After completing the first 2 years of my career, I was
craving a longer climbing trip. In September, a break from full-time work finally
made this possible. I found myself heading to Siurana, equipped with the time
and energy to enjoy it and push myself.
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| Siurana |
Esther and I had 3 weeks in Spain. This was definitely
enough time to get really comfortable on the rock but we had no idea where to
set our sights grade-wise. We were just psyched to climb as much as possible.
We were limited to shady crags but still found plenty of
great lines. Each day we rotated who would do the on-sighting for that day
which definitely worked well for on-sight confidence.
After 2 weeks we had surprised ourselves a bit, gradually
working up the numbers, the highlight of which has to be L’Escarmala (7c+). An
aesthetic, steep line with a technical section and a glory jug finish,
completed like true Brits…in the rain.
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| Esther Seddon (photo: Andrea Weiss) |
For the last bit of the trip we had to decide between lots
of volume or focussing on something more tricky. Since ‘climbing our first 8a’ had
been a goal of both of ours for a while, it seemed like a good opportunity to
go for it. With the help of Nat Berry’s video we picked Pren Nota as our
climb to try and we weren’t disappointed. It’s a great line…technical, powerful
and long (for boulderers).
It was mentally and physically exhausting but a lot of fun
and on the penultimate day Esther clipped the chains first go, but insisted she
wouldn’t celebrate until I had done the same. After getting pumped out of my
mind I then powered out holding onto the penultimate hold of the route, gutted!
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| Looking pensive after a failed red-point (photo:Esther Seddon) |
I knew that it was determination that would get me to the
top and, after a bit of soul-searching that evening, I knew I had it in me. I
found some of the first 2 years working as a doctor tough. It was in the middle
of that time that I set a goal to climb an 8a. For every time that I left work
feeling like I’d given a little bit too much, climbing was somehow a way of
taking something back. And this is what the goal came to represent.
On our last day, I clipped the chains of my first 8a, Pren
Nota, and Esther and I could finally celebrate!
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| Thanks to the nice American couple for the photo |
The night before, I found myself writing a slightly
melodramatic piece entitled “Is it ok to care about something so trivial?” and
this is how it ended...
“I came down after my first
attempt and wondered if I had the psyche to try that hard again and then I
thought about my motivation. What it means to me, what it represents and I knew
that I had the psyche. This one is for me.”
