Boulder

“No other sport has been so permeated with this word: psyched.  Your little sister does not get psyched for swim practice, nor does your grandfather get psyched to play eighteen holes of golf.  The term is ours, by and large, because it’s so essential for success in climbing.  You cannot progress, send your hardest project, or make your next road trip a reality without being psyched.”  Mike Williams, Dead Point Magazine

Psyche is crucial.  And nowhere are people more psyched than in Boulder, Colorado.  Boulder is a climbing mecca, boasting endless opportunities for all types of climbers.  There are the Flatirons, rising above the city, and welcoming those interested in long, easy, traditionally protected climbs.  There is Eldorado Canyon which features everything from very easy trad lines, to intense sport climbs to barely protectable routes rated with an X which means that falling will probably result in your death.  The possibilities continue at Clear Creek, Boulder Canyon and the Flagstaff Boulders.  For those looking to push their limits above a crash pad, there are the immaculate boulders at Rocky Mountain National Park, just a breathtaking hike up to 10,000 feet away.  Also well known for bouldering is Mt. Evans and the latest area to be developed, Lincoln Lake.  Lincoln Lake, which was developed this summer by some of the top names in climbing, is home to the highest concentration of hard boulder problems in the United States. 

Boulder is home to some of the best climbing to be found in the US, and many of the best climbers in the US call Boulder home.  It is not unusual to recognize climbers from your favorite movie or magazine warming up on your project at the gym.  It is not atypical to see them hiking up to the crag at the same time you are.  You might see them dancing at a club or a bar downtown.  You may even get the opportunity to spend a night hanging out with them at their place.  And if you are so lucky to get this chance, and if you are not too star struck to function properly and stop giggling, you will realize that these people are just like you and me.  They love what they do, they get up in the morning to climb rocks, they bump their music on the way to the crag, they joke with their friends.  Just like you and me.  Except, that they are infinitely better at what they do.

Despite this exorbitant gap in ability levels, we can all hang out and talk climbing.  No one is going to ask me how hard I climb.  No one is going to look up my 8a scorecard (I don’t have one anyway) and decide I am not good enough to be sitting in that room.  I can sit there and give Dave Graham a hard time for never visiting Yosemite.  In walk Nalle and Jon and we can sit and laugh at the same dumb jokes on South Park.  Just like you and me.

So what makes these guys so good?  Are people born good climbers?  Are they engineered differently?  I think it is psyche.  These guys are fanatical.  They climb year round, traveling to the best spots, finding the prime weather.  They are so amped on finding the best, the hardest, the coolest and the most beautiful climbs.  They live and breathe for this.  When I used to teach climbing lessons at the gym, I always told people that the best way to get better at climbing was to climb.  These guys (and gals) are living evidence of this.  They climb and climb and climb whether is it outside or in the gym and you can see the results.  Climbing all the time, paired with indescribable psyche makes these climbers unstoppable.  The mind is a great limiter and if you can break through that barrier, who is to say what is possible?     

Go to a gym in Boulder and you will find a very different scene than in a gym in California.  There are a lot more people there, and the people are collectively climbing much harder.  Why is this?  In California there seems to be a certain mindset about climbing in the gym, a certain attitude.  It seems that a lot of people think that climbing in a gym makes you a gumby (basically a newbie) and “real” climbers only climb outside, or perhaps they might deign to climb indoors if it is raining out.  In Boulder however, EVERYONE climbs in a gym.  Climbing indoors is how you train.  You can set specific moves that you want to work on, do laps, and get strong.  I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with climbing in a gym, it is where I started climbing and where I learned a lot of the skills and technique that I have today.

So yes, that is all to say that Boulder is great!  The psyche is high and the climbing is awesome.  We arrived in Boulder on October 4^th and we stayed for 12 days.  We got to climb at the Flatirons, Flagstaff Boulders, RMNP, Clear Creek and Eldorado Canyon.  We got to check out Boulder’s newest gym, Movement, which is an amazing facility, not to mention a very green building, which uses primarily solar power.  We got to reunite with old friends and best of all we got to enjoy the amazing hospitality of my Aunt Lori and Uncle Jeff!  Anut and UJ were nice enough to give us beds to sleep in, showers to get clean in, a kitchen to bake in and many wonderful meals to fill our bellies.

 

It is quite possible that we spent more time eating than climbing in Boulder as we got in the baking mood and made pumpkin bars, apple brown betty, molten lava cakes and apple pie.  Anut cooked us wonderful meals of steak, chicken, soup and more.  I think we were subconsciously building up fat stores in preparation for the cold weather that we are soon to encounter. 

Today we will head to Maple Canyon in Utah, from there Joe’s Valley and then on to Indian Creek.  I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and I can’t forget to say, LET’S GO GIANTS!