Nordic Breath

Category: Climbing

Rock climbing is one of the most fantastic sports and takes you to the highest peaks and the coolest landscapes.

  • The Adversity of a Climbing Project

    The Adversity of a Climbing Project

    In the springtime the crags dry up, and it is time to pull the climbing project out of you head and materialize it whith your body. That is; get out there and reherse it again.

    You might dream about placements of your camming device, or a move, sequenses … and the crux … that damned crux, where you keep falling. This time you will do it. The route will be sent. And done.

    But what if you don’t do it?

    All climbers are different, and many of us think its totally ok to hang there in the rope and shoute out loud «lower me down, I can’t do this» when the going gets tough. But you might also stick with it and try to fight through the adversities – try to find smarter solutions or just rehurse until you get stronger and actually do the move, which might take days and weeks (with rests in between of course).

    You then have an inner motivation that drivers you out weekend after weekend the whole season through, until bad weather puts your effort to an intermediate hold.

    It is a representation of your dream of representing yourself, which you put a lot of effort in materializing. It has a greater value than to actually climb the route.

    So what if you think that you will fail to do the route? This is worth a reflection. And it is difficult to manouver through that thought prosess. To weigh ambition up against achievement. Results up against effort.

    Having a project is a nice thing because you learn to know yourself better. When you try the route the 100th time – what goes through your head? Discouragement? Tiredness? How do you motivate yourself again and again and perform at your best?

    The project has no (immediate) experiaton date. It is a representation of your dream of representing yourself, which you put a lot of effort in materializing. It has a greater value than to actually climb the route. That is a good motivation to still do your best, when you fail again at the 100th try.

    You might think: I need more concrete tips on this. Well here is a list:

    • Check that you have the best solutions to all sequences
    • Visualize every sequence one time every day
    • When you are having a go, check your rope, equipment and the knot
    • Check your belayers device and that is properly secured
    • Check your climbing shoes and your chalk bag
    • Before you start, repeate in your mind: «I like this route, I look forward to climb on it, I feel strong.»
    • Expect only to do your best, not to do the route.
    • When you are ready to go, empty your head as much as you can.
    • Try to enjoy the moves.
    • If you fall, think about all the right things you did up to that point.
    • If you fall, rest for a short while, and do the route to the top. Do not lower down.
    • When you leave the crag, focus on all the fun parts of the route.

    And else? Well, if you get stuck for too long, take a brake. Climb easy stuff for a while. Maybe you can find another project that you can do much faster. This project might have other types of holds or a different angle. This will clear your head and catapult you back to your nemesis.

    Most importantly; Enjoy the process.

    Starting to climb? Here you can find the equipment you need.

  • Kilian Journet on setting goals

    Kilian Journet on setting goals

    One of the worlds best mountain runners is the spaniard Kilian Journet. He has won most competitions thats worth winning when it comes to long ditances in the mountains.

    Now he lives in Romsdalen in Norway and enjoys the mountains there. Before that he sat out to run to the summits of his favourite mountains; Mount Blanc traverse (4810 m), Matterhorn (4478 m), Elbrouz (5642 m), Aconcagua (6962 m) and Mount Everest (8848 m).

    He finished all of them. On the way he needed a moral guidance, which he put up in 10 statements, which follows here in a shorter version. We think most of us has a lot to learn from these points.

    1. Nobody told us who to be. Nobody told us to embark on this journey. Nobody told us it would be easy. Someone said that we are what we dream. If we don’t dream, we die.

    We will fight for our dreams and we will follow our passions, because we believe that the meaning of life lies not in following others’ footsteps, but in finding our own path to what we love. And, despite any difficulties, we learn from each misstep and press on.

    2. We will follow the instinct that takes us toward the unknown.

    Taking risks is not like making a bet; it’s evolving and it’s changing each one of us. Being free is being ourselves, making our own decisions, not following anyone. It’s choosing: choosing to have a family, choosing a job, choosing a peak. On the mountain, we are the ones who trace our own path, the ones who decide whether we take this path or that one, whether we climb this peak or that one. Sometimes we do it and sometimes we don’t, but it’s up to us to make our own path where there is none.

    3. We won’t look at the obstacles we’ve overcome, but the ones ahead.

    We should learn from our past without living in it; we should use the experience, respect, and fear that we’ve lived in order to build a solid future. The past isn’t the life that we should let define us. We will live each instant from the present, always looking at what lies ahead of us.

    4. It’s not about being the fastest, strongest, or biggest. It’s about being ourselves.

    Human beings have shown that, with technology, we are capable of doing just about anything. But does that really matter? We need to learn to live with less, with only what we need to be fully human, the most integrated with the environment, with nature. Our power is in our feet, our legs, our bodies, and our minds.

    5. We aren’t just runners, alpinists, or skiers. We aren’t just athletes. We are people.

    Shared emotions don’t add up; they multiply. A summit isn’t a geographic point, a date, and a time. Each summit is a warehouse of memories and emotions. It’s the people who accompanied us and those who waited for us at the bottom. We are all the people that we love and admire, those who go with us without ever being there.

    6. We aren’t sure we’ll do it, but we are sure that we’ll find happiness.

    Failure is not trying. Failure is not enjoying every step. Failure is not feeling. There will be thorns in the path, there’ll be pain, and there’ll be objectives that lie far off in the distance, but none of that is failure—not if we let the journey be what fills us up, even if we don’t make it to the top.

    7. Simplicity is key.

    We’re going to the mountain without aid, without assistance, without external help. We’re going humbly, without seeking to best the mountain because we know it will always be stronger, and we will go as far as it lets us. We’ll learn to live with the mountain, the very rocks themselves, the plants, and the ice—whatever lies underneath the surface, whatever was there before us and will continue on there after us.

    8. We’ll go in silence.

    We will make sure our journey goes unnoticed, that each trek leaves nothing more than our footprints that the wind will eventually erase. We carry our authentic selves within us, and it’s only in silence that we can begin to explore ourselves.

    9. We’ll go with integrity.

    There’s no helping hand to intervene when we’re in danger on the mountain, and there’s nobody to congratulate us each time we achieve what we set out to do. We can’t abandon the path because there is no path. Because hypocrisy doesn’t exist on the mountain. Because the mountain is simply the mountain. For better or for worse, we are all responsible for our own actions.

    10. We’re always searching for something—is it life?

    What is the meaning of any venture, of any journey, of life? Is it to achieve goals or make progress toward them? Is it to reach the horizon or discover the landscape we cross as we walk toward it? Is life the medal at the end of a race or the emotions and feelings that we keep inside as we go? We are forged in dreams and emotions.

    He also wrote a book about the project given out on Velopress.com.