DAY 174
09.25.07
TREE 91
Possibly the last hot day this year. But you never know. I walked out onto the Mount St. Francis parking lot readying myself to climb. Mentally anyway. I have this desire to be fully self-sufficient when it comes to climbing. I free climb which means I use no equipment or safety gear, unless you consider my special shoes “equipment.” I think they help immensely, though I have this fantasy of living like George of the jungle, barefoot and loin-clothed. But just wearing shoes and a short sleeved shirt can be disastrous to my skin with all the scrapes, cuts, and bruises I incur. The reason I bring all this up is because as I approached todays tree I had a strong desire to find a way up without the use of stilts as I had done last time. Once underneath the tree I looked carefully but few options presented themselves.
I did see one option, a tiny hanging limb I could reach and somewhat held up in my preliminary weight tests. But in the process the base of this limb was severely damaged and I knew it would only get worse. And I did not want to kill the limb if I didn’t have to… so I resigned myself to the aid of stilts. I walked to my studio, grabbed a pair of stilts and walked out to the water tower where I hopped on and walked slowly to the tree. I got my positioning with a little back and forth adjustment then let go with one hand and quickly got my grip. The other stilt in my left arm tilted under the loss of the other support and hit me in the back of my hand, but not too hard.
I dropped it immediately and monkeyed backward till I could lift my legs up to right myself. From there I climbed as usual, looking for the easiest path. Suprised once again, it was way easier this time than the first time. It is funny to me that one huge aspect of my increasing abilities is just my knack for finding new and easier routes. Almost like the optimal process is the ability to make an easy climb rather than getting better at difficult passes. It seems somewhat similar to my philosophy on self-defense. I like the idea of being really good at running away and getting out of combat rather than being really good at physical confrontation. But, I have gotten better at climbing all around. Which brings me back to the tree climb. I easily got to my ribbon, completely bypassing that knot that had slugs.
I even got a little higher on the tree, no problem. The view was good and the climb down easy.
Though I enjoyed this climb and a renewed sense of my ever increasing abilities I do miss a scary challenge.
9-28-08: So behind in my blogging! I’ve been busy the last few days with deck work, shuttle driving for a wedding, and helping friends move. But though I have not been blogging, I have been climbing. I’ll get to those soon.
Looking back at this entry… I don’t really recall having the fantasy about being barefoot and in a loin cloth. I would like to be able to climb barefoot… but I like clothes. I am looking forward to cooler fall weather so I can climb in pants and long sleeves to prevent all those scrapes and cuts.
Also, it may sound like I just run away from danger. And that may be smart. But I have also been asked, “what if it is someone you love that is being attacked?” I can’t imagine I would run away. I would do what I could physically, but thankfully I have never had to answer that question. I just don’t prefer to train in preparation for combat. In parkour I often imagine I am being chased and that is something I believe is more fun to practice and more useful in more situations.
Speaking of parkour, I went to the meet-up on Wednesday night at U of L. After warming up a little I spotted a nice large hackberry tree that called to me.
I left the group and walked right up to an overhanging limb and began to climb up. I crawled into the trunk and then climbed up the strong limbs to the very top. It was a great climb but I kind of wish I had a better view. I could see some stuff nearby but none of the city’s skyline. It was also not dark yet so no bright lights.
You can see I am sportin my new kicks again. They have been good for parkour and I am happy that I have gotten back out there.