After feeling a little down for a few weeks I made a trip to Georgia with my good friends and coworkers from back in Maryland. I got on a plane early on Thursday the 20th and by 2am the next day I was sleeping on the floor of Ward's van outside of Rocktown. It was a whirlwind trip to say the least.
We climbed all day every day for four days straight. Every time we tried to take a rest day, we ended up climbing a ton of boulder problems. It is hard to hold back when every boulder you look at is amazing. We climbed tons of classic boulders of all grades, heights, and styles. The rock in the south is unparalleled, offering some of the sickest features and holds in the country.
The highlight of the trip for me was that everyone sent the boulder they were projecting. Ward epic-ed on The Orb (V8), climbing into the last 4 moves multiple times over 3 days, and then sent on the second to last day. Jordan crushed Burst of Joy (V8) after multiple bouts of falling off the last tenuous deadpoint. Charlie and I sent Golden Harvest (V10) on our second day of tries after exploring about a million different ways to NOT send the boulder. Overall, an AMAZING trip.
The process of sending Golden Harvest was a roller coaster for me. I kept changing my beta and kept getting more an more frustrated. I was convinced I was "too tall" for this certain crux foothold and I kept trying what turned out to be bad beta over and over. All I wanted to do was just send the boulder... That turned out to be the wrong mindset. I took a long break while Ward and Jordan headed back to Burst of Joy (thats when Jordan ended up sending). It was just Charlie and I at the boulder. I put my shoes back on and decided that if I wasn't going to send the boulder I should at least enjoy it. That change in my mindset opened me up again to the "too high" foot beta that Charlie used to send about an hour before. After deciding to use the right foot beta and deciding to just enjoy the awesomeness of the boulder and the environment around me, I sent on the second try, and it felt easy.
I feel like I keep learning this lesson over and over: Just have fun, enjoy it, and you'll perform better.
A big shout out to Ward Byrum, Charlie Garcia, and Jordan Forney. Thanks for the awesome trip!
Check out this link for a video of some of our sends, including Ward on The Orb, Jordan on Burst of Joy, and Charlie and I on Golden Harvest.
THE VIDEO
