Can You Still Have Fun?

Around here, we have sport climbing, lots and lots of sport climbing. As a result, most folks we climb with tend to be very project oriented. Most rarely head out for a day of casual cragging, but go to the cliff with a specific goal in mind, a route they are either working on or want to try to send. While this can be an incredibly rewarding way to approach climbing, it can also cause a lot of undue stress, which is something I’ve been thinking about, and dealing with, recently.

On the drive out to Rifle last week, I was talking with a friend about the pitfalls of trying hard, how you can start to get too obsessed with a route, and how it can even stop being fun. He shared that lately he was finding the thought of trying a hard project looming over him and taking over his thoughts. He could focus on little else, will I get on X route tomorrow? Another friend once lamented how he’d get nervous butterflies in his stomach before every hard redpoint attempt (he climbed 13+ at the time). I’ve also suffered from pre-redpoint jitters, where I get really worked up about possibly sending a line, and it kills me every time. Instead of heading up in a relaxed and fun state, I’m anxious and nervous. If I climb well, I might get even more anxious as I near the top. Will this be the one?

I sent two projects in the span of three days recently, and both were fairly unexpected. They weren’t routes I had put much time into, and would hardly qualify as “projects” as the term is used in Rifle, but for me they were routes I had put some burns in on, and wanted to get done before the end of the season. Going into both with low-to-no expectations, I was smiling, and staying relaxed as I moved upward, enjoying the movement for what it was. I gave my best efforts, and found myself clipping the chains with a big grin on my face.

In turn, I learned, or was reminded of, something valuable about trying hard. It’s great to have a goal, but the truth is some goals will never be reached, so unless you enjoy the process, you’re better off taking your time and energy elsewhere. It certainly can be difficult once you’re vested in a climb, because you obviously want to send, but you’ll probably enjoy it much more if you can balance this desire with the attitude of simply enjoying the climbing for what it is: fun!