The Birthday Challenge

Over the last six months I've been planning my Birthday Challenge. Originally I'd hoped to do it early, first in the summer, then when summer passed, the fall. Finally I ended up doing my challenge on my birthday this last weekend. Here's the piece, with links to two previous Birthday Challenge articles I wrote for www.climbingzine.com. Cheers.

http://www.climbingzine.com/portfolios/the-birthday-challenge/

http://www.climbingzine.com/portfolios/just-one-more-b-day-challenge-training/

Badger sending at The Golf Wall. 

Birthday Challenge Part 3, The Big Day

My favorite thing about climbing is that if you try hard enough you can always be a champion. It doesn’t matter if you are the best, it matters how it feels.

The Birthday Challenge is a concept passed from climber-to-climber, and I was first introduced to it by my good friend Shaun Matusewicz, at the age of 25. Nine years later I finally completed my first true climbing Birthday Challenge at 34 years young.

I’ve always been psyched on the concept, but my birthday is in December, a month when rock climbing and weather don’t always align.

Last spring, while climbing with a relatively new, but equally psyched climbing partner, Jonathan “Badger” Mitchell, we discovered our birthdays were three days apart. To top this off, we are only a year apart in age. I told him about The Challenge, and he thought it was super cool. Together, we decided we would do one together, except we’d bend the rules a bit and complete it in the summertime; with longer days and more sunshine it would be easier to achieve.

We immediately began training for the challenge, doing extra pitches after we’d normally retire for the day. At the peak of the summer we reached 20 laps at our local sport climbing crag, The Golf Wall, an overhanging wall of limestone. Then like the summer does it faded away and we’d yet to do The Birthday Challenge. Our dream continued into the fall, but both of us hit the road more to climb. When I returned from my climbing trip I was beat up and had a couple nagging injuries. The Challenge would have to wait till next year.

But as our birthdays approached The Challenge still lingered in the back of my mind. My injuries were getting better, and I was feeling as close to one hundred percent as a 34 year old can get. At the last minute Badger confirmed he was in, so we figured out the details, and recruited our closest friends for belays and psyche.

The first day of December this year was a nightmare for skiers, but kind to climbers. The high was going to be 50 degrees, perfect sending temps for The Golf Wall.

We arrived at the wall at the perfect time, one of the three 5.10s was just going into the sun, and its reflection on the slick, steep grey limestone wall was an invitation to begin. Badger and I both agreed our first pitches were a little sloppy as our minds were on how big of a task we had ahead of us. We tried to remind each other to breathe and stay in the moment.

By pitch 7 I was very worried because I was already very pumped. I took my first hang on pitch 9, and thought in my head that I might not be able to do this. There were a lot of folks at the crag that day and I also realized my ego was afraid of falling on routes that I normally have dialed. I was afraid of failure.

 I failed again on pitch 17, a 5.11 that is an overhanging series of roofs; a climb I have so dialed I often warm up on it. Luckily it wasn’t a severe blow to my ego. I just kept on, and at 20 pitches I resorted to running toprope laps on a 5.10. I think I did 10 laps on this pitch, some were ugly attempts, I felt like a complete beginner thrutching for holds and totally losing all technique. Then a funny thing would happen, I’d remember to breathe and stay in the moment, and my technique got better on the next lap. The mind is the strongest muscle.

At pitch 30 I had a total bonk and consumed all my remaining food, just laying there, gone to the world. Slowly my blood sugar came back and I tied in for four more laps on the last route for the day. My dear friend Tim Foulkes who belayed me for 15 straight pitches was on the other end of the rope, and there’s something uplifting about having someone you’ve climbed with for a decade belaying you. After my 33rd pitch I got word from around the corner that Badger was done with his challenge, and had even led his last pitch. So, with some friendly competition in the air, I pulled the rope, put some quickdraws on my harness and led my last pitch.

At that moment everything aligned, somehow I had energy again, and I felt better at pitch number 34 than I did at number 17. I think I was getting in my own way about being worried if I could complete The Challenge. My mind was playing tricks on me.

After that last pitch all I wanted was a beer and food. After that it was time to dance and party…

Back In The Saddle, Party Like It's Your Birthday (challenge)

"You're looking for something you ain't quite found yet," Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie by Bob Dylan

Summertime is a season for joyous routine, get into a healthy zone, and stick with it. Last summer I failed to do that, but this summer I’ve got it back. Lots of writing, lots of sleep, and lots of climbing; climbing into that next level.

I write for many reasons, but one reason I write is that the story I want to read has not yet been written. Many years ago I lamented to a friend that there were so many books in the library, why try to write another? Later, after that thought had passed I would walk into the library and wonder why my book was not yet on the shelves. Today, my book is only on the shelves of e-readers, but someday it will be on the shelves of a library. They say there is nothing new under the sun, but I think my generation is proving that wrong; the future unfolds with new fresh ideas and ways of living.

I feel myself becoming more optimistic with each passing day, and I wish I could pass that along to those younger than myself. The world we live in is crowded, no doubt, but there is so much potential for new ideas, and new ways of living. The world may be a place of finite resources, but the heart is infinite.

I don’t use this blog to write about climbing as much as I used to, now that The Climbing Zine has its own website and blog, but sometimes I can’t help it. Climbing is what gives me a feeling of being alive, and begs me to continue to be optimistic; a pessimistic climber does not grow.

Currently I am training for a “birthday challenge”, a fun concept to try to climb the number of routes, for the age you are turning. I’ve written a couple blog posts for The Climbing Zine about it, and I’ll leave links for those at the end of this post.

In the midst of training for this challenge, I’m trying to tune my body to climb as much as possible, without bonking, or feeling overly tired. My training ground has been the Golf Wall, an overhanging chunk of limestone, just north of Durango. Lately the crag, and the friends I go with, have set the tone for living. Keep trying harder, don’t be afraid to fail, it only makes you stronger, and most of all enjoy the ride by living in the moment. Everything will pass us by, and pass through someday, sink deep into what is now… 

Blog posts on www.climbingzine.com: 

The Birthday Challenge

Just One More, B-Day Challenge Training 

Fire, Burning Desire

I’ve finally got a working computer again, and I’m stoked to get back in the writing zone; my life is incomplete without writing, in many ways. The first benefit is the meditation and head space I receive from writing, the second is that writing is my profession, how I feed myself; writing is my life, what I have to offer the world.

           

Officially it is still spring, but in Durango it feels like summer. It feels like a hot summer is on the way, we’ve already had fires popping up near town. This is my first summer in Durango, and something feels burning inside of me, a burning desire to experience life to the fullest, and manifest some dreams of mine.

I once heard someone say that the most common rhyme in music was fire and desire. After I heard that said, I’ve heard that rhyme all the time. And once a fire is in your heart and soul, there is a desire for it to grow.

My personal fire right now is on many fronts: the desire to become the best climber I can be, the dream to manifest my goal of becoming a successful writer, and that search for love, or as Johnny Cash says it better “flesh and blood needs flesh and blood.”

 Since I’ve last blogged I also have taken a job, a part time gig at my favorite Mexican restaurant in town, called Zia Taqueria. It feels good to be working in a kitchen again, and I’ve realized how much I missed that type of work. Many of my coworkers are Mexican, and I’m stoked to work on my Spanish. Plus there’s just something about the Latino spirit that moves me, the work environment there is really enjoyable.

I love climbing so much, more and more every day, and currently I’ve got a goal in mind, which usually helps me dedicate my energy to a dream. The goal is to do a Birthday Challenge in the next couple of weeks. My birthday is in December, which is a terrible time of year to do a proper rock climbing Birthday Challenge, plus the older one gets, the more difficult the challenge becomes. Recently I was talking with a climbing partner of mine, Badger, and we realized our birthdays are a mere three days apart. We are also only a year apart in age, he’s like a “brother from another Mother”. So, we decided we would do a mid-year challenge. Today will be our first training session at the local Golf Wall, as we build up to doing 34 pitches in day. So psyched!

I can’t overstate how much fire is building is my heart and soul right now, it’s almost a little overwhelming. I feel it leading to living my dreams, which is what the essence of being human is about, right? Please comment below to tell me what you are feeling, what wildfires are brewing in your heart, and what storms are starting to release thunderous bolts of lighting in your world.

peace,

Luke