Getting Swept
As climbers, I feel that we get so laser focused on our goals that at times we lose our adaptability. On our recent trip, my buddy Noah introduced our group to an incredibly complicated game called Sweep. It’s a card game with 27 pages of rules. Once you get it dialed, though, it’s very fun. One of the main ways to score in the game is sweeping your opponent. If all the cards in the center are picked up, the opposing team loses 50 points.
Being swept isn’t the end of the game, but it is for sure a bummer. However, the game continues in sets like a tennis match, so even if you completely lose a set, you can win another and potentially come back.
On this same trip, we got swept in the climbing sense. We had grand plans: 5 full days of increasingly large alpine objectives. On our second day, we awoke to a horrible weather report. While we were prepared for sub-freezing temps in the morning, the weather forecast showed temperatures hovering around 11 degrees Fahrenheit and snow. We were not ready for that kind of inclemency. So we packed up camp and headed down from the high country to Yosemite Valley.
Noah and I planned on running up Snake Dike while Connor and Mike were going to do Royal Arches. The following morning, we woke up at 4 am to rain. We couldn’t win.
The group moped all the way to the restaurant in the valley. We had just taken a rest day and didn’t want to take another. Halfway through the morning, we decided to give Royal Arches at least a burn. Mike and Connor were already racked up for it, so they headed out while Noah and I supplemented our tiny Snake Dike rack.
After the first pitch, the rest of the route was bone dry. We only saw one other party the whole day. It was a Saturday on a 50-crowded classic in the middle of the valley, and we only saw one other party. It was incredible. We got to enjoy the position and the movement with just the people we came with.
To me, bad conditions only call for creativity in the moment. How do you pivot to continue working towards your goals? Did we miss out on the planned objectives? Yes. Instead, we had a magical experience in the valley during August that people could only dream about.
Getting Swept isn’t the end of the game— perhaps it’s just a reason to try something new.
Stay Climbing,
Michael
