From: Dingus Milktoast Newsgroups: rec.climbing Subject: Re: The Mindset of Motion Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 08:54:25 -0700 Theresa Ho wrote: > > Does your mindset of motion include the careful and deliberate notation of > the possible gear 6 feet right in the otherwise unprotected stretch, the > potential rope-eating flake, how far you're climbed, the weather and the > position of the sun, or does that notation actually destroy the mindset > altogether? It seems like it's one or the other for me. If I'm paying > attention to the ropework, the gear, the routefinding, then I lose the > momentum, and vice-versa. > I wasn't especially clear in staking out the ground for what I meant about the mindset piece of the motion. I described it's effects, but I didn't really explain the scope of the attitude. The motion, the flow, the rhythm, whatever you want to call it, seems to strike a chord with pretty much every experienced climber I have met. Yet many find the experience elusive. When I speak of the mindset, I'm not just talking about a series of rock moves, or a crux pitch, or free soloing... I'm talking about the whole ball of wax. It applies well to free climbing. But it works just as well for mountaineering, wall climbing, bouldering, hiking, an important executive presentation, chasing the lover of your dreams... in short, it applies to life. I know climbers who are ALWAYS climbing. Always. Sounds ridiculous on the face of it, but I have come to understand that climbing isn't just the physical act of pulling down on holds. To make an analogy to, let's say, hunting, pulling down on the holds is like pulling the trigger on a deer. But shooting a deer is just a small part of hunting. First you gotta find it. Before that you have to get there. Before that you need gear, food, plans, skill, yadda yadda. The same is true for climbing. The hard chargers I know are constantly thinking about the next trip, the next climb, on and on, relentlessly. An example: If you tell me this has never happened to you (who ever you are), then I would guess you're new to the sport. You get to the base of some sick project with some hard charging SOB who climbs like a gibbon. Your mind can barely deal with the stress and anxiety of the current situation. You're in sensory overload so you keep you head down, concentrating on individual tasks to keep the elephant from stepping on you. And then your partner, the guy or gal next to you, who incidentally, is already roped and racked, shoes on, hands chalked, ready to go, patiently or not so patiently waiting for you to get your shit together. Then she pipes up with, "Would you look at that dihedral over there! Wow! When we come back here we have to do that!" And all the while you're thinking, 'Come back???! You crazy fucker, you're lucky I'm here in the first place. I am NEVER coming back here. I don't belong here with crazy SOB's like you. This is insane!" One climber has the mindset of motion, the other does not. It's not just surrendering to the dictates of a single pitch. It's an adoption of a frame of reference for the entire sphere of climbing. It applies across the board, from the earliest planning to the post climb drinking session at Tom's Place. We all have climbing dreams. We all pursue them at our individual pace. But masters of motion pursue them constantly, always, and simultaneously. Like sitting at the base of one sick project planning on another. Or topping out on a peak and spying another, more interesting mountain beyond and instead of saying, 'We gotta come back some day to climb that,' they say, 'Let's come back the weekend after next and send that fucker!' It's the driving, it's the trail hiking, it's the load humping, it's squirming out of a portaledge no matter the weather, no matter how bad you feel, no matter how scared you are, no matter what... and continuing upward. For more local examples, it's what keeps guys like Joe Hedge climbing years after the gold rush. It's what drug Brutus and Em out of the tent on Mystery Mountain after a 5 day snow storm, heading UP, not DOWN. It's the driving force behind the many walls Eric Coomer has done; hard walls, terrifying walls. And it's what keeps me in the game after 27 years in the sport. And the main point I seek to make it this... the mindset of motion is easy to adopt; easy but terribly committing. You have to surrender to your dreams, you have to commit, and you have to do it all the time. But if and when climbers truly adopt the mindset of motion, they begin to knock off the climbs of their dreams one after another. It's part of the trifecta of climbing, the crown jewels, the bedrock of advanced performance. Coupled with commitment and ability, the mindset of motion is the driving force, the heart and soul of the sport. So, back to your question.... does adopting the mindset mean passing protection opportunities, even passing belays, lost in a fog as it were? Yes and no. Yes, you will find yourself doing just that. And sometimes that's good, sometimes it's bad. I remember following Brutus up a wilderness FA. He led what turned out to be a vertical 5.8 pitch, fast, passing one protection opportunity after another. I think he might have placed 3 pieces where I would have probably placed about 8. He did so because he completely adopts this mindset from well before he gets out of the car. In fact, from my perspective, he never surrenders the mindset, ever. And yet the guy is always thinking about the technical details of the ascent, sort of in parallel. Where can I get pro? Where is the belay? Is my partner going to chicken out? What's for dinner? Always forward thinking, always looking for ways to contribute to the ascent, from the morning dump to the evening cocktail. Maybe it's a left brain, right brain thing, I don't know. One part of you, the artist (?), adopts the mindset of motion and it's like the old analogy of Tolkien used. The one where he compared leaving a house and stepping on the side walk to springs, brooks, rivers and oceans. When you step off the porch step, the river of life seizes you and there is no telling where you'll end up. That right there is the mindset of motion; go with the flow. But the right brain is at work all the time too, and it can't be ignored, cause that control freak is the persona that will keep you alive. So I guess it's up to you whether or not you allow yourself to be lulled too far into a mindset that dictates motion first, thought second. I have climbed like a river from time to time, daydreaming all the while about lunch, or work, or the clouds or whatever. But why not daydream instead about the next pitch, the next placement, that over hanging serac, next week's climb, relentlessly, all the time, every day? Why not completely submerse yourself into a frame of reference that says when you're climbing, you're climbing 100%. A state of mind that relegates fear to ambition. Remember that Stallone movie, First Blood? The Vietnam vet who gets locked up in some jail, then breaks out and fights the national guard? There is a scene early in that movie that encapsulates the mindset of motion. He breaks out of jail and the sheriff chases him. He wrecks a stolen motorcycle and starts running up a steep gully. And he runs, and runs and runs. Finally, he stops. You can see he is desperate, half wild, on the edge of panic and collapse, that his heart might just burst. Does he sit in despair? Does he blubber like a child? Does he go comatose? No. None of those things. He tells himself, urgently, 'Gotta keep moving, GOTTA KEEP MOVING!' But all the while he's fleeing, he's looking for tools, clothes, things he needs to survive. It's all cliché crapola, and yet it's also key to climbing or anything else. And it's as easy to do as walking. You just have to adopt a mindset and never let it go. Long winded as usual. I can't help myself. The mindset of typing? Cheers. DMT