Goals

Starting in February and continuing for at least twelve months, I will only be a climber. I won’t have a job, girlfriend, wife, kids, or any other real responsibility. One of the many reasons I am excited about this is that it will provide a lot of time to focus on my climbing and progressing into a better, more well rounded climber. Areas of improvement for me are: pinches, slab, and vertical. I’m not terrible at these by any means but I haven’t mastered these styles either. On the trip I want to improve in every style of climbing including slab, vertical, steep, compression, pinches, slopers, crimps etc. By that I mean I don’t just want to get stronger and crush the steep stuff, I want to also be a smoother climber on technical climbs, especially on sandstone. It’s been a few years since I’ve spent much time on sandstone so I’m very excited that font is the first stop on our trip.

I already feel more relaxed about having so much time to climb. The reason for that is up until now I’ve mostly had weekend trips and the occasional week long vacation to climb. Going climbing for a weekend can sometimes add stress in that I feel like I need to make a list of what I want to work on and what I want to send. With more time I will be able to take some days to just wander around in the forest and climb whatever looks cool without worrying about a ticklist.

All that being said, I will also be psyched to project some really hard lines and to push myself to the limit. Which leads me to a couple of quantifiable goals for 2010. I want to become a solid V13 climber and I would like to climb a V14. I am skeptical that this will happen in Font but I will certainly try to master the bleau sandstone. I think Switzerland and the Rocklands will offer many opportunities to achieve these goals so it will be nice to have several months in these countries.

I haven’t climbed at all this month and it has been painfully boring, but it’s good that I’ve rested my finger and I’m optimistic that I will be back to 100% when I get to France.

My moving plans changed a little once I found out renting a moving truck to drive across country costs $1,300. It turns out that using a moving company and flying home is cheaper and far easier to deal with than 36 hours of driving by myself. So I’m flying home to Atlanta on Saturday where I will be hanging out with family, plus a day or two at Horse Pens until my departure to Paris on February 9th.