Tired Fingers, Tired Body
Yesterday Brian and I went out on a climb as a psuedo test run for our larger climbing objective in the Bugaboos. We left Calgary at 4:00am and started out on our approach of Castle mountain shortly after 6am.
Our intent was to climb Super Brewers and link it up with Brewers Buttress which then gets call "Ultra Brewers" I think. We moved along trails, bushwacked and ended up scrambling up a gully so we could avoid the first 2 pitches of Super Brewers which Brian had heard are shit - quite literally. Lots of animal scat on ledges and pleny of loose shitty rock, so over all Merde!! It took us about 3hrs to get to where we could climb.
We climbed 7 very good pitches, the 8th pitch of the climb was a full-on sustained 5.9 pitch with some super exposed climbing, very good. After we topped out on that climb we had a look at Brewers Buttress but then we had to look at the clouds forming. It had started to spit on us by the last two pitches. The issue with Brewers Buttress is once you're on you can't retreat as there are no rappel stations. I was not liking the weather so we opted for Eisenhower Tower. It has bolted belays which means we could run away if the weather turned bad.
Eisenhower was a great romp as we were climbing fast. I kept gently reminding Brian that placing gear was a good thing, a great thing actually. :-)
Our day was around 14.5 hours car to car. We wanted to see how we worked together and I needed to gauge my stamina and endurance. Now here's the kicker... as hard as I've been training, I had to get real with myself. The objective Brian and I want to do in the Bugs is ambitious by anyone's standards and I knew that. So I've worked hard, but at the end of the day I had to consider what I was really capable of. I told Brian that I didn't think I was strong enough to do the climb in the manner we had planned and he had to agree with me. We both agreed I was climbing strong but that is only one part of the equation. Now this doesn't mean we couldn't change the objective in some ways but we have 2 other partners who are coming with us. And that means having to change parameters for the weakest link - being me. I told Brian if he felt he needed to find a stronger partner I would totally understand. I can't take it personally, if I was a runner training to qualify for a race it would be very obvious, if I couldn't make the time I couldn't compete in the race. So I look at this objective the same way, yes I've trained hard and done what I can. I can't fault my heart and commitment but I also know my weaknesses in the mountains. I'm not that fast of a mover, I can climb well but we still have to get to the climb and back in a very efficient and fast manner. I was hoping that my hill & stairs training would help my cardio which it has. But it's not only about cardio, its about sure footedness along uneven terrain and in exposed areas. On our way back down from the climb, Brian was quickly moving along ground that I am still feeling tentative on. All those lost seconds to find your footing and hesitations can easily add hours over a long day.
Brian is going to talk to the other partners about it but he knows that if they need to find someone else I'm alright with that. And the truth is I'm getting tired, tired of sore fingers and tired of having a sore body. And in some ways I'm tired of the background hum of stress. I would love to do this particular route but having to do in a certain time limit has been wearing on me.
I decided that next weekend I won't be climbing at all, I need a break. So tomorrow, if Brian were to say he wanted to find a new partner I don't think I'd be that fussed about it. I might feel dissapointed in a week when I'm all rested up and wanting a challenge, we'll see. On the positive side I don't consider the amount of time spent training as a loss. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and I've learned more about myself. I hope that doesn't sound all self-help trite.
Our intent was to climb Super Brewers and link it up with Brewers Buttress which then gets call "Ultra Brewers" I think. We moved along trails, bushwacked and ended up scrambling up a gully so we could avoid the first 2 pitches of Super Brewers which Brian had heard are shit - quite literally. Lots of animal scat on ledges and pleny of loose shitty rock, so over all Merde!! It took us about 3hrs to get to where we could climb.
We climbed 7 very good pitches, the 8th pitch of the climb was a full-on sustained 5.9 pitch with some super exposed climbing, very good. After we topped out on that climb we had a look at Brewers Buttress but then we had to look at the clouds forming. It had started to spit on us by the last two pitches. The issue with Brewers Buttress is once you're on you can't retreat as there are no rappel stations. I was not liking the weather so we opted for Eisenhower Tower. It has bolted belays which means we could run away if the weather turned bad.
Eisenhower was a great romp as we were climbing fast. I kept gently reminding Brian that placing gear was a good thing, a great thing actually. :-)
Our day was around 14.5 hours car to car. We wanted to see how we worked together and I needed to gauge my stamina and endurance. Now here's the kicker... as hard as I've been training, I had to get real with myself. The objective Brian and I want to do in the Bugs is ambitious by anyone's standards and I knew that. So I've worked hard, but at the end of the day I had to consider what I was really capable of. I told Brian that I didn't think I was strong enough to do the climb in the manner we had planned and he had to agree with me. We both agreed I was climbing strong but that is only one part of the equation. Now this doesn't mean we couldn't change the objective in some ways but we have 2 other partners who are coming with us. And that means having to change parameters for the weakest link - being me. I told Brian if he felt he needed to find a stronger partner I would totally understand. I can't take it personally, if I was a runner training to qualify for a race it would be very obvious, if I couldn't make the time I couldn't compete in the race. So I look at this objective the same way, yes I've trained hard and done what I can. I can't fault my heart and commitment but I also know my weaknesses in the mountains. I'm not that fast of a mover, I can climb well but we still have to get to the climb and back in a very efficient and fast manner. I was hoping that my hill & stairs training would help my cardio which it has. But it's not only about cardio, its about sure footedness along uneven terrain and in exposed areas. On our way back down from the climb, Brian was quickly moving along ground that I am still feeling tentative on. All those lost seconds to find your footing and hesitations can easily add hours over a long day.
Brian is going to talk to the other partners about it but he knows that if they need to find someone else I'm alright with that. And the truth is I'm getting tired, tired of sore fingers and tired of having a sore body. And in some ways I'm tired of the background hum of stress. I would love to do this particular route but having to do in a certain time limit has been wearing on me.
I decided that next weekend I won't be climbing at all, I need a break. So tomorrow, if Brian were to say he wanted to find a new partner I don't think I'd be that fussed about it. I might feel dissapointed in a week when I'm all rested up and wanting a challenge, we'll see. On the positive side I don't consider the amount of time spent training as a loss. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and I've learned more about myself. I hope that doesn't sound all self-help trite.
posted by Lise B at Monday, July 09, 2007
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home