End of Year Wrap Up

(warning there will be lots of nerdy climbing grade talk)

2008 has been an awesome year for my climbing. I travelled to some of the best spots in the world for climbing, met some cool people along the way and climbed hard! In fact this year I feel like i've taken my level of climbing, especially route climbing far higher than any other year (I think I said the same thing last year). Last year I improved on my highest redpoint from 7a+ to 7c which is huge, and although this year I only took it one notch higher to 7c+, I feel my route climbing has impoved so much more. I have consolidated my status as a 7th grade climber with 16 routes this year graded 7b or higher, 9 of them onsight, last year I had only done 11 routes 7b and up and none of them were onsight. Bouldering-wise although I didn't break into any new grades, I think maintained a fairly high level. My bouldering send of the year was probably Immunity Challange a V7 at Squamish which I couldn't do in 07 but did quickly this year. I think if I spent more time bouldering as opposed to route climbing I could have bouldered even harder. My proudest route of year is probably one that doesn't even count on my scorecard as one of my hardest of the year, my 2nd go ascent of Vagabond d'Occident at Ceuse. Vagabond is known as being one of the best and most popular routes in the world, in fact I just checked 8a.nu and it is has more ascents registered than any other in the world! It was a dream to climb, nice big heucos and pockets on a steep wall that seemed to go forever and challenge you the whole way. And the fact that I got it on my second attempt shows how much my level had improved on last year, having only done one 7c in 07 after working it to death.

Right now I feel in good shape for the year to come, I probably couldn't step out my door today and onsight 7b. But thats probably got more to do with the 7b's in the area to try rather than my ability, and thats a whole other topic. But if I could predict anything I would say if 08 was the year of onsighting, then 09 will be the year of redpointing. My main goal for 09 is to climb 8a, and I think I am in a better position than ever before to do so. I even have a route in mind, which is half the battle, the route is Chronic a 5.13b (8a) at Little Si. I've got on it before and struggled a lot, but I feel if I am able to train on it and work out the moves, I can use seige tactics and eventually it might go. What also helps is having other friends to work it with, and create a bit of friendly rivalry. Jimmy, Nick and Micah are all capable of climbing it this year as well. We've all tried it, and get to a similar point, Nick is probably the strongest on it out of all of us, but he won't be back here until the summer, so we'll have a couple of months to catch up to him.

Other goals for 2009 are to do more V7's and 8's at Leavenworth and Squamish. Discover other climbing areas in the US for both bouldering and routes. I want to get back into trad climbing, maybe do 5.11 trad again. And also non-climbing goals are to work more than 3 months of the year this year, and not travel so much, 25 flights in a year is not sustainable. And be a stronger climber and person in general. I'm feeling good about 2009, bring it on!