Climbing Is Cheery

Recently, I've been in the process of taking up climbing (as in, rock climbing, only right now it's in the form of bouldering at the gym, because I have no partner yet), and there are two main things I've picked up so far. First, climbing is cheery! Yesterday at the gym, as I was scratching my head at the boulder wall, and putting together one or two moves, mostly the wrong ones, this kid came in, strapped on his shoes, and began climbing each wall in turn. Every time he got off, whether he had sent it (that is, completed the wall by grabbing the top) or not, he'd jump off and land with a big smile on his face. That, I think, is what climbing is all about. And, coincidentally, that is when I decided I could do the wall that I had been staring at, after he nimbly walked up it. So I sent it too. :)

Second, climbers are smart. If it comes to a thing you do for the love of it, you try to do it the best way possible. So it seems to me that a lot of climbing involves thinking yourself through the process--thinking confidently and quietly, the same way you are going to climb it. And this is precisely where I fall down. I am used to taking the mental shortcut, if I can find it. There are no shortcuts in climbing. You think through all of it or none of it. Even if you don't realize you are thinking, you have to be thinking. Because it's the muscle-memory and the spatial reasoning working together--that is what the great climbers can do.

A third thing I could mention, which doesn't even bear mentioning, is conditioning. You have to be very strong, physically. This is something that pertains to the malleability of our bodies, though, so I don't find it to be a big issue. If I keep doing it, I'll be conditioned for it, right? The attitude and the thought process are the more valuable lessons.