Preparation.
this past weekend, a couple friends introduced me to a classic Coopers Rock problem called Electric Avenue. the guide book says it is a super highball. looking at the climb and seeing my friends work on it, it doesn't look that difficult, but it is tall. very tall. the crux is mental. the height and the potential for things to go wrong is what makes this climb scary. i tried the climb once and only when up half way before getting scared and calling it quits. but this is a climb i would like to do. not because it would be another climb off the ticklist, but because of what it does for the mind.
the highball represents something beyond one's comfort zone. in order to conquer and tame the highball, one must have that conversation with it; to push one's mind to the very edge of their comfort and then to, ultimately, expand it. in order to do this one must be in complete control of one's mental capacities to be able to clear one's mind of everything and to focus solely on the task at hand. if at any point, the mind wavers or doubts, then all is lost. it is this mental control that i would like to achieve.
now i've done one other super highball before (with a real bad landing) in Hueco Tanks called Melonpatch, but that was a V0. i even did a human flagpole off of it, and that is a step in the right direction, but it was all on huge jugs. Electric Avenue is a V4 in cracklines, a type of climbing that is different to me. but if i can have the discipline to overcome this mental crux, i can surely bring that same mental control into other aspects of my life.
during my next Coopers trip, i would like to continue working on Electric Avenue and another highball, Corrosive Elements, also V4. let the mental preparation begin...
the highball represents something beyond one's comfort zone. in order to conquer and tame the highball, one must have that conversation with it; to push one's mind to the very edge of their comfort and then to, ultimately, expand it. in order to do this one must be in complete control of one's mental capacities to be able to clear one's mind of everything and to focus solely on the task at hand. if at any point, the mind wavers or doubts, then all is lost. it is this mental control that i would like to achieve.
now i've done one other super highball before (with a real bad landing) in Hueco Tanks called Melonpatch, but that was a V0. i even did a human flagpole off of it, and that is a step in the right direction, but it was all on huge jugs. Electric Avenue is a V4 in cracklines, a type of climbing that is different to me. but if i can have the discipline to overcome this mental crux, i can surely bring that same mental control into other aspects of my life.
during my next Coopers trip, i would like to continue working on Electric Avenue and another highball, Corrosive Elements, also V4. let the mental preparation begin...