But the biggest issue for me was mental.

When I thought that I may never climb again (mind you I was never that good, I hit a 5.10a in Lander on top-rope…once) I was devastated. I had built relationships and community within climbing that I didn’t have ready substitutes for in other areas of my life. I was forced to ask myself, “Who am I, if I never climb again? And what the heck will I do for fun?” I do know that I am more than just what I can climb. I am learning to take joy in just being able to get “out there”, doing something outside with friends. But being unable to climb (or do almost anything) really forced me to look at what is important. I was pretty angry at the “Big Climber in the Sky” for taking away the one thing I thought I really enjoyed, and I wondered why He would be so cruel. Maybe the real cruelty would have been for me to pursue climbing to the detriment of other areas of my life. Maybe I needed to stop growing as a climber so I could grow as a person. And maybe (for most people) climbing injuries are just that, injuries. But for me, it was a chance to walk a different trail…one that I may not have chosen for myself were it otherwise.

The take-home? Love God, serve others. Places and pastimes(like climbing) just provide a venue to practice that in. Climbing is still important to me, hopefully it will continue to be part of my life – but that’s it…just a part of my life, not the whole. I am now learning to deal with my physical abilities as they are, make improvements where possible, and accept that “It is, what it is”. Acceptance was a huge key for me in allowing myself to explore what else might be out there.

Last October I returned from a short roadtrip to Wild Iris / Sinks with a kink in my left shoulder which I of course ignored. By first of November I couldn’t raise my arm over my head without serious pain. It wasn’t a sudden blow-out like Chris Webb Parsons or Ethan Pringle (not like I spend time reading the climbing blogs or anything), so I didn’t go to the doctor. I did force myself to take about 2-1/2 months off from all climbing. During that time, I did twice-weekly complementary light weight training with focus on shoulder exercises pulled from Eric Horst’s books and others, twice-weekly core strength yoga, and regular hill running. My shoulder is pretty much healed now, but more so, both shoulders are stronger and a lot more flexible. So, hopefully more injury resistant. Of course, the hill running has tweaked my right knee…

For me, I’ve tried to look at injury as an opportunity to work on something else to benefit my climbing while staying as close as possible to climbing or a related training activity. I need to know that I’m always making progress toward my climbing goals on one level or another.