Frustration and Failure

Have you ever been frustrated almost past endurance?

Well that's how I felt the other day. I decided to go out to the sads for a couple hours so that I could do some climbing cause that's kinda the whole reason I'm in bishop haha. So the sesh started out ok I hoped on some warmups then onsighted some v2s and a v3 then hopped on this tall v4 with a scary top section and it took me three tries to get it. That wasn't terrible but I was getting way to pumped for the amount of climbing I'd done and was a bit sad because I broke my straps on my solutions the other day.

After finishing up all but one of the climbs over in that section(the Prozac nation area furthest to the left or north) I headed out to the kindergarten area to finish what I hadn't done yet. It started out great because I onsighted Wiskey, Beer, and Splif Hits for Breakfast (v4). But the frustration started as I fell off of Give Me a Rim Job (v6) over and over again.

After deciding I was to tired to do those particular moves again that day I moved on to my project boulder with mr frosty and the unnamed v7. I ended up trying the v7 for probably two hours or more and was finally able to find a better sequence that I was able to figure out and snag the top jug multiple times only for my feet to pop off and to fall off over and over again, driven to the breaking point both mentally and physically. I was still unable to finish it even after figuring out better beta and getting to the top multiple times and being that close to finishing is possibly one of the most frustrating things I go through while climbing. It also doesn't help that I was destroying my fingers with all of the sharp pockets that are on this climb.

I actually had to take a day off to chill my jets and get the frustration out of my system. Going to the hotsprings near town and finding out they were actually hot was a great surprise and it definitely improved my mood. 

Here's a little backstory on my climbing adventures outside, before the middle of 2012 I didn't really have bouldering projects I mainly went up to climbs and within a session or two they would be done. The first longstanding project I had was Natire Nazi Arête v7 in Castle Rock State Park near Santa Cruz, CA. That problem took maybe around 20-30 2+hr sessions over the period of almost a year. To date that is still the longest consistent project I've ever had. So watching climbing movies that talk about having projects for years is very forign to me. Naturally, getting so close to finishing this unnamed(I will name it when I finish it) v7 but not succeeding has taught me that I need to keep my cool and be more patient when it comes to sending problems. If not my frustration will drive me into a mental breakdown, the rock will be there so there's no need to worry about geting it right now. This is the first time the Sad boulders have made me sad or at least frustrated and a bit depressed. Hopefully it will be the only time it happens. ;-)

'Till next time friends,

The Irish King