Chris Sharma Talks About Sending First Round First Minute 5.15b (videos)
It was so good to finally send First Round First Minute yesterday.. After almost 3 years effort and falling at the last move over 50 times, I thought I might never do this route. I never gave up, but after so much time on this climb with no success I was forced to let go and move on . I had done 99% of the route so many times and was just really over it. Last fall I dedicated a handful of days on the line but every try ended at the end of the rope. I actually made it past the crux once, only to fall above. I was getting stuck in a rut that I didn?t know how to get out of. Ive always been able to keep the faith and see my projects through to the end but it just wasn?t happening with First Round. After so many times on the same route, at the same area, and falling in the same place, it started to become really boring and frustrating. It became a big mental block. I would climb perfectly up to the last move and then blow it for one reason or another. It was really necessary to get some space, climb on other lines and connect again with just the pure joy of climbing without always looking at it in such goal oriented way. The desire to do the route can be the same thing that prevents us form succeeding. To do our best we have to let go of all expectations and just be totally in the moment. So this year Ive been trying lots of different projects that I have around the Catalunya region of Spain and just trying to reconnect with the pure fun of climbing. Whatever the results make sure that I?m enjoying it and in it for the right reasons (The incredible feeling of flow while moving on rock, not some competitive aim to be the best). Although I succeeded in forgetting about the route for a while, my confidence and belief in myself had been shaken . Its really hard to continue progressing on your personal path with such unfinished business left behind.
Yesterday after warming up and trying a project Ive been working on sporadically (PerfectoMundo, in Margalef) I went with my friend Cristian La Miel to El Barranco sector of Margalef. Cristian sent his project , a beautiful 30meter 8a+ and then it was my turn to climb again. I was planning on trying a route put up last fall by Dani Andrada, Politicamente Corruptos 9a, but I had second thoughts. The conditions were really good and I figured, ?why not go check in with first round and see how she was doing? . I had achieved my goal for the day making a highpoint on Perfectomundo so I felt really satisfied with the day already and it seemed like a good time to go back and refresh the moves on first Round and at the very least get some good training in. I hadn?t been on it in over two months and it was just like?what the heck, Ill give it a burn and see what happens.? Maybe I caught the route off guard but probably it was the other way around. I had no expectations and wen I arrived at the loathsome reappoint crux, I didn?t think, just climbed and a few moments later I had the finishing jug in my hand. After so many times falling , I felt like I was in a dream. Its definitely one of my hardest routes, but the mental mountain I had to climb was really makes it stand out for me.
Its a really valuable lessen for me, that no matter how difficult it can be to preserver in some moments, we just have to stay focused and remember that this fight is what makes it all so rewarding in the end.
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