Increased efforts

Something that I have come to realize since I left Sweden in September, is that when being on a big trip, staying in the same place for a long period of time, I tend to fall in to this mood where I am not trying as hard as if I where to be, say on a one week stay. Even if I keep thinking that I'm always giving my everything on the problem I'm trying, in my subconscious I know I can always come back another day. This inevitably leads to me not trying as hard as if it was my "only chance", and I can't help pondering about if I would be sending more if I where traveling around more than I am.

When I was checking the weather forecast in the middle of last week, I realized that the days that where come, could be my last days climbing in Font this trip. I have been here for a long time now, and all along I have been able to try my projects thinking that there will be new chances to finish them. But a forecast predicting yet another week of solid rain, which there is no way on this earth that I will be albe to sit through after this winter, meant that I will soon be leaving. Therefor, there would be no more second chances. This all came with a wierd feeling, and it was very hard choosing which of all the problems on my list I would aim to try finishing. A couple of the ones I ended up going to, I didn't really expect doing, but they still meant too much to me, not have one last go. Looking back on these three days of climbing, I can't be anything but happy with how it all turned out, since I ended up doing most of the problems I tried.

By the time it was friday afternoon, I was starting to get pretty worked. Thinking I would only have the time and energy to try one more climb, I went to la Tour de Babel in Dame Jouanne. A problem I had been wanting to do for a long time, but after trying it last weekend, I doubted wheter I could as it then had felt extremely hard. However, this time I didn't feel as week when reaching between the huge spans, and in a couple of goes I managed to do it. Very happy to cross another dreamclimb off my list, I was ready to call it at day, when Neil and Haroun started covincing me to try adding a sitstart to the problem. We had been talking about how obvious it was, and I still didn't believe Neil saying it wasn't already done. Despite this, I was not too keen at first. Mostly because I didn't think I would ever be able pull off even the stand again.

Photo: Patrik "Padde" Svensson.

I haven't ever done allot of first ascents, and until the other day, none of the ones I'd done was in Font. When the idea of this being my chance to do one appeared in my mind, I tried the moves that is added when sitting down. They where not hard, but still makes it tougher to keep the upper part together. After resting and having one failed go, I once again found my self struggeling on the cruxmove up in the standstart, hearing Neil screaming "you got it, you got it". Disagreeing with what he was saying, I still managed to stretch out just enough to reach the hold I was going for, and kept fighting all the way to the top.

A while later I was sat in the restaurant by the parking with a café crème, celebrating a nice day in perfect weather surrounded by nice people. I was thinking that even if I would prefer staying, this would be a pretty sweet day to remember as the last day of climbing in Font this trip.


/DO