Do talk to strangers!

We Swedes aren't the most talkative of people. We don't strike up conversations with strangers on buses, we don't have loud, passionate, arms-wildly-gesticulating conversations about politics in restaurants. We are bad at cheering encouragments to our peers when we see them trying their hardest at something we practie ourselves. Now there are of course exceptions here and I'm not saying that we are the only people in the world behaving like this, but it's definitely not a trait I'm proud of.

Not so in climbing! For some reason, the Swedish dont-talk-to-strangers-mentality is temporarily suspended whenever we enter the climbing gym or arrive at the local crag. People you've never met before and wouldn't even imagine talking to in any other situation suddenly become your temporary climbing partners as you buddy up to climb the same problems.

Is it because the community is small enough still to make it feel as though we are part of a small group of people that have to "stick together"? Is it some magical aspect of climbing that loosens the tounge whenever in close proximity to plastic grips or granite rocks? Is it the non-competitive nature between climbers where the only fight is against the wall and yourself combined with the fact that we are all gunning for the same goal that makes us open up socially?

It think it's all of the above but I also think it's because we just have so much fun climbing and (looking at myself) I just can't help myself from wanting to share that joy with others around me. When everything else out there in that annoying place we call "the world" - demands, deadlines, stress, bad weather, idiots, missed buses etc - just fades away and you have one focus: climbing! That's when it's easy to relax and just enjoy yourself, and when you see others enjoying themselves just as much as you are it's easy to get into it and you forget you're "not supposed to" be so fucking cheery (you're Swedish for goodness sake! Now wipe that smile off your face and mutter something about all the damn snow).

I saw (and felt) quite a bit of this amazing atmosphere this weekend. The final Boulder Bash event at Klätterverket went down last Friday. Say what you will about "for-fun"-climbing comps and how they are stressful and the place is packed with too many climbers and how it sometimes feels like someone is going to get seriously injured falling on someone else. But when you see the newbies struggling on the easiest problems there are and a whole bunch of really good climbers cheer them on like they are going for the world's hardest climb, that's a really unique thing to see. In a way, they ARE going for the hardest climb in the world, as far as they are concerned, it might as well be. And we've all been there and that's why it's so easy to feel happiness for other people's accomplishments instead of jealosy. Hats off to Klätterverket, they really put on a good show every time with fun "half-time" shows, quality problems, nice prizes and exiting finals.

Now this is not to say that climbing doesn't have its fair share of douchebags and people with attitude problems or that you yourself sometimes just feel like shutting the hell up and just climb without talking to everyone around you. But I hope that we can continue to maintain this great atmosphere where it's ok to discuss problems with eachother and cheer people on even though you don't know eachother or climb at the same level. I think it's a constant fight and it requires an open mind.

So I guess the point here is that I don't just love climbing itself, I love the community as well. It's just filled with so much joy, friendliness and passion. Keep it going!

I also realised this weekend that what we do really does affect people (so happy whenever someone comes up to me and tells me they've started to train seriously to develop their climbing and that one more move is at least in part responsible for it), and since this is alot about training and being serious about development, I feel some degree of pressure to put the my own training on an appropriate level. Will blog more about that later on, but for now, one really important rule/lesson: Listen to your body! Don't climb harder than your joints, muscles and mind can handle for longer periods. Resting is probably as important to success and development as training is! So keep on pushing hard, but listen to your body and stop if you feel pain.