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Hello from Dominican Republic

• September 2012
• Climb

Hello Steph, I follow you and since 2006 Im celiac L

Im from Dominican Republic (the other part of the island next to Haiti)

Rock climbing development is taking time here. We have a couple of crags in the city.

And yes we have some other bigger walls outside. I have to confess there has been moments where I have thought after a long period without climbing,

“I don’t think I’m gonna keep on doing this. But then, time passes, girls come and go, jobs come and go, things change, rearrange but climbing passion stays.

I can’t cheat myself I love it.

It’s a complicated sport and I lack motivation sometimes. I have two questions.

How can I remind myself of what I should do before I start climbing and not after?

How can I take the most from every climbing session?

Im gonna keep on climbing! 🙂

Gabriel
(Climbing since 2001).

Hi Gabriel,
Motivation is a fluid thing, and I think that is a natural characteristic. I wouldn’t worry too much about it: when you are motivated, the only thing you want to do is climb. When you are less motivated, there are a lot of other things to focus on. I think being comfortable with that flow will keep you both injury free and also in climbing for a long time. But I know that climbing is a really high-maintenance pursuit–when I am climbing on a good schedule (one-two days on, one-two days off, repeat, repeat, repeat), all I want to do is climb, and climbing feels like the best thing in the universe!! When I’m unable to climb that consistently, and 3 days to a week fall by with no climbing, suddenly it’s hard to get going, and it doesn’t feel right at first. If you find yourself in a busy groove, or feeling less driven than usual, just “force” yourself to climb one day a week in the gym or wherever you can. Then you won’t lose everything completely when the climbing cycle swings back around. I just got back from a trip where I was base jumping and wingsuit flying every day for a month. The focus of the trip was not climbing, but I made sure to get to a gym every time it rained even though it wasn’t exactly the most inspiring climbing I could be doing and it definitely took some motivation to make it happen. I had fun each time, was glad I was exercising during the rain day, and I feel like I at least kept my fingers in climbing while on the base jumping trip.
Good luck!
🙂 Steph