When I see old climbing partners, they always ask “have you been climbing much lately?” and I have the same response… Every time. “Not as much as I’d like.” But even if I was bouldering every day, that would still be my answer. I think this is a great and unique aspect to our sport. No matter how frustrating, painful or even sometimes scary and dangerous our sport may be, it is completely addictive. Maybe I’m being biased to climbing as it is “my” sport, but I know I’m not the only one. All you need is to read an article in a climbing magazine (if you find yourself doing this, you may already be addicted) or go on YouTube to see how addicting it is (ex: How this guy gets to his couch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NIrW_07tr4. This child obviously was born addicted, poor thing no chance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlSUr6dHFiE&feature=related ).
“Hi, my name’s Jordan. I’m a climb-aholic. Years ago I used to just climb socially, on weekends. Not anymore, I climb whenever I can. Even on a Tuesday afternoon. It’s affecting my life a lot. I go to sleep and wake up thinking about routes. I’m always bumming a belay, and it’s not often you find me without a Grip Master in my hand. Last week, my Mother found my stash of Gripped Magazines under my mattress. She was cool about it, but I know deep down she was concerned.”
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In all honesty though, climbing is everywhere in my life and I love it. I’m currently working in construction, which I find to be perfect for a climber. I’m literally getting paid to train and workout. Carrying a 4x4 wood is great for pinches. Buckets of paint or cement blocks, works your crimps. Thinking of how to improve my climbing at work, and how much easier it’s going to make my projects makes the long days go by faster.
Also, it was actually at work that I figured out the details of how to the solve problem of having to travel to boulder. By careful planning and a lot of consulting with other carpenters, I came up with some decent plans to build my own bouldering wall. I built it at my parents house (much to their detestation); with the only rule being that it was not allowed to touch (and therefore damage) their house. Piece of cake, kind of.
The flat part was easy. I just had to stack the frames with the board on it. Figuring out how to get the angled wall up and attached to the flat wall was the hard part. We ended up putting the skeleton on first, and hauling up the walls piece by piece. Overall, totally worth the effort. It reaches 16 feet at it's tallest and 12 feet wide, so lots of room for routes and climbing. A roof will be going on it soon, as the many rainy days in New Brunswick are frustrating. Plus it will be nice to have it protected in the winter so I can climb then too (which means I’d also be installing a space heater).
Climb on, fellow addicts.