Setting the Bar High

Starting your season in Indian Creek can be a daunting proposition. I love the climbing there, but the physical and punishing nature of it can be a lot to swallow when you haven’t climbed on real rock in a couple months. Still, we had some good friends we wanted to see, so off we went. And I got crushed. Like sore-for-three-days-after crushed. But it was a great time, with no expectations and lots of laughs throughout the weekend.

And even though I felt like I got worked, I realized looking back that I had tried climbing at a similar level to what I would have done in the fall, at the end of the season, when I was feeling fit. This explained why I was so wrecked afterwards, trying to go from zero to sixty without much of a warm up. But it was also really empowering in another sense, in that I could pick up where I left off. Yeah, I didn’t style things like I would have in November, but I got on them all the same, and by the end of the day on Sunday, it was starting to come back, even as the fatigue in my muscles neared I-can’t-hang-off-a-perfect-hand-jam status.

A couple years ago I took a trip to Red Rocks where the first day of the trip we did 2000’ of climbing, and it made me realize that when you set the bar high, you can only go up from there. This past weekend was no different, and it kick-started the season into high gear, getting me super stoked for what’s to come. Here we go!