A short while ago my climbing partner Matt and I sat down to really address our growing concern of if we getting ourselves in over our heads. To tackle this problem we went ahead and built out our Near Mid and Long term goals for what we wanted to achieve in our climbing careers. To see the results of this discussion and where I am today you’re going to have to visit the Goals page. (As of now we have a ways to go!)

We looked at a few key issues, the first and most obvious being “What do we actually want to climb”. The next step consisted of understanding what time of year is the best to climb each goal we had set out. Finally we needed to know what skills would be required to achieve these goals safely and efficiently, how far away from that skill level are we, and what can we do to bridge that gap.

This is the first multi year plan I’ve had for anything in life besides perhaps university, which is  of course very much laid out for you. For this we had to design our own program, our own fitness regime, and set our own milestones. Figure out what books to read, what courses to take, what training to do. How to get real instruction, who to partner with, the need to build a relationship with a mentor. A mentor is one of the best sources of passing on climbing knowledge, it is highly recommended.

So far this has been a lesson in how much I don’t know and how far I have to go to feel safe and competent. It is nice to know the path in front of me a bit better, but also to be honest a bit daunting- mostly the amount of flying west I’ll have to do!

Exciting times- check your knot!