Wow, so I went climbing today. What's so special about this is that I used to be a top notch climber, experienced a terrible fall, and stopped climbing 8+ years ago. I won my division of the largest climbing competition in the world and placed 11th overall (in only my 2cd competition). I lived, breathed, and ate climbing 247 365. I was on track for product sponsorship and photographers started taking my pix (scroll down to see a few). Nothing was more important than climbing road trips. About 8 years ago I was just recovering (read 3 spinal surgeries) from a severe spine injury that happened during a climbing trip in Oregon. The fall wasn't devastating at the time. In fact, after the fall (which was long), I sucked it up, got a cheap ass motel room, sat in a hot bathtub and drank copious amounts of beer. I continued my trip 2 days later. A couple of years later when I decreased my training from 6 days/week to maybe 3/4 days, my muscles atrophied a little, and wham... the spine injury expressed itself. This was the most intense pain I've ever gone through. It got so bad that my spine completely deformed (hunch back), I could barely get up to pee, etc and I was taking 12-15 vicodin tablets a day -NOT because I was addicted but because the pain was so unbearable. I was going to kill myself for real. I would have had too, because the way I was living (over 1.5 years of INTENSE severe pain) was NOT living and god damn it if we can put down animals for suffering I wanted out of my suffering. In fact, people in severe pain (day in day out, no breaks) have a 50% suicide rate. I understand and agree with them. I would never make another human being suffer -because "life is so precious...we should even suffer to keep it" -fuck that. Those sentiments are spoken by people who have never truly suffered that kind of pain...continuously. Shoot me in the fucking head, better yet...just give me a morphine overdose, tell me you love me, and let me the fuck go. -However-, I met a surgeon who did my second surgery and while not completely gone...the pain was bearable -with daily vicodin. After 3 surgeries, countless spinal injections, and titanium rods and screws, and donor bone... I can live my life -with 1 daily vicodin tablet.

So, climbing... Today I went to a climbing gym after not climbing since my back injury surfaced...8 years ago. I felt like an Olympic gymnast going back to the gym trying to do a cartwheel. Anyway... I just wanted to start getting into shape again. I'm little yes...but I'm not fit. Definitely not 35 pull ups on a door jam fit. But, I pulled out my gear, squeezed my thighs into the tiniest climbing harness (I was just nothing but lean muscle), and headed up the wall. I was only top-roping (the rope goes down to you, so pretty much slim chance of falling and hurting yourself). The technique was there, but the poor body and lungs. Of course, I was weak...but really it was my asthma that stopped me. I did climbing laps (climbed the same route over and over) for over 30+ minutes. When I stopped my leg muscles already ached. ahhh... climbing... screw going to a regular gym... you want to get fit? truly fit? then climb...it works out every muscle in your body (well, you probably need to do push ups). Anyway, I'm going back. I would like to be able to do a bunch of pull ups again and be tight all over. I won't be in shape like I was at my peak, but that's ok.

Here are some pix of me climbing limestone before I was at my peak. These were taken by a professional photographer. ahhh... those were the days... :)