About 4 weeks ago I had a pretty bad spill on my skis and decided to tear up the inside of my left knee. Today is the one month anniversary of the accident, and I'm scheduled for an MRI this Thursday. Needless to mention, I have had very few adventures since my incapacitation.
What have I been doing? Catching up on life.
Climbing takes a certain amount of discipline, and a large amount of training time. Since I don't have the ability to climb, I've taken time for myself and started a different type of workout; one that will hopefully help me in the coming climbing season.
It's pretty simple... take care of my body in a way that I haven't or can't during the climbing season. I've been working out muscles that don't get much attention in climbing (i.e. pushing muscles, as opposed to the overworked pulling "climbing" muscles), focusing on my diet as much as possible, and take the time to sit, think, read and plan.
For the first time in 6 years I've paid to use a gym facility, buying a membership to the local weight room in Bend. Unlike the normal meat-market feeling of a weight room, the fitness center here in Bend is full of climbers, mountain bikers and other insane endurance athletes. Instead of seeing Adidas and Under Armour, all I see is Patagonia, Prana and Pearl Izumi.
Strengthening my pushing muscles has a few things going for it; I'll be evening out my rather uneven body (strong back, chicken chest) and all the while I'll be strengthening joints and avoiding pinched nerves and the like. I've already noticed a difference in my posture, and one of my largest weaknesses (core strength) is improving.
Diet is another genre that I've focused on. I'm eating the same foods, but I'm making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of rich foods that I eat in order to ward off the possibility of gaining weight. I'm exercising almost every day, but I'm still not burning off the calories like I did when I was training by climbing. I'm also trying to eat the best foods possible to help in the healing process. I'm convinced that a good diet will make the difference between being a solid climber and an injured climber.
Other things that I do is read, plan and dream of the future. I've surrounded myself with new guidebooks, magazines, and the internet to help me plan future trips. My current dream that I'm planning out is an Alpine big wall in The Dolomites of Italy. It's called the Brandler-Hasse (AKA Direttissima) V+ 5.12a / 7a+ 550m. Its an 18-20 pitch (unconfirmed actual amount of pitches) overhanging mixed line on the Cima Grande, in the Italian Alps. The North facing route climbs directly up the middle of the overhanging face on challenging mixed pitches. Pins apparently exist on the route in difficult areas from early ascents, and the rest is protectable with nuts and cams. The pitches are known to be sustained; 1 of 5.12a, 4 of 5.11, 4 of 5.10). The first 350m are continuously overhanging.
Take the Grand Teton in Wyoming and drop a knife on the north face to make it clean cut to the bottom. Then, tilt the Grand a few more degrees to make it past vertical, and you've got the North face of Cima Grande in Italy. Exposure, hard climbing and a remote location make this one that I'd love to get on. Below is a closer up topo of the route. Click to zoom. (For those of you not used to looking at a climbing topo... the distance between the dots on the photo below are approximately 100 feet at the very least.)
I'll be dreaming of this piece of rock as I slide through the imaging tube on Thursday...
