2017 has just finished and it is impossible not to make a
balance of this first year in Mallorca.
Taking into account the mere aspect of climbing, which as
usual makes everything else look almost irrelevant, I would say that the most important
trait of my climbing experience has been fired up by the idea of start taking
note of each route I climbed.
I know this sounds a bit silly, however following the
suggestion given by Sergi Flash, a local climber I often climbed with, I
understood how important this routine is in terms of self-motivation.
Sergi has an hand-written notebook where he takes note of all
the routes from 7a and above that he sends or project. He writes down how many pegues (attempts) he gives to each
route before sending it, he collects hand-made croquis (topos) and any other sort of information he might consider
relevant.
I found this practice very inspiring and following his
example I started doing a similar job but instead of using a notebook, I am
keeping my records on a excel file.
The results were really unexpected and far above my
expectations if compared with any other year of the past.
In 2017 I climbed in total 21 routes from 7a to 7b+ across Krabi (Thailand), Mallorca (Spain),
Sardinia (Italy) and I managed to send 15 of them.
Among the 6 I didn´t manage to send there are two important
routes that I am thrilled to complete as soon as the conditions are good again:
Sweetie the Pooh, a fantastic 30 meter ride in Caimari, and King Conguito a classic sustained overhang in S’estret both of them
graded 7b.
Considering the general high level of ordinary European climbers,
I am aware my results are nothing special, yet considering a bad injury I
suffered right after the summer when I was at the top of my shape, and certain
limitation given by being a father, I am super happy and
absolutely psyked of the year to come.
A big thanks goes to Sergi,
for the inspiration given, to Marco
for his help, and of course to my wife Supranee for her endless support.
Happy 2018 - Climb harder!
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