Commitment

There's really only two things to talk about here.

Chris did Keymaker. So sick. Katie finally did Jenga. So sick, once more.

It happens so often when you walk up to a problem, do it and walk away, not putting any real thought to it other than "that was fun". There is no work, commitment or sacrifice. No punting or trials and tribulations.

Those problems tend to be somewhat forgettable.

What Chris and Katie did yesterday doesn't fall into that category.

There was a huge amount of commitment that went into each problem and it inarguably took over a major part of their lives. It dominated their thought process and they each spent multiple days trying to get off of work or out early so they could go up in the evening or early mornings.

The level of psych it takes to get to that point is something special and somewhat rare. It doesn't happen all that often but when it does good things happen. They are times that should be cherished and enjoyed to the full effect.

What's most inspiring to me is knowing that it didn't come easy for them. They had to try extremely hard. There were huge falls, dry fires and so many punts it was staggering. So many days were spent walking down the talus wondering when it would happen and to come back from that can be demoralizing.

Right before Chris did Keymaker, after multiple big falls from the last hard move, he wondered if he'd rested too long(probably had) and whether he'd be able to do it that day. Not 5 minutes before Katie did Jenga she looked directly at Nic and told him she wasn't going to do it that day. She hadn't stuck the crux once and felt terrible on the problem.

They both turned it around yesterday.

On November 14, 2009 a nice crew went up to the lake. Aaron, Ellen, Katie, Chris, Sarah and myself. We started at the North Shore and went to Beautiful Soup. Chris tried Beautiful Soup for the first time that day. We spoke briefly about Keymaker and I remember talking about how psyched I was for it. Chris noted that he'd never do Keymaker.

Shortly after that we walked up to Moj. Chris and Aaron wanted to work it a bit. After neither sent we walked up the hill to Jenga. Both of them did it and Katie tried it for the first time.

As we walked down the talus that day Katie looked at me and said, very candidly, "I'll never, ever do Jenga".

A year and a half later, on the same day no less, they've both cleaned up their projects.