This season I’m in a fortunate place where I will be able to get out on outdoor rock a couple days a week with how my work schedule has lined up this summer.
I’ve been training wisely leading up to this point and its amazing to think I’ll be back on rock again so soon after what’s felt like an eternity.
Given the amount of time I’ll be spending outside, (and the fact my WordPress subscription auto-renewed without my knowledge), I figured it would be a great opportunity to build the habit to take time each week after my time climbing to write a blog post detailing my experiences.
I hope to discuss the routes I climbed that week, how my progress towards my goals is going, and any personal insights I gained that week.
On that note, here are the goals I’ve set for myself this summer in no particular order:
- Share leads on Angel’s Crest 5.10b, 13p, 515m
- Drop my body weight to 185 lbs
- Not burn out
Below is a brief breakdown of each of the above.
Goal 1, to share leads on Angel’s Crest, has been something I’ve been considering since the end of last season after it became the idea a guide and I dreamt up for myself to strive towards.
Angel’s Crest is a beautiful line that travels up the Chief to its third peak. It travels past notable landmarks such as the Sheriff’s Badge and and traverses along the spectral Acrophobes, a sweet looking traverse that looks like something out of the Bugaboos. Below is a topographical outline of it’s path:
This goal will definitely push me, which is why I’ve recruited the help of one of the guides from Squamish Rock Guides to help me work towards this goal by climbing with him on my days out. At the end of last season, I was leading 5.8 trad comfortably, and followed up to about 5.9/5.10-. To achieve Angel’s Crest, however, will require me to push my leading grades up 3 full intervals which I know won’t come easy, yet given the amount of days I have outdoors this season, all which will be under the supervision and mentorship of a highly talented guide, it is my hope to achieve this goal by the end of July or into August before my final year of school commences.
Swapping leads up Angel’s Crest, in my mind, is meant to signify a graduation of sorts from the reliance of a guide in Squamish, enabling me to take my friends, family, and other partners on anything within my grade range with confidence. I’ve struggled a lot on rock in my last two seasons, and while just at the end of last season I began to see progress, it’s my hope that climbing this route can serve as a monument to my perseverance and dedication to this sport I love so much.
Goal 2, to drop 14 lbs to 185 lbs, is my second goal for the summer. The need for this goal was brought on by the fact that I overtrained myself so badly last year that I ended up putting on 30 lbs, sitting at 215 lbs.
While I’ve since been able to work off 16 pounds (!) sustainably, without dangerous caloric deficit or over-exercising, my goal is to drop down 14 more lbs to return to the weight I was at the end of high school.
Part of this goal, too, is not only to burn off the fat I put on while I was overtraining (by virtue of eating so much food to offset the stress my body was under), but also reduce the muscle mass I put on in my legs while I was playing volleyball. Given the physical demands of climbing, it’s easy to understand how excess fat and muscle only serve as a hinderance to performance as one is fighting gravity to make upward progress.
I intend to work towards this goal by continuing the habit which has enabled me to already lose 16lbs: simple, fasted walking. While I’ve tried many different options that always seem to end up causing me to backslide as they become unsustainable (e.g., 1000kcal deficit), it’s always come back to this easy habit which I have a hard time going a day without doing.
Simply waking up in the morning and getting on the treadmill before I eat has done amazing for me as it kills to birds with one stone: helping burn fat in a low-stress way but also sends the message to my heavy muscles that they can atrophy.
Losing this weight, I believe will not only boost my climbing ability, but serve a way in which I can heal my body from the dangerous demands I’ve put on it which I will detail more below. Moreover, it works towards my longterm goal of dropping down to 165 lbs without trying to rush it only to end up backsliding again.
My final goal for this summer is super simple but holds a lot of importance in the context of the rest of my life: Not burn out.
Between my last two summers and the training I’ve done in the months before them have been nothing short of exhausting. Between Athabasca, Rainier, Denali, Baker, Stanley, and a month long course in the Rockies, my body has had no time to catch up which was leaving me to feel I was beginning to age more rapidly as I pushed myself so hard.
While I don’t think it was the climbing that did this to me, instead, it was the compulsive need to train in the months leading up to those climbs.
Pushing myself on 3 hours weighted hikes, pulling a sled, not giving myself enough time to recover after hard climbs: it all built and built and built until it forced me to stop as my body lost trust in me leaving me in worse shape than I was before I started training.
The byproduct of all this training: burn out, has been hanging heavy over me for some time now, especially through this school year, yet I believe I’ve crafted a summer that is not only sustainable but will produce redemption to the hurt I’ve caused myself through pushing so hard.
I’ve come to realize that real progress is not built on pushing yourself at your limit until indefinite burn out, but instead, made through small, consistent commitments you uphold everyday.
I believe by achieving this goal, albeit difficult to quantify, will help me reset for my final year of my undergrad and establish healthy rhythms that will stay with me for the rest of my life and climbing journey.
I look forward to detailing my journey this summer in this blog and hope you enjoy what is to come.
Cheers,
Thomas
a blog by thomas goossen 
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