This what Royal looks like.
This is how Royal is. He fears pugs and other small dogs.
Example: In the fall of 2008 I was lucky enough to be living with my good friend Justin at his ranger house in Yosemite. It was a weird time in my life, I was very depressed, but that story is for another post. I had one climbing goal while I was in Yosemite, it was a problem called Yabo Roof. To me this is the perfect boulder, I give it 5 stars. It is the number one boulder problem in the world that I want to climb. To be honest I am a bit obsessed, at one point I had it as my phones access code. I spent days working on Yabo that fall. I would walk the road to it carrying my two pads, one balanced on my head the other on my back and try it for as long as my body would allow. I did this for days, with little progress until one day when I started linking moves and doing those moves consistently. I was close and one night in the company of my good friends I caught a break. I was sticking my crux every time, but I was still unable to finish. Something was missing, until Randy suggested a beta change. I won't go into too much detail but he told me to adjust my left hand then try the move I had failed on. It worked, and it felt good but I had spent hours trying the other beta and was gassed. So I called it a night. Thinking I would one more day I looked at the weather to see my best chance. I was horrified to see that night was to bring 8 inches of snow and the following day another 6. But their was still hope, there were two days of no snow and it would be cold enough to keep the snow in the trees from dripping on to Yabo. So I came back after the snow had stopped with a backpack full of dish rags, propane, and a blow torch. To be clear I didn't blow torch the rock, just the sheet of ice on the top out. I brushed snow off holds, cleared ice and got soaked in the process. But it was climbable, I had gained one more day. The next day Justin and I walked out to Yabo and I tried one more time. I made it back to my high point bumped my left hand once and again to the good spot Randy had told me about, but something was wrong with my hands angle and I missed. I dropped in position and was horrified, I blew it. That was my shot and it was gone, temps were so cold that it drained my of my normal energy to keep trying and I called it. This was three and a half years ago and it still haunts me. Every year I go back and try it but the knowledge of the problem is gone and one day isn't enough to regain it. I'm still going back in November and going to try don't misunderstand me, I just have to get a lot stronger. Hopefully my three months of hand and core training will help.
Positive Example: This past fall I was trying another dream problem of mine. Both Sides of the Spectrum, I just call it Both Sides for short. I was also using the training program on the Links section of this page. I was training hard and could feel it on the days after a session, but I was psyched and had a good day on it earlier that week. I had fallen of the move to the jug. That go also took a good amount of skin from me. I was a little bummed thinking I'd lost another dream climb but I decided to hike out to it after my next training day and clean it. We were going to get snow and I didn't want it to ice over. I told my friend Phillip about my plan and he persuaded to try it when we went out that Friday. My skin was still really thin and I thought I would be trying with tape, so I wrote off any chance of a send that day. We got there and cleaned the snow from it then warmed up as it dried. It started off bad for both of us, Phillip got a mini split and decided on one more burn. He fired it, it was great, everything had clicked and he did it with good style. He then told me the micro beta, bring your ear to your left hand. Three Hours later I finally listed and it worked for me too. I latched the jug and was on top, I had done it, one of my dream climbs down, and it was after a training day with a hole in my finger the size of a pencil eraser. I still carry the feeling of that send with me, and even in my down times I try and think about that success to keep me psyched.
Also you should check out Sam Davis's photos at blimpbouldering.blogspot.com/ and www.sammyDavisPhotography.smugmug.com/
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