Something Interesting

This one’s a long one, so bear with me. Anyway, read on!

Spring has arrived! Sorta… Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and the weather is nicer. That’s great and all, but that also means something very important: Outdoor season is upon us!

Wait, but what does that mean? What’s outdoor season?

Warm weather means that outdoor climbing can finally happen! To be fair, some climbers have already gone outside. There have been a few somewhat nice days, and some people go outside even before the weather gets warm.

Why haven’t I just done the same thing? Well, here’s the thing: Cerebral Palsy, or at least my specific Cerebral Palsy, doesn’t mix well with the cold. The cold makes my muscles so stiff that moving them is much harder than it normally is. Climbing in the cold is sometimes just painful. I’ve gone climbing in the cold before, and it usually doesn’t go well.

Anyway, so my partner and I, along with two other friends, just embarked on our first outdoor trip of the season. We went to the Shawangunk Mountain Range, or The Gunks, in Upstate NY. I wanted to do a 5.3 climb that was in the same area called Three Pines, but since it was a nice day there were a few other parties waiting for that climb. Since there was a line, we ended up on a different climb in the area called Something Interesting. Something Interesting is said to be a 5.7+, which is the hardest grade I’ve ever tried to lead. So naturally, I was nervous.

Why didn’t we just wait? Would it not have made more sense to wait for the easier climb?

Well, here’s the thing. Climbing grades don’t make sense for me. This is especially true for outdoor climbs. Lower graded climbs usually have more hands and feet, and the route paths are usually easier to find. The problem, though, is that those feet are high and sometimes pretty far apart. These climbs also have more balance-heavy movements. My Cerebral Palsy doesn’t like that. My legs are weaker than the average person’s, and are also much stiffer. This makes navigating climbs with those types of movements much more difficult.

Here’s another thing to keep in mind. When I go outdoor climbing, I’m trad leading a lot of these climbs. That means that I’m putting my own gear into the wall and clipping myself in to those pieces as I go. Trad is terrifying because any fall you take would be onto gear that you placed yourself, which means that you have to trust that you’ve placed them really well. Trad is even more scary for me when you consider the fact that my legs like to act up whenever I’m afraid, so falling is more likely for me. The fear of trad climbing gets easier to control the more often you do it, so I try to do it as often as I can.

When I’m trad leading, climbs with high or wide foot moves feel much more dangerous and scary to me.

Scary climbs shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Well, they are. When I’m afraid, my body decides that a dramatic response is the best response. My legs get really stiff, and I start to over grip the holds that I’m using, which makes my hands really tired. My legs also start to spasm a lot. My arms being tired, plus the spasms, makes controlling my legs harder than it usually is. The lack of control causes the fear response to escalate, thus worsening the effects.

I’ve done Three Pines with my partner before, so we’re familiar with the moves on that climb. About 20 feet up there’s a move where you have to stretch your leg across a 3 or 4 foot gap. The first time we went, I couldn’t do that move on lead because my legs were stiffer then than they are now. That caused the fear response that I described earlier to kick in so I had to come down and ask my partner to lead that first pitch. When we went back this time, I wanted to see if I could do that wide foot move.

Like I said though, there was a line for Three Pines. The choice then became do we wait for the climb to open up or do we do the harder climb that had a much shorter line. Keeping in mind that grades don’t make sense for my climbing, my partner had me look at each climb and make a decision based on how the climbs themselves looked. I did just that, and decided that the climb that was graded higher was probably a better fit for me than the climb with the easier grade. The harder climb played more to my strengths, as you’ll see later.

But let’s get back to Something Interesting. Something Interesting was, well, interesting (yes, pun intended). I’ve never climbed that hard in The Gunks before, so we were exploring a whole new world. There’s a crack that goes up the climb that makes finding places to put gear a little easier. That doesn’t mean that the climb felt any less scary. As I started up the climb, my legs moved really slowly and started shaking like they normally do. They did this on and off throughout the entire climb.

The movements on the climb were fun though. I’ve been working on smearing on the wall (using just the wall instead of a foothold to get higher), so I was excited to do that outside. See how small that foot is?!

I also got to do more high steps and wide foot moves, both of which I had been working on during the off-season. At one point I even got to break out one of my ‘signature moves.’ Yes, I know that sounds corny. Anyway so I do this thing where I’ll pick my foot up with my hand to about hip height. I then place the foot on the hold, but I put it on upside down. Then I stand up using the top part of my foot in order to get my other leg up so that I can stand normally. Observe:

This is one of my favorite climbing moves, but I’d never done it while trad leading. And for good reason! As you saw my hip gets pushed out pretty far, which makes the hold that I’m gripping a little less reliable. I ended up having to place a piece above me so that a fall wouldn’t be hat bad.

It took me at least an hour, I think, but I eventually got to the top of the first pitch. But we weren’t done yet. I belayed my partner up and then the others come up, and then I start up the second pitch.

The second pitch felt about as hard as the first pitch. By this time though, I was exhausted from doing the first pitch, my feet were hurting from being in my shoes for so long, and there was a different party coming down from a higher point that crossed directly through our climb. I had to fight much harder this time, and do moves that felt much scarier. I got as far as the crux (the hardest part of the climb), but then I had to bail. The last part of the crux was a scary move that I was highly likely to fall on, and I couldn’t get any pieces above me before trying it.

Bailing on Something Interesting didn’t feel good, but the climb itself felt amazing. It was scary and exciting. I got to do moves that I wasn’t able to do last year. I successfully led up the first pitch of a 5.7+, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. This season is going to be full of hard climbs and fun times, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Anyway here’s some more photos from the climb!

Here’s Ben (my partner), Vicki, and I before beginning our climb:

Here’s me placing a piece towards the beginning of the climb:

And here’s Vicki and I on the top of the first pitch:

For those of you who climb at the Gunks: What are your favorite climbs? Do you trad/rope climb or is bouldering more your style?

For those of you who don’t climb at the Gunks: Do you want/plan to? What climbs would you want to try?

Share your thoughts by either messaging me on Instagram or by shooting me an email.