Home at Green Climbers

Now that I have been traveling for two months, I can admit that it has been almost entirely about climbing. I crossed the border to Laos two weeks ago and all I have seen is the Green Climbers Home (GCH) and its nearby town Thakhek. It was not my intention to only climb, but several factors made it the most appealing choice for me. Practically thinking, instead of constantly hauling my heavy backpack around it is easier to settle in one place for longer. And I like making friends with other climbers, as they have common interests, generally open attitude and good sense of humor.

Thakhek main street

Tuktuk between town and camp

Most importantly, climbing gives purpose to otherwise carefree traveling. While sightseeing is quite effortless, climbing requires physical condition and mental determination. Interestingly, now that I have no "real" worries about work, relationships or such, I have began to focus my goal-orientedness towards climbing. At the camp people only climb, eat, sleep and talk (about climbing). Therefore it is easy to start thinking that life equals climbing.

Green Climbers Home

Since I am an ambitious person I naturally want to get good at climbing, preferably now rather than later. I am bored of being the beginner, for whose projects strong climbers put quickdraws as their warmup. When I see beautiful lines beyond my current grade level, I get motivated to train harder so that later on I can hop on them. Besides, often hard routes have cleaner falls, thus making them less scary than easy routes. Taken these motives, I arrived to GCH with a goal to climb my first 6C. I literally cried after top roping a few 6Cs and realizing that I am just not yet skilled enough to lead them cleanly.

Those disappointments made me think about perfectionism. While more relaxed people can be satisfied after a couple of fun climbs, I can honestly say I had a good day only if I have given my 100% best on challenging routes. This is impossible on a daily basis, though, because for me climbing is still mostly about winning my fear and I do not have eternal mental capacity to push myself through scariness. After thinking this through, I decided to chill out a bit and keep on smiling - even though I climbed only mostly 6As. To say something performance-wise positive, I went on new 6Bs and tried to onsight them without knowing how they would be like; often taking a few falls but almost always finishing.

The roof

For some reason, fear of falling was a big topic of discussion at GCH. What I am experiencing - not daring to push through cruzes, climbing clumsily instead of concentrating on proper technic, getting disappointed when giving up - is common amongst many people. Also strong climbers get scared but they psych themselves to stay calm, for their willpower to succeed exceeds their fear. What helps me to climb more relaxedly and enjoy it, is repeatedly taking practice falls; on safe routes, when I feel stressed on a weird move I just let go to experience the fall. Scariness often results from unknown, so the more I fall the safer I feel. I believe I can become an OK climber if I manage to overcome the fear barrier, which is a gradual process I keep working on.

Safely sitting on a tufa to clip ;) 

From Laos I am heading to Cambodia. It is finally time to take a break from climbing and just be a tourist. In addition to improving in my main sport, this climbing psychology thinking has helped me to identify my personality also in a wider perspective; I must be engaged in some productive activity and set goals to achieve - but I need not perform at my maximum all the time.