I have one distinct advantage in the Dark Horse Bouldering Series, it’s hosted at the gym where I am a member; Metro Rock Everett. Outside of this, I don’t pull v15, I don’t have sponsorships paying my bills, all I have is the home territory. Now, I don’t get to see the routes before they are constructed, and the setters do a great job of thwarting my attempts to secretly gain beta. However, this has given me one unique opportunity, I knew the list of the big names coming before they were released in Josh and Dave’s hilarious video. Who's Coming? The list is stacked, so stacked that according to my calculation only one spot is available for us non-pros.
Seeds of doubt can raise hell on a competitors psyche. A shoulder can feel tweaked, leaving them wondering if it will withstand the rigors of both a qualifiers and a finals in one day. A shitty time at work can leave a competitor with bad karma. Knives become an obstacle to be completely avoided at all times. I mean who wants to not be able to climb because their finger got dismembered from cutting carrots. (I distinctly remember the awful feeling of watching the knife slice deep into my thumb instead of the orange I was cutting, this was two days before the final leg of the Triple Crown) What really weighs heavily on this competitor’s mind is the fact there is so much talent coming to this competition that there is just that one spot. One spot to make it to finals in open. One spot where I could hear my name boom from Raff’s mic, to step out in front of a crowd and feel their energy hype me up the wall. Now that weighs heavy on my mind.
Each pull up of training was followed by the thought, is this enough? Each campus section was finished with, what is my competition doing? Now I know Daniel Woods and Carlo Traversi are in a league all their own. They are the Tom Brady’s, Michael Phelps, and LeBron James of rock climbing. They make the rest of us mortals seem like kids wandering in off the streets looking for gym shoes and a belay lesson. Simply put they crush. Coming back to that one spot, the one spot not filled with a professional bad ass the competition really lies thick with the next big things, has beens, and the guy who can get lucky once in a while. This Dark Horse will be a competition between the pro’s battling out with futuristic power and a secondary competition of the one mortal who is lucky enough to compete with them. I can count at least ten people I know who will be in the qualifiers who can beat me, but I can also beat them. This of course excludes the surprise, the proverbial dark horse who comes in and crushes nasty style!
At times it weighs heavy like lead filled shoes in a swimming pool. Other times, I laugh and think how lucky I am to know that I could possibly compete against the pros. Mainly though the gym is where the thoughts come gushing out. They sweat through my chalk filled hands during my 4x4’s. They seep through my shirt as I feel the rush of gravity pull me off a plastic project. They are spoken about in front of me with slaps on the back saying “don’t worry, you’ve got it.” But I do worry, what if I don’t got it. Obviously it is one comp and the world will move on, but will I? Will this be the final nail in my elite climber coffin or will it be the first step towards a brighter spotlight?
Only time will tell who will fill the one spot…
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