Monday, May 20, 2013

BAD DAY LOW

13 years of trying, 13 years of failure, 13 years of doubt and 13 years of soul crushing defeat.

Bad day low was the reason I created the list of The 7 Terrors. It's the crown jewel in destruction of my climbing psyche. 

V4, 9 feet tall, one move into a V0, two rails that slash across a beautiful face and without a doubt my single longest running project. 

That is until today! 

Bad Day Low is my bail out plan, if I don't have anything going on and I don't want to go try one of my many super hard projects. I just throw Bad Day Low's name out as a possible destination and see if it lands. Today was similar. I hadn't been bouldering outside for the past week and felt like my skin was just barely useable. So while watching Luke try his project I mentioned I was going to give BDL a try. Fortunately my good friend Tim was game to head over and even more fortunately he was patient enough to not only wait around as I floundered but to encourage me when I was ready to quit trying for the day. 

I finally figured out a way to do the first move and managed to stick the hold once from the beginning only to have my left hand rip and spit me off. I didn't know how to feel. I was happy but worried I had never come that close to sending the problem. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to repeat move. But I calmed down and tried again from the beginning and this time I stuck the hold again and my left hand stayed and I climbed to the top with zero drama. My longest project is now happily put to bed. 

Sometimes when I send a problem I feel sad because I enjoyed working it so much that I know I'll miss trying it. However Bad Day Low isn't like that at all. I was so happy I almost screamed with joy as I topped out. Good bye Bad Day Low! I'll see you when I finally take down the Terrors. But first I must let the joy of this send sit inside of me for a while. 


Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. : Albert Einstein