The Climbing Plateau – How far do you push yourself?

I’ve reached an interesting point in my climbing and I haven’t quite figured out how I feel about it or what it means.

I’ve been an athlete most of my life, and I’ve always been very driven when it comes to sports, both recreational and competitive. I’ve always wanted to be the best, and I usually push myself to the very edge in order to be (or appear to be) at the top of my game.

But let’s be honest, that was a lot easier when I was 16 years old. Now that I’m 25, I find that I’m not quite as determined to be the best, and I certainly don’t feel like pushing myself to the edge in order to keep up with some of the other guys/gals at the gym (people who clearly devote a lot more time to climbing than I do).

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m growing tired of climbing – that couldn’t be further from the truth! I’m just really satisfied and content with what level I am climbing at. I am able to onsight most of the 5.11s that go up in the gym, and I feel very comfortable and relaxed when climbing 5.10s and 5.11s – it’s where I feel “in my element”. I have climbed a couple of 5.12s at the gym, and while I can usually get through them (eventually), I find they require enough extra physical exertion to take them out of enjoyable realm and make them kind of annoying (albeit satisfying when you do reach the top).

As I said, I don’t really know what all of that means for my climbing. In the last 8 months I have come a long way in climbing. I’ve worked my way up to climbing 5.12s, I’m bouldering v5s (although I don’t boulder very much after my tendon injury), I’ve learned great climbing technique from instructors and other climbers at the gym, and I’ve learned to lead climb. I’m looking forward to getting even better – I’d like to take a few more of the classes at Sportrock, I want to learn trad (which I will be doing in a couple of weeks, more to come on that later!), and I want to increase my climbing endurance.

But I don’t have any desire to be pushing myself to the edge, because I’ve realized that climbing is purely recreational for me and I don’t want to risk ruining that by pushing myself to a point that offers little reward.