DAY SIX

Today I went climbing in Jardines, a bouldering area in Queenstown. It is a beautiful area full of sheep and schist boulders… oh, and sheep shit.

Honestly, I haven’t bouldered much over the past 5 months so I had a bit of a humbling experience. In my mind, I’m just as strong as I always was, but my body didn’t live up to my mind’s expectations. However, being shut down on climbs is actually really motivating to me – it makes me want to climb even more! This experience has me back in my obsessive ways – constantly thinking about climbing. I can’t wait to climb all the time and get strong again. It’s a goal. Even though I haven’t been climbing as much as I used to, my deep passion to climb will never leave me… it’s a part of me that I will never lose. I accept the fact that having a long break will cause me to come back weak, but it’s only a matter of a few weeks before I start climbing hard again. Sometimes breaks from climbing are good, as they allow the body to completely rest, allowing one to return feeling even stronger. Who knows what the future holds. All I know is that I love climbing and I am PSYCHED to climb as much as possible.

barefoot bouldering, connecting with the rock:

The purple flowers always brighten my day:

Whenever I started getting upset that I wasn’t performing well as I used to, I would just scramble up a boulder and admire the view. The beauty of the scenery always put me back in a zen mindset.

Jardines is basically a huge field of schist boulders that have broken off of The Remarkables, the mountain range towering at 2000 meters. The climbing there is both athletic and technical with some powerful moves and good landings. It’s a prime bouldering area for Queenstown climbers.

Lelo pullin' down!

Lelo cranking on Tom's problem:

Despite the frustration and humbling experiences, I had a really great day here and I can’t wait to come back!!!