece, centered on the idea of an old dog checking out new tricks to see how things feel.
As I write this, it’s the evening before Gravity Wars, a Sport Climbing BC sanctioned route competition being held at Ground Up Climbing Centre.
Climbing competitions and I have a fleeting and tumultuous relationship at best.
During the early 2000s I lived in Vancouver and tried desperately to keep a career in traditional animation alive and not be sucked into the Toronto vortex. Change was in the wind and I took a different road, that of becoming a rock-climbing guide.
To help supplement my income while I treaded water at Mountain Equipment Co-op, I began route setting and coaching in several Vancouver climbing gyms. By this point I had already climbed for more than a decade and explored some exotic locales, but working in a climbing gym was excitingly new.
Eventually, I was lured into trying a few local competitions and boy did those turn out to leave me with lasting and hilarious memories. In one early competition I remember somehow making it to the finals, only to be thrust into competition against some of my absolute local heroes; climbers like Squamish local Jim Sandford and Jordan Wright.
I remember stepping onto the wall, making the first move, not two inches off the ground, slipping off and ending up standing on the floor again. My comp was done. The whole process took about 10 seconds and was pretty demoralizing, really.
Meeting a legend
The second memory was at a comp at The Edge Climbing Centre in North Van. I was in Isolation where all the finalists wait to be lead out to climb the final route, and met a young boy sitting in the chair beside me.
I said hi, introduced myself and asked what his name was. He quietly told me his name was Sean McColl. We briefly chatted, I wished him good luck and that was that. Sean went on to evolve into Canada’s most successful competition climber to date, would live for several years in Europe training and competing on the World Cup Circuit, would win the combined lead and bouldering overall title in the World Cup three times and stands a really excellent chance of representing Canada in the next summer Olympics in the combined Lead/Bouldering/Speed Climbing competition.
I have never written the world “consummate” until now, but I will use that word to describe McColl as a consummate professional in the sport of climbing.
Anyways, the point is my climbing comp experience is pretty light, really, and had left an ego bashing taste in my mouth. I’ve thought low of them for many years as something I just wasn’t into.
I put enough pressure onto myself that I definitely didn’t need any more outside pressure. I didn’t handle the stress of competing very well, or that’s what I’ve been telling myself for years.
Time to compete
Lauren Watson, owner of Ground Up and a good friend, sent out a rallying message to a host of locals urging them to compete for the pure fun of it and I took the road I hadn’t travelled down for at least a decade and that may make all the difference. I took the bait. I entered a comp. I compete in Gravity Wars in the Masters category because I’m 40 years old.
As I write this, I’ve just returned home from my first climbing comp in at least 10 years. Holy, what a day.
Here’s my two cents on what I’ve learned about climbing for 23 years, but only now revisiting competition climbing:
It was super interesting and quite inspiring to be surrounded by a vast amount of younger talent taking climbing seriously, but trying to laugh along with the nerves of the day. Amazing how aging lets you take your ego out of climbing’s equation, if you let it.
It was stressful. I felt it. All the competitors felt it. It was the communal stress of not knowing if you were going to be able to try 100 per cent, shut off those nagging voices in your head and rely on the hours of training and practice everyone had undoubtedly put in.
I had entered because, for once, the idea of entering a comp didn’t give me a stressed out “I won’t measure up” message but a “hey what the hay” message. That and I thought it would be fun training for an upcoming Utah road trip to climb some really creative routes onsite.
I may not become a comp climber, but I can now say that using them as a tool for finding weaknesses and working through stress in climbing is spot on.
A big thank you to the Ground Up Crew for all your hard work. It was a motivating day of relearning how to just try hard.
