Photos: Julien Nadiras, Mikey Schaefer and Alan Collins
Last year, I made a wonderful trip to Smith Rock. A voyage that brought back the taste for sport climbing and pushed me back into the athlete lifestyle. To Bolt or Not to Be carries an historic aura. It was love at first sight for me. A line of 40 meters in a perfectly smooth and vertical wall. The route has over one hundred moves, all on tiny crimps.
To climb in it, you need both cold temperatures and really hard skin on the tip of your fingers.
There is not one really hard move but foot positioning is very delicate and varied. If you are slightly off, you are out!
I was able to climb in the route for two days last October, without getting anywhere close to putting it all together. But the route put me in a trance! I loved it’s beauty, complexity, and it’s atypical old-school style.
All winter, the line was floating around my mind and I spend quite some time trying to figure out the best way to showcase this demanding project.
So I went back to the U.S. at the end of February, bringing along my good friend and old time working partner Julian Nadiras. Julien has had a hand in all of my video projects. He was with me in the Argentinian desert back when I was a young 22 year old trying to beat the Tuzgle boulders. He documented my success in Silbergeier, and was also there behind me when I faced Orbayu.
This time, he tagged along for this North American trip and we have shared climbing and everyday life in Smith Rocks. He witnesses how climbing shapes my life, he sees how I operate, always in the present: either all out when motivation hits me, or quite unable to move when I am not feeling it. I lead a particular life and it is sometimes hard to understand. You have to be there to get it…and Julien manages to capture it all in pictures.
The day I sent To Bolt or Not to Be, it was exactly freezing temperature. I only had spent one day in the route since our arrival there, but that is all that was needed. My friend Ian Yurdin made for a perfect companion. I had no expectations on that day because it had been snowing when we entered the park. But as soon as the sun came out a little, my hunger for climbing surged. The first try without warm up was a promising one and on the second, I was dancing on it like I have done only a handful of times on a climbing route.
Climbing is a sport like no other. It is much more than a form of exercise. It is an art, a way of moving and a way of live. I am delighted to have the opportunity to express it in a movie to come.
After that successful climb, I felt very motivated to climb a bunch of other routes I had spotted since my arrival. But I was tired. My fingers were sore from all the crimping and deep inside I felt empty and lost somehow. I hadn’t experienced this kind of « big hole » for a while. It had happened after some of my bigger climbs, like Silbergeier for example.
In the end, To bolt has only been a simple sportclimb, but I was able to express myself in the way I wanted and Julien captured that in images, so that I could share what I felt and did with everyone : The perfect run after a long period of physical and mental preparation. The run when it all comes together and you are simply in the present, focused on nothing else than the next hold. The perfect danse in symbiosis with the rock.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure whether my sportclimbing will ever go much further than that. I have the impression that my climb in To Bolt expressed something I was eager to do and that I can now turn the page and focus on other types of climbing. But who knows, I change mind very often!!
Another very beautiful and demanding line I climbed in Smith Rocks is the famous « Viscious fish », a very tricky 13.d.
I also had the opportunity to climb in the sector « Upper Gorge ». A must see if you ever visit Smith Rocks!!! The rock texture is so distinctive and the climbing unique. Lots of stemming and compressing on very smooth and black rock. Perfect if you’re out of skin and ready for a challenge away from crimps.
My feelings about the U.S. are a little mixed up so far. I’m here for 5 weeks and I’m struggling with the cultural differences. It’s very fun to experience when you share it with a friend from Europe, like I did with Julien. But when I’m alone, I often get homesick and miss those little “European” things.
Language-wise, I am slowly starting to speak and understand English for real. Everyday, I’m learning new ways to express myself and ways of talking, second degree meanings etc.
I guess, I just have to admit that this trip is forcing me to have an open mind and I can feel that it will be an important one in hindsight. I feel very fortunate, even if though homesick sometimes.
And now off to more adventures in Indian Creek with my friend and Petzl Team member Said Belhaj. YEAH !
