Sport Climbing: Higgy Land, Powell River - Pushing your personal limit

Skeletons of Society (5.12) -  Photo credit Tara Trigg. 

 Skeletons of society taught me to have a much higher expectation of what I'm capable of.
Specifically, it taught me not to assume I can't climb something just because the grade is above what I think my limit is.  If you don't push yourself beyond your limit, you won't ever raise the bar.

 Many times I've caught myself checking the grade of a problem or route and automatically writing it off, like "Oh I can't climb that, too bad." I see people in the gym and outside so often saying "wow that route/problem looks so rad....but damn Vwhatever / 5.something is beyond me" - but how could you possibly know that without even trying it?

 Here I am, years ago, on my first 'hard' route - Skeletons of Society (5.12). The crag is called Higgy Land and it's Powell River's main sport climbing area. Tara Trigg captured this photo, which looks like I'm climbing hard - though I'm actually just about to fall, only a few moves in. Remember, photos can be deceiving.

 I remember putting SO much work into this route. I almost couldn't believe it when I was finally able to lead this route, it felt like doing a warm up. I went straight from top roping 11s (at best) to trying this 12, and was still generally in the 'beginner' phase of climbing. Attempting this route was a massive leap forward.

  It felt physically impossible at first. I could do a few moves, but was for the most part completely shut down. I didn't even know what to do. Realizing that a few moves were possible though, I was able to deconstruct it into sections and just had fun with working on it, thinking 'Well, if I turn it into 5 or 6 long boulder problems, I can do that, I just need more endurance." It became this epic puzzle of difficult movement, and I fell in love with climbing at my limit.

  After a few sessions, it's amazing how much you're able to accomplish if you push yourself. It wasn't long until I was clipping the chains on lead, though I will admit I pre-hung the draws as my stamina was still weak and my fear of falling on a clip still high. Also, I worked it out on TR first, which gave me the mental breakthrough from 'this is impossible' to 'wow, I just climbed this.'

 After sending this route, as well as the 12+  to the right, I was ready for a new challenge. I started working an unbolted line that went through the far right end of the obvious main roof...

 Expect a post about the new route soon!