Podcasts
Articles
Sweet Dissatisfaction – Exploring Discomfort in Climbing
Discomfort isn't something that we automatically get excited about. It isn’t natural to want to engage with it. So how can we turn discomfort into something that we actually want to explore? How do we tap into curiosity’s deep well of motivation for climbing?
What makes us feel curious in the face of anxiety, fear, and frustration? READ MORE>
An Antidote to Negativity – How to Manage Climbing Anxiety & Frustration
My body is shaky, tired. I feel the anxiety begin to creep in. Internally, but loudly, the thoughts proclaim doubt at my ability to continue. I will myself to focus, to keep moving. Everything goes smoothly… until the last move. As I raise my feet to set up for the long reach – where I had fallen on several previous attempts – my fingers, curled around yet another tiny edge, begin to open… READ MORE>
“May I Have Your Attention Please…” Mental Training for Climbing
In climbing, fear of falling is our innate response. The need to perform well was culturally conditioned early in our lives. These are the common foundations of the subconscious beliefs that falling and failing are threats to our survival. Many climbers have additional conscious thoughts that enhance these stress cues, such as: I’m not strong enough, I don’t remember the beta, I’ll break my legs if I fall, etc.
When we perceive a threat, the sympathetic nervous system readies us to respond to danger. READ MORE>
The Mystery Between a Rock and a Hard Place: 6 Steps for Using Curiosity to Manage Climbing Stress and Find Flow.
“Nooo.” I gasped into the darkness, watching my full water bottle fall. It hurtled through space below me, then out of range of my headlamp beam. Still staring into the abyss below, I imagined it falling the rest of the two thousand feet. After 11 hours of near constant climbing, I was two-thirds of the way up on the sheer face of Yosemite's El Capitan. Just below “The Great Roof”, I sat still for a moment on a two foot by two foot ledge, too stunned to move or think clearly.
Then it truly set in: I now faced another thousand feet of the steepest, hardest climbing, with only about two ounces of water left. And I was alone. READ MORE>
How do I control my fear of climbing?
Whether you send or bail, remember that you chose the adventure because it had an uncertain outcome; you chose the project because it challenged you. Falling or bailing on a route will make it that much more rewarding when you finally send it. Reflect on your process. What did you learn? Why was it fun? Acknowledge that this is where you are now and that it’s likely to change. READ MORE>
Is It Worth it? – Excerpt from Valley of Giants
My story of grappling with my identity and climbing anxiety after a terrible accident on El Capitan.
As the weeks passed, I tried to climb again. I suffered from visions of falling. A body (her body, my body?) falling through the air. I cried while top-roping and could find zero motivation for climbing. What is the point of doing something so dangerous? I began to ask: is it worth it?
I felt only emptiness. Questioning if it is worth it was like pulling on bare threads. My sense of self was beginning to unravel. It felt like an impossible question. As if any experience in life can be isolated from the course of our existence and placed on a scale. Is it worth it? is the wrong question.
I cannot quantify the experience of a journey up El Cap. The experience has no specific value. It is an experience that cannot be isolated and made separate from who I am. READ MORE>
When the Rescuer Becomes the Rescued
Former Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) worker Josie McKee was speed-climbing the Nose of El Capitan with fellow big-wall climber Quinn Brett when Brett took a massive fall that left her paralyzed. Here, McKee talks about what it felt like to find herself on El Cap with a badly injured partner, how she dealt with the aftermath… READ MORE>
Through the Injury – 5 Mindset Shifts for Physical & Psychological Recovery
To know what to do for recovery, I had to ask: what does healthy look like for me? I was far enough removed from the state that at first this question was hard to answer. What had climbing given me to help me manage problems? What was so lacking when climbing became part of the problem? And what could I do instead, if I couldn’t climb? READ MORE>
Tour de Ditch – Seven Yosemite Bigwalls in Seven Days
On October 6 through October 12, Quinn Brett and Josie McKee completed what they dubbed the "Tour de Ditch" in Yosemite Valley, which entailed seven Grade V-VI routes in seven days. They climbed El Capitan, Lost Arrow Spire, Leaning Tower, Mt. Watkins, Washington Column, Half Dome and Liberty Cap in that order, and set what are likely two new overall speed records and three potential female speed records in the process. READ MORE>
