5.whatever

This past weekend was another three day weekend in Korea. There seem to be a bunch of holidays mashed into late summer and autumn. I'm not complaining. Four members of KCC (Kwangmyeong Climbing Club) and me went down to Seonunsan late Thursday night to avoid traffic. The next morning we headed out to the crag and there were already more people there that morning than when I was last there in the summer. I was able to warm up on a 5.11a and Senaegi (5.11b) my "project" from the summer.

I dn't remember I first run on Zoo, but it wasn't pretty. I had forgotten most of the moves and, at best, was still shaky on the moves after the crux. One thing that I do remember is that I had no problem pulling through the crux. Last time it felt like a stopper move for me, now it was just a hard move. After I came down I put my shoes in line where I was eight people back.

On a side note I met a Canadian woman named Heidi (who is much cooler than the last Canadian woman I met). Heidi has been in Korea for six years and speaks Korean pretty well. She's also a strong climber. She was working her project called 무지개 (5.12c) which means rainbow in Korean. She was having problems with the crux and got a bit emotional about it. She had been working on it for a long time and just couldn't put it together. When you want something that bad and you're really going for it but it just doesn't happen some people break down. I turn into a brat. :-P

We talked for a bit about her problems with the moves. I'd like to think I helped get Heidi snap out of the funk because later on in the day she sent "Rainbow". And with style. I was reading my book and looked up and to see her at the crux. Once she got past it, Heidi was literally slapping each hold after that. She was beaming as she was being lowered and told me later on she was so determined to finish that she was ready to pull off rocks rather than fall. That's my kind of girl...er woman!

I only had one more chance on Zoo that day but had a good burn on it. I felt groggy when I woke up the next morning and generally not in a real chipper mood. One of the guys in my tent drank too much of the local mountain berry wine, soju, and whatever else the previous night. He was puking all night, luckily not in the tent. We ended up getting a late start and leaving him at camp cause he was in no condition to climb. Adding to my morning funk, I don't need people telling me that this is going to be my day to send. It just puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on me.

I fell on the crux move of Senaegi and immediately Gwang-woo asks me if my condition is bad. I know he means well, but damn, I didn't sleep well cause someone was puking right outside my tent all night and my "warmup" is a bit harder than I want it to be because we got up there late. And I had to wait behind ten people before I could get on Zoo. It wasn't shaping up to be a good day.

After waiting for nearly two hours I got on Zoo and failed miserably. I didn't even finish it. I was totally frustrated, pissed off and acting bratty. After lunch, my stomach felt funny and I was tired. It would be at least two hours before my next attempt on Zoo. And I was told we would be leaving that night to avoid traffic coming back to the Seoul area. So, I more try and that was it. I napped for a before my turn and woke up to find one person just hang dogging it the whole time. My negativity was nearly boiling over.

I found something on my iPod to calm me down. Something timeless. Something that brought back some good old memories. Adam and Brian would know exactly what I'm talking about. Let me go off on a tangent for a moment.

Speedy J has an album called Public Energy No. 1. I'll be the first to say I hate the title. I saw him perfrom it live in Toronto back when I used to drive up there for techno parties. That party was hands down the best party ever, since both he and Richie Hawtin killed it. I will also admit that when I first listened to it in 1997 I wasn't ready for it. I shelved it until I moved to San Francisco and broke it out one night when me, Adam and Brian were partying. I popped it in and ...well listen to it for yourselves. It's techno unlike any out there and because of that, timeless. If I remember correctly that night was also the inspiration for the lyrics of The Betty Expedition song The Conversation.

OK. Back to the main point of this long and dragged out entry. I was listening to Speedy J and zoning out. My turn finally came up. I worked the bottom moves up to the rest point before the crux. I sat there and shook out my arms for a while then went into the crux. My hand sequence was off so instead of panicking and trying to pull through I down climbed back to the rest and shook out my arms again. After that I pulled through the crux without and problem and then my body went into auto pilot after that. All the problems I had before weren't problems anymore. I flowed through the post crux moves. Even on the little snag that I hit, I stayed relatively calm. I missed the last big hold, but because my feet were in a good postion and I wasn't feeling pumped I came back down for a second and then found it on the next move. After I clipped the anchor I wsn't sure what I felt. It wasn't just joy or relief but also a sense of calm. It was the first 5.12a I've ever sent.

I think lately I've been getting too into the ratings. That night I talked with Eric, a guy from Colorado. I asked him what the highest grade was. He told me Chris Sharma did something he rated as 5.15b. Now here's the thing the 5.15b was a 250 foot climb. Most climbing ropes are about 180 feet long, so most routes can't be longer than 90 feet without turning into a multipitch climb. I'm guessing Zoo is a 70 to 80 feet long. The point is this. 5.15b doesn't mean Sharma is climbing on miniscule holds. It means he did an endurance route or a route with consistant 5.14 moves.

Zoo is basically 5.11a and 5.11b moves until the crux where it gets really hard to the finish. The point that Eric made and the thing I love most about climbing is no matter what level you're climbing at you should just keep pushing yourself and having fun. It doesn't matter whether you're working a 5.11a or 5.14a. The emotional involvment is the same. The ratings are there as a guide and shouldn't be taken so seriously.