Mike Doyle’s Rants&Raves

I’m sure all you climbers out there who work and redpoint routes have experienced The Unexpected Send. You know what I mean; the redpoint where you tie in at the bottom almost expecting failure but somehow you surprise yourself and stick the crux move, battle to the top and clip the anchors.

I think there are two types of unexpected sends; the one where you just don’t think you have time to send and somehow on your last day after letting it all go you get the send, and the one where you are tired or sick but somehow pull it off.

The topic of letting a route ‘go’ was addressed pretty well by Matt Segal when he blogged about this last day, last try redpoint of Cobra Crack in Squamish last summer. I myself have experienced this type of redpoint. Most notably when I did Badman in Smith Rock in 2006 on the last day before driving east to the Red River Gorge. Badman was a route I had tried off an on for a few years whenever I got down to Smith Rock and the crux move was super hard for me. Even after resting on a bolt I was maybe 20% for the move so after climbing 13+ to the crux I guess I was around 2.5% (probably tried it 40 times). Somehow though, knowing I probably wouldn’t send and no longer caring allowed me to focus and try really hard. The same thing happened with Lucifer in the Red River Gorge. I had been working the route through cold weather and bad skin for six weeks and Audrey and I decided to call it quits. The van was packed and we were leaving that night no matter what. Again for some reason after letting the route go and accepting failure I was able to do the route on my third attempt of the day. Seems counter intuitive but it happens.

The point of this post however is the one where you are tired or sick (or both). I remember clearly when I was working Rude Boys at some point in the late 90s that I had tried it quite a few weekends. Then finally this one weekend some friends and I drove down from Vancouver and arrived around 3am. I was sick the whole drive down and felt horrible in the morning, even blacking out in the grocery store! I forced myself to walk down the hill, do a few warm ups and for some reason decided to tie in on Rude Boys. A few minutes later I was on the upper slab and headed for the chains!

What gives? After more than fifteen years of playing this game you’d think I would have it figured out but no. Part of me thinks that on redpoint we want to moves to feel easy and if we feel tired, or the moves feel hard then we just let go. However, if all the moves feel hard from the ground then we just accept that the moves are going to be hard and we try hard in the crux anyways, and are rewarded with success.

A similar Unexpected Send happened to me yesterday. While hanging out with friends for the past month at the Virgin River Gorge(VRG) in Arizona I had been playing on Route of All Evil, arguably one of the hardest 14a routes in North America. It is quite bouldery, crimpy and sustained = not my style. When I first got on it I didn’t think I would ever do the moves but I continued trying it since even holding onto the small holds would make me stronger. Then all of a sudded I did the crux move, after that I started linking moves and finally I was falling at the last move of the crux sequence and starting to feel strong on it. However the small holds and repeated attempts took their toll on me and I split a tip that required a few days/weeks off.

Which brings me to yesterday. After spending the weekend up in Alaska, climbing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, followed by a quick session up at Mt. Potasi on Tuesday I decided to drive out to the VRG with Sebastian. I thought I would get on it, try to remember the timing and subtleties and hopefully send this upcoming weekend. The air was warm but dry with a strong wind to keep the humidity at bay. Sebastian was inspiring me with his redpoint of Fall Of Man so I decided to give it some real burns. My first burn I considered a warm-up burn and I felt a little off but did ok. After falling I scrubbed the holds, did the moves through the crux and lowered down. On my second try and fell off with one hand getting a little to cold and not opening fast enough between crimper deadpoints. The third go was my strongest and I got set for the crux throw but just missed the crimper. Now three tries on this route is a lot for me. It is really hard climbing up to and through the crux so when I fell on my third go I immediately chalked up, pulled back on and climbed through the crux, did a quick shake at the rest and then tried to push a pump through the whole upper section. Since it was the last burn of the day I thought I might as well get a workout and I was thoroughly destroyed at the top. We packed up, started walking away but after sitting around and chatting with some people for about an hour I figured I still felt ok, the wind was still strong so I might as well give it one more go.

The thoughts running through my head were a mixture of positive and negative.

• Positive Mike is a good guys that is nice to have around. Always supportive and convinced of success. He was saying that with a good effort I might get the send but at least I’ll get a good workout.
• Negative Mike is convinced of failure and hangs around quite a bit. Positive that I was too tired and that even a bad attempt would result in me splitting a tip.

Despite the contradictory thoughts running through my head I tied in, got my breathing in check and started up. The bottom moves felt hard, but they always feel hard and soon I was in the crux section. I hit the crux crimp (a little knob) wrong and it is off this hold that I have to make the crux throw. Right away Positive and Negative Mike were having a battle.

NM - “Readjust that hand. There’s no way you can make this move!”

PM - “No way. You readjust you’ll fall. Just go for it, you can do it!”

NM - “Forget it. Just let go it’ll be easier that way. You’re too tired to do this. You just pushed a pump on your last burn.”

PM - “Go for it!!”

Listening to PM (rare) I moved my feet, set up for the throw and latched the next crimp. Right away another battle.

PM - “Nice work! You did it!

NM - “Great you did the move. Now what? You’re tired and it’s still really hard to the top.”

PM - “Nah, just shake and relax you can do it. You’ve climbed pumped before.”

NM - “Seriously… just let go. It’ll be easier on all of us.”

Once again ignoring NM I did a few quick shakes, barely made the next move and then I was at this decent rest just past the crux with maybe 13- climbing ahead of me. In reality I shouldn’t fall from there but the moves are still hard and I was quite tired. I shook for quite awhile at the rest and left there feeling strong. Resting at every opportunity and ignoring the pain in my feet I forced myself to climb slow and in control, weighting the feet as much as possible and before I knew it I was clipping the anchors. Even in the upper section I had to pause every so often to remind myself that I was actually on redpoint.

So on the fourth burn of the day, on a route that is really hard for me. I managed to snake an Unexpected Send. Moral of the story. Listen to the positive side of your mind. Trying hard is not easy but only when we try hard will be get success. Even if you are tired, you never know, you might end up with an Unexpected Send yourself.

Oh yeah, I was wearing my lucky Calvins :).

Posted on March 5th, 2009 by Mike Doyle
Filed under: Rave