1/4in

Yesterday I went to Horsetooth Reservoir with my girlfriend and some of our friends from work. We warmed up with some of the classics on the Mental Block. I did Pinch Overhang for the first time and it was sweet! Such a cool mantle. Anyway… I was psyched to do the sit start to the Moon Arete. The stand start is a classic V10 and the sit was done a few years ago at V12. The first thing I did was repeat the stand to make sure I had the beta right so I wouldn't fall there from the sit. Then I got to work re-familiarizing myself with the sit-start moves. The first 3 moves revolve around tensioning a sharp right toe-hook while pressing into a smear-foot and powering through some cool edges. The 5th move is the crux which requires me to cut my feet for a split second while compressing two poor holds that are narrower than shoulder width, resetting the left foot and powering to the arete and bumping into the start holds of the V10 stand start. I spent HOURS falling on the crux 5th move. Even in isolation. I just couldn't do it. I'd either explode off the left hand (punching myself quite hard), hit the arete and buckle under the force, or I'd lose the foothold mid move and end up on my back. First I blamed my weakness on narrow compression, then I blamed my finger strength, then I blamed my height, then I blamed my skin. Then I took a break, came back, shifted my right hand 1/4in to the left, and did the move EASILY.

Last move on the Moon Arete (stand) V10

I sat down and climbed all the way into the last hard move of the stand. By then I was definitely too tired to actually send. If I hadn't spent all that time and energy making excuses and blindly throwing myself at the boulder for hours, I would have sent it.

Moral of the story:

- Don't waste your time making excuses. It doesn't help you and no one wants to hear you whine.
- Take a break and come back to your project with a fresh mind.
- Sometimes a fraction of an inch makes the impossible, possible.

I'll go back next weekend and send :)