Goals for the Season

Hear that faint sound? Yep, that’s fall, quietly starting to knock, ready to sweep out the bugs and snakes and bring with her sticky rock and low humidity. That’s right, temperatures are showing hints of promise with real climbing weather on the horizon. The fall climbing season is about to be upon us and this year I’ve decided to set some concrete goals. Hopefully I’ll revisit these later and assess how good a job I did of setting realistic goals and going after them.

Without further ado:

Major Goal:
The one route that I really want to focus on this year is Psychopath at TWall in Chattanooga. Psychopath is a 13b sport route that climbs some pretty amazing natural pockets and crimps with some difficult moves at the very end. I tried this route several times last winter and found it hard but doable. The route doesn’t overly suit me as it’s a power-endurance route with no rests once you start climbing.  I'm better off on endurance routes, ones with hard moves and good shakes. This fact will make success all the sweeter as I think it’s important to be able to do routes of all styles, not just ones that fit you.

Minor Goals:
I have several minor goals for the season, some close to home and others further afield. Chief among these is to finish up some old projects at Little River, The Word and Stealth. Both of these are routes that I’ve been trying off and on for years without success. Some years I didn’t try them at all, other years I may have climbed on them one or two days. I’d like to get both of these monkeys off my back and move on to other things.

Slightly further away, I have some goals at the Red River Gorge. I want to work on finishing up the Undertow Wall at the Motherlode (Leave it to Beavis, Team Wilson, and Convicted remain) and try to do something in the Madness cave. These goals are predicated on having enough free time this fall to get to the Red a decent amount.

Finally there's international travel and of course I have aspirations. I’d like to get back to Mexico in December and enjoy some time in the sun. In the Potrero there are two routes that would be worthwhile goals this year. I came close on Big Blue in the Surf Bowl last year and feel that I could finish it up fairly quickly this year. The other routes is the second pitch of Mothership Connection on the Outrage Wall. Vinod and I tried it last year but we were repelled by very cold temperatures and high winds (I never even climbed on the second pitch). As with the Red, these goals are predicated on getting to Mexico and finding decent conditions.

So there we have it, some lofty ambitions to be sure but I hope these represent goals that will push me but, ultimately, I will be able to make progress toward completing them. Now where’s that cold weather?