Siurana 2014

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.”