Finally back to climbing.
During February while everyone around us was celebrating the Olympics my family and I packed our bags and left on a trip to Bishop, a favorite spot to visit with our kids. We had a few good days and then revisiting an amazing line called Seven Spanish Angels I felt pain in my shoulder as I was locking off. Later that night my shoulder got super inflamed and I realized that my climbing trip was pretty much done. It was really disappointing but I had good friends and my family around me, so it was still nice to be in such and amazing place with good people.
When I got home I started rehabing the shoulder and mtn. biking to keep busy. With all the new trail activity around Squamish there was loads of new riding for me to explore and I was having a blast. I had just finished a ride and managed to have a clutsy awkward fall (I won’t go into details because it’s such a lame story) and tore my hamstring pretty badly. Luckily it didn’t require surgery but extensive rehab and down time. Long and short of it, I haven’t climbed in over three and a half months and this Saturday I finally got back out there.
Bruising caused by torn hamstring.
I was totally apprehensive about getting out there too early and having a set back but I’ve also been dying be out on the rock again. So, when a friend called and asked if I wanted to do an easy multi-pitch slab route I said yes, figuring it might help stretch out my hamstring and continue to breakdown the masses of scar tissue that had formed.
Fred Becky finishing yet another lap on the Apron.
We had a great day in the sun cruising up fun slabby granite and as we climbed I looked over to my left and caught sight of and gave a shout out to my friends Sonnie Trotter and Big Kevin who were also out enjoying the sun. A little later when we topped out I looked down to see none other than Fred Becky making his way up. Not bad for a guy in his late eighties. Anyway, due to lost leg strength compromised proprioception, it turned out that the walk down was actually harder than the climb up and I took it really easy to avoid re-injury.
It felt great to be back out climbing in perfect weather after 3.5 months off. This morning I woke up still excited and all I could think of was getting out again so I phoned my friend Marc Bourdon who is also rehabing a shoulder and we went out and did a handful of easy sport climbs at Chek Canyon. I’m so psyched to be climbing again! Bouldering might be a while off yet because I’m not sure my leg would hold up to a fall but at least I’m making progress and getting closer to putting my Flashed mat to use.
Also, for those that are interested, Marc Bourdon’s new Squamish Bouldering Guidebook is due out any day now. It’s loaded with new problems and areas and includes an area I’ve been developing called Paradise. Check it out.
