January’s gray cold enshrouds even typically
sunny Fresno, California.
Photo by Sarah Jane Alexander
My homey, a longtime climber, called, checking on whether I was pulling down any sweet climbs.
“Not outside,” I said. “It’s too cold.”
An Arctic front had blown in. Winter’s frigidity had swallowed California’s Central San Joaquin Valley. Still, I was knocking out practice.
“I had so much fun yesterday practicing flagging at the gym,” I said.
I paused. Waiting, hoping for his praise.
Silence.
My mind raced to find flaws with my efforts. Maybe good climbers had decided that flags were for noobs and nitwits, and I hadn’t gotten the memo.
Finally: “Oh, that’s technical,” he said.
His tone wasn’t condescending, though. “I never learned that,” he said. “I just pull myself up.”
Whew! He wasn’t saying I was a dumbass.
“I don’t have that option,” I said.
I guess. I haven’t tried to pull myself up. I know I use my arms more than I should despite trying to live by the mantra “Use your legs.”
But I am improving – using another mantra: “Knowledge is power.”
I am teaching myself in the gym, gliding from wall to wall paging through “The Self-Coached Climber,” churning through its exercises.
Now I sow the seeds of knowledge that will serve me when I emerge from winter’s cold cocoon as spring thaws the sleeping rocks.
I dub this The Winter of the Ill Technique.
Even indoors, this is a beautiful, exciting climbing season.
Everything is new and exhilarating. I have so much to learn, every day is filled with endless possibility for improvement. That is that is one of the sweetest aspects of climbing no matter the climber’s level of mastery. But the chasm of my ignorance is so vast that every pearl of wisdom gleams supremely illuminating.
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