What's your climbing style? What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you wish to climb? Do you climb to the best of your strenghts, or do you simply try to emulate the greatness of other climbers whose very shadow seem to suggest unfulfilled potential?
Sometimes I think climbing can be the most elaborate vanity fair amongst the extreme sports within our reach. It seems as if we climb to be beautiful sometimes. If you believed that climbing is more than a sport -- it's a way of life, then you'd easily grasp this point. Just as we have struggled to come to terms with our cosmetic alter-egos, we struggle to correct our climbing styles and pursuits to emulate the superstars in our hearts.
But that is not to say that I object to having role models. Take my brother for example, his climbing style and approach to this intricate sport is what I would place as a role model -- nimbleness, grace over grunt, playfulness over power, daring, demeanour and calm flow from his various climbing styles. He probably doesn't think this much of his climbing, but I observe them in his movement, his pacing, his planning; his climbing. No Sharms, Lamas, Loskots, Rouling or Graham for me; just my good ol' brother.
Perhaps what strikes me most of his climbing is the resounding belief that he climbs HIS WAY. Not mine, not like somebody, but very much like himself. He probably started out looking up towards someone for guidance and direction as to how he should be climbing too. Heck, I think some people may even agree that he's got bits of Philip's climbing style embedded in his own.
What I sense in his climbing is a sort of deep seated acceptance of his form. No excuses for not being able to reach this or that, not being strong enough, not being well coordinated etc. Sometimes I think that there's a fevernt belief in him that there's always another (more technical) way around the problem.
Before I loose my point in this entry and start sounding like I've got some brokeback thing going on with my brother, I just feel that sometimes we seem to confuse and complicate our pursuit for competition performance with the true beauty of climbing. For climbers, it's always you, your equipment and the rock; no obsession with power, strength, crimpers, slopers etc... There's no gym and no competition -- just the route and the movement. It's something like returning to the core of the sport, the fundamental power of your body's spirit.
Perhaps Uncle Ben was right when he once mentioned this to me: "why do I climb?", with reference to a route he did in Thailand.
"To be beautiful," was his reply.
JKLM
