I transitioned from bouldering training to ropes training the second I fell off of route number four at Divisionals on the weekend of January 11th. Since then, I feel like I've been training three times harder and I'm definitely three times happier. The reason?
Leading.
Rope climbing is a different type of fight from bouldering. Bouldering is twenty feet of power; ropes is sixty of on-and-off technique and endurance. It's my game. I love the kind of satisfaction that comes from clipping the anchors when you're pumped out of your mind at thirty to sixty feet in the air. My favorite training exercises include "ududus," in which you climb a route, then down-climb it, then climb it again, then down-climb again, then climb it, all without touching the ground. On lead. I am in love with that kind of endurance; the kind of endurance that forces me to not just pull my hardest but to keep me pulling for as long as humanly possible.
I figured I would outline a little of my ropes career and a little bit of why I love it so much. It started with last year's ropes season--how I qualified for not just divisionals, but nationals, and did decently there as well. It was my first year on lead, and although I'd like to say that I took to it like a fish to the water, I really did not. I was terrified of those lead "whippers" I would take, the enormous falls that result from clipping too far below yourself and then wiping off. Lead pushed me to my limits, mentally and physically. And I loved it. Bouldering is great, but only lead can push me in every way, shape, and form. So, ropes season, right now, is where I want to be.
Maybe I could have trained harder in bouldering--no, I know I could have.
But let me make one thing clear.
I will never, ever, not once, be able to say the same thing about my training for lead season.
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| Rope Nationals 2014 |
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