Monday 4 November 2013

Tying into a rope By Daragh O'Connor

Its strange for me as a boulderer to go sport climbing as often as I do but as long as I get the chance to go climbing im happy out. Myself and the majority of the Irish team and coaches went out to the south of France last week for 6 days. Everybody on the trip had their goals and me included had a hope for the trip.
Ever since I started climbing I have enjoyed bouldering but I still like pushing my limits in routes. This trip my eye was on an 8a I had tried once or twice last year.
(a friend in a sick cave)
When I got to France it was nice to get back to a familiar climbing area as I have been going to all sorts of strange places for comps this summer, So when I got down to climbing it felt nice and natural. The first day, we just went out to build up a bit of outdoor route stamina and refresh our brains on how to climb in Buoux.


Thanks to getting settled quickly (although Buoux never feels easy) we could get on with projects. I got Fissure Serge (the project in question) on the 3rd day of trying it. It wasn't an easy fight as its a short-ish power stamina route. It consists of short bursts of powerful moves which was one of the reason i gravitated towards it. I went through a few fazes while trying, first of which was pure excitement which of course was good and pretty much hassle free. Then came the anti-psyche... Every time I pulled on I just didn't care if I got to the top or not, this was the hardest stage cause it was hard to get out of but I came to understand what people mean about having 'battles' on routes. Its not purely physical but extremely mental and when u conquer certain mental barriers things start to go well.
When I knew I was close to sending things started to get exciting again, this stage for me was the one where frustration was a large problem. I think simply that this is just because when you get so close you just cant wait :) I got the accent as it got dark on the very last day of the trip.

All in all for a boulderer like me, tying into a rope and actually doing something that is kinda hard, it fealt like a good trip and now just cant wait for the upcoming G-Force Open event!!! PSYCHE!!!!

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