Portland, Training and Hello
Steph!
Last Friday, three friends and I made the 4 1/2 hour commute from our college town in Ashland, Oregon to Portland to camp out on the side walk of P-Town for the REI Garage sale… otherwise referred to as “Christmas in October”. For the first half hour of the drive I was so consumed by this book I was reading, that amidst much laughing, singing, music and quick stops to tweak (uh… I mean fix) the old volvo I couldn’t seem to pull away from the story. Soon my fellow climbing buddies started inquiring into the reason for my silent stupor. I flashed them the cover, gave them a short history of the book and I spent the next four hours with my feet up on the dash, reading to a captivated audience… We loved your book Steph. When we got to my best friend’s parent’s house, we huddled around a laptop watching videos of you on youtube till bedtime. Thanks for sharing your passion with us. We were all affected by your down to earth lifestyle and wild passions for climbing.
My good friend Sam, a climber from the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho with a serious crack addiction, spent the summer feeding a need that I didn’t know existed. It was the need for adventure, challenge, change, a way to look into myself and move past inner dialogue and who I thought I was into another facet of myself that I didn’t know existed. For me this need was climbing – who knew? I became infatuated with climbing sometime this past June. Sam was recovering from a brutal achilles injury at the time and couldn’t climb, so he considered this (me) his new climbing project and took the opportunity to stoke the fire, focusing on what the spirit of climbing truly means. “Trad is the only way. Don’t become one of those boulder heads or sport climbers goons – it’s all about the cracks”. Or, “Its a way of life, its about relationships, pushing yourself to new limits, realizing you could do things in climbing and in life you never thought possible”. Nights were filled with talks of climbing, summer classes were spent in the back of the classroom pouring over blogs from you, weekends were dedicated to various climbing spots, and always my mind was full of Sun Valley, Idaho and its local climbing… the Sawtooths.
Reading up on you and other inspiring climbers, I think the thing I am most attracted to is everybody’s strength of mind, body… and yes, spirit. Figuring out one’s spiritual path I believe is a personal relationship with you and whatever/whoever it is that inspires that area of life in you. Yet, I was hoping you would have some tips on the other two, strength of body and mind. As a climber, what would you suggest is the most balanced and beneficial training routine for climbing? What to do, and how much, how often? For your mind… What practices would you suggest to strengthen your will to ‘stay with it’, your mental endurance, the ability to push through when giving up seems to be the first choice? I constantly wonder what the drive is to keep pushing as hard as you do for so many years. It seems as though the climbing lifestyle seems to be born within people, and I am wondering if that same thing is born within me?
A day after returning from Portland, I caught wind of your clinic. I have spread the word and am rallying the troops and we’re all looking forward to making our way once again to that rainy city to see you in person!
Have a good one,
See you soon!
~Taylor
Hi Taylor! Thanks for the great letter! I am driving to the airport in a few minutes to come to Portland, so I hope maybe I can answer some of your questions there 🙂
Steph
