Spring: The Season of Change
Spring is slowly creeping up and with each new day, the sun grows stronger and feels amazing as it warms your face and skin. I can’t help but smile and embrace the season of change. Each spring, things slow down with work and the winter grind comes to an end. The bitter cold and grueling winds tamper down and the stoke begins to grow as rock season fast approaches.
With the spring comes change and time for reflection. Time to look inside and see how you’ve been showing up lately. How are things internally and externally. I like to use this time to look inside, be truthful, be real with how things are. How did I show up this winter? This year? Something I noticed for me was there were days when I would just coast and hit repeat. Almost like Groundhog Day. Hopefully you get the movie reference and if not, go and watch the movie and you’ll understand. Is this a criticism for me? I don’t think so, I’m human and I know I’m not perfect. It’s more of a realization and reflection of how when things get stressful and hard, we as humans tend to react. When things get hard you gotta learn to persevere and use the tools you’ve learned in life to help with that stress.
This spring season, I want to show up better. I want to take more deep breaths and work through the stressful things in life. I want to gather the information before the action. This all relates to climbing too and this craft some of us chose to do. Being able to change with the seasons and change how we view a route, train, or change how we talk to ourselves before or during a route is a key component not too many people talk about. The way we talk about ourselves or a route can have a drastic impact on the way we climb. “I can’t do that route, it’s a _____ and I only can climb ____”. Compared to “It’s going to be hard, and I can do hard things. I got this”. One way sets you up for failure and limitation while the other encourages you to dig deep and see what happens. Obviously take this with a grain of salt and don’t put yourself in unnecessary risks.
It’s funny as I write this from Chamonix where spring is here, and the options are endless. Ice climbing, mixed climbing, alpine rock climbing, sport climbing, backcountry skiing, or a combo of all is usually used to climb a route. My true rock climbing season is a few weeks away, but I still enjoy the reflection time and being able to climb and not guide. To change and focus on my personal progression as a climber and guide. To change and focus on the next steps to achieve my goals.
Spring is a wonderful time of the year and I hope whomever reads this gets the opportunity to reflect and self-evaluate with this season of change.
Thank you for reading and hope to see everyone at the crag this spring and summer!
-John
