THE ENDLESS SUMMER

Far, oh so far, from being an ode ot Brown's surf movie, this title just wants to show you how incredibly long this summer is being for me. Not only in terms of a long series of happenings that are related by this context, but also in terms of the unusual temps we are blessed with. I am talking 33° now. Summer storms in the Alps as well, so that it's too hot to climb here and too wet to climb there. It's too hot in the gym also, but that doesn't hinder me from cycling three minutes to go there and move irons around until I faint, and then going on a bit more.

Anyway, the climbing gym is nearly fully ready again, with many of the holds cleaned and on again, and the problems being set again. Yesterday the guys made me try two new circuits of around 26 holds, free feet, to test the grades. At a given french 7a+ and 7b I flashed the first and did the latter second go, at the end of the session. Naturally it took years for my forearms to recover, and they are pleasantly sore even today. Not bad at all.

I also retro flashed two of the problems I had set the in past weeks, and started working at a futuristic (supposedly) project to keep my motivation high during the season. A little time into it it didn't seem that futuristic, just hard, but sports nice moves with body tension galore, and I hope to finish it and send it next session.

I have to rest today.

Finally, a friend of mine really left me puzzled yesterday at the gym, making a few statements about some problems I've done outdoors recently, that sounded very challenging, and later saying that he "will wait for me to get injured again to catch up with my level". To a climber who's had every kind of injury and recently broke a wrist, this doesn's sound good at all. I said nothing special, because I was feeling very uncomfy, I just draw his attention to my taped fingers and wrist, but definitley felt something that resembled alot, alot to envy.

So I asked myself why?

I don't know.

Later I tried to make him try my problems, but he preferred to do long circuits because he's going sport climbing again now. He seemed to me very low in motivation and psyche. I am really sad for that, and I don't know how to make him feel better. Obviously I won't go bolt clipping. I think I'll try to remind him that he does not like sport climbing, he likes bouldering, and the simple fact of being out of shape for bouldering doens't mean he can't enjoy it. Or maybe now he can't just enjoy it with me. I don't think so, though, because he actually asked me to go to Switz together.

So, who knows, maybe we climbers are more fragile than other athletes. Maybe acting in a medium in which there are no real rules, no real measures, in which everything is subjective, makes us less secure of our feats, more dependant on others' judgement and opinion.

So how can we be sure of the real value of what we do? We can't. We just have to be honest and true to ourlselves. In the movie "Gattaca" when the "normal" brother defeats the genetically modified brother in swimming in the cold ocean at night, the second asks him how he's done that. The answer is (more or less) "never thinking about how to get back to the beach".

So the only truth is in the future, is in setting goals and achieving them because that has a dignity in itself that is far more important than the objective value of the achievement.