Why?

Why do we do it? Why do we constantly torture our bodies, straining them to the point of breaking (and sometimes beyond)? Why do we go back time and time again after getting shut down more than we succeed. Why do the Red Sox suck right now? Off topic, but why? I've thought about this more and more as I get older but it is inevitable, I will never stop climbing. It's an obsession and has been for some time. I went from a time when climbing revolved around my schedule to my schedule revolving around climbing.

Some people think it's about the send, the completion, the victory...the number. It may be, but it wasn't until just recently that I decided to focus my efforts on one climb, Pipe Dreams in Farley, MA. Some say V9, some V10, I say awesome!! Gorgeous line and it keeps me coming back for more. Week after week, I've been throwing myself at this wave-like overhanging feature, training in between sessions (a relatively new concept to me) in hopes of the glorious Sunday that I will take it down. Every week I've walked away bleeding, sore and battered...and more psyched than the week before.

Why is this the case? Why am I so psyched after 4 weeks and over 20 hours of physical beatings with no send? It's the small victories, the moves that I can do this week that I couldn't do last. It's the people that are there getting just as psyched while you're on the wall as if it was them going for gold. It's the feeling that next week, I'll be standing on the top of Pipe Dreams with a smile on my face, and if I'm not I'll keep climbing until I do. I feel this is one of the most important concepts that we sometimes lose site of. Climbing isn't all about the win, it's about the journey...but the win is nice.

So when you ask yourself why, just remember, it's because we love it, everything about it. The wins, the losses, the small victories, the people, the places, the burritos, the climbing, the downtime...all of it.