*Editor’s Note: We at Last Word On Sports are proud to have Robert Jantzen join our team. Robert is a very experienced climber and outdoorsman, and currently works at an American National Park as a climbing ranger. This is his inaugural climbing piece for Last Word on Sports, and we look forward to reading his personal and thoughtful articles.*
On a crisp fall Kansas morning a number of years back I lost my wallet. I was 16, still reveling in being able to drive, having my first job and learning what it meant to be responsible. I was proud to be learning how to take care of myself, and very upset that I had let myself lose my wallet. I kept on going over and over through its contents in my mind; $160 in cash, friends’ phone numbers written on scraps, my work schedule, and who knows what else. I tore my room apart for the better part of an hour and raced around my house looking under seat cushions and in coat pockets. What a day to loose that damned thing! I was going to join my brother’s college friends to go rock climbing at the only boulder field in the entire state. I had been looking forward to this for weeks.
In the end I had to get a ride from my parents to the rendezvous location and, as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I had to tell the others I couldn’t help with gas like I said I would. No cash. On the drive I had an upset stomach, and wasn’t at all a part of the older kids’ conversation. As we pulled into Rock City outside of Salina I was feeling like I shouldn’t have come.
But the rocks, huge spherical calcite-cemented concretions spread across the landscape, were standing warm in the sun. My personal playground, full of nooks and crannies to be explored and climbed. I wandered around, feeling better, but not by much. The gnawing of knowing my wallet was gone still ate at my teenage ego.
I found a steep portion of a boulder, about 15 feet high. I scoped out a route and ran my hands over the surface feeling for a purchase. I put my right hand high, left hand down low, left foot up on a nubbin, lifted my last foot off the ground and flagged it under. The world disappeared. No wallet, no peer pressure, no stomach ache existed. For 60 seconds I worked, one move at a time up the face. My focus entirely on my center of gravity, my fingertips, and what the next ten seconds would bring. I was happy.
Climbing creates a focus unlike any other activity. The possibility of a painful fall and the effect of hundreds of feet of open space below you hone your mind into the nuances of the moment. When you climb, the problems that swirl around the rest of your life disappear. On your descent the calm continues and life seems way more manageable than hauling yourself up the sheer rock face you just spent the last half day on.
As I grew older I moved out of Kansas, started trad climbing, alpine climbing and mountaineering. Each discipline of climbing brings something new to life. More dimensions and experiences.
On a recent trip into the North Cascades with two great climbing partners I lost myself, as I love to do, in the focus of kicking steps through knee deep powder up a glacier. I don’t know how long I had been looking at my feet, breathing hard and swinging my boot deep into the snow when one of my partners called out and pointed up and to the right. My head snapped up expecting some hazard needing my attention to be unfolding. Instead I was met with one of the greatest joys alpine climbing brings. On the summit of the peak, way high above us, the clouds were parting and allowing the first rays of sun to play over the golden granite. We had been climbing since one in the morning, and now the day had started for the rest of the world with a sight no other human was seeing save our team.
Climbing is a tool to understand and escape from life. It brings the participant into areas seldom visited. While the risks are present, and at times great, the rewards spill over much more. I have fallen in love with the discipline, the gear, the adventures and the culture.
I hope to share this love in the new climbing section of Last Word on Sports continues and expands. Look for personal stories, climbing insight and essential gear reviews.
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photo credit: Pierre Metivier via photopin cc
