The idea was originally born out of a weeklong climbing trip
to Maine that started off with a multi-pitch day on Cannon (not in Maine). That
first day Tommy summed up what he wanted out of the trip in four words: Donuts;
swimming; ice cream; beer. All this was
in addition to climbing every day of course, but it set the tone and much of
the calorie intake for the rest of the trip. It also got us thinking in four word
combinations. What other three words fit with “climb” for me?
We rarely climb when we’re feeling good. We’re often tired
from camping or getting up early to beat the crowds or from projecting late
into the night after work. We are sore from previous days’ workouts and
sleeping on the ground. Our tendons aren’t always happy, our fingers lose their
skin, and our bodies become battered from taking big whippers. Sometimes we
need that little something extra to get us through the day, to keep us psyched,
awake, and climbing. For me, those things are coffee, tape, and ibuprofen.
Coffee is a must. I’ve climbed for a full day after getting
two hours of sleep in the back of a car then got little sleep the next night and
still projected and sent my hardest sport route to date. Thank you coffee. After
getting less than ten hours of sleep in 48 hours and hiking the Presi Traverse—24
miles over the tallest peaks in New Hampshire—coffee got me psyched to climb. I
struggled to hike the approach, but I still gave my 11c project a few
burns—granted the worse burns I’ve ever put into that route—but I still tried
it. So no matter how little sleep or sore I am, I tell myself I can still
climb, because I did it then; so why not now? The coffee is mostly for the
placebo effect, but caffeine is also quite effective at preventing naps at the
crag.
Tape is my best friend. I somehow have never manage to built
up callouses on my fingertips. This is probably due to my never letting the skin
quite heal between climbing sessions on sharp New Hampshire granite. I the guys
I climb with begin to complain that their fingertips “are gone” when they start
to get a little pink. For me, pink is great; that means I still have at least
one layer of skin left. I say my fingertips are gone when blood begins to leak
out of them; unfortunately this usually happens at the same time that the guys’
fingers are barely pink. This is where tape comes in. Sometimes you’re on a
weeklong trip and your skin is gone by day two (or in my case the day before
you leave for the trip). There is no way you are going to not climb for the
rest of the trip just cause grabbing the rock causes great pain and bleeding,
so you mummify your fingers in tape, sweat the tape off on the first half of
the climb, throw it off your fingers, try to climb without tape, immediately
tape back up cause due to pain, finish the route, and repeat. It makes for lots
more climbing, lots more fun, and buying medical tape in bulk. I hear hockey
tape works quite well too.
Now for ibuprofen: it’s a miracle drug. Tendons hurting, but
you need to send? Take ibuprofen. Incredibly sore from hiking the day before
and need to send? Take ibuprofen. Possibly
break your hand falling and need to send? You guessed it: ibuprofen. Doctors
have told me to take it for the “anti-inflammatory” benefits, which supposedly speed
healing. Thus, maybe we should be taking ibuprofen with our recovery chocolate
milk to prevent soreness next day. (Not that I do not promote excess pill popping and climbing
through serious injuries despite my history of doing the latter.)
We do what we have to to climb, whether it’s living off of half-eaten
slices of pizza in Yosemite or getting that caffeine kick before the first
pitch. If it helps you climb without causing more bodily harm than good in the
process, I’d say go for it. More climbing = more better.
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