English man in Font

I set off at Monday lunchtime, with the destination for the day being Fontainebleau. The thought of driving all the way to Innsbruck on my own was a little ludicrous so I thought it would be good to stop in Fontainebleau and it meant I could pick up an extra crash pad plus a new car stereo. The car stereo upgrade was beyond welcome as it meant I could listen to my generic audio playing device rather than the radio, and on very long journeys French radio has been known to drive men to madness.

Tuesday lunchtime I was on the road again, with a tank full of gas and a lot of time to think. The drive was estimated to be 8.5 hours and I wasn’t in the mood for blasting it, especially as I had my entire life in the car with me. The thought of my computer being smashed to smitherines in some freak accident was too much to bear, so I set the cruise control to the speed limit plus 12% and made myself as comfortable as possible. The stereo was set to shuffle and it made it’s random choices from the 160Gb of music that it had access to, surprising me with such delights as Queen, Richie Hawtin, and even some 2pac. Certain moments were heightened by the music, especially when Queen’s “I’ve got to break free” came on. This track has accompanied me in many random moments, from dancing in the streets of California to blasting full pelt out of the car park in Hueco, so I added this moment as another in that long list. 125 tracks later I was arriving in Innsbruck, after a quick stop in Switzerland to buy a little something for James and Gaz (answers on a postcard), and the track that was welcoming me into the town was (randomly) some epic string arrangement. I didn’t know what it was, and I couldn’t guess the artist let alone the title, but it was so momentous that I thought I should check. Ian Brown – The World is Yours reprise (orchestral mix). How fitting I thought, how very fitting.

The road here was a long one and in the middle period I was left wandering to myself why I was really doing this? What on earth are the real reasons for such a move? Am I just being foolish and expecting too much? I don’t really harbour any doubts but I was vocalising the demon’s side and it did cause me to raise some questions that I didn’t have answers too. As I left France and drove through Switzerland I was reminded as to the reasons why I love this part of the world so much. Many, many, moons ago a very special girl asked me “Mountain or Beach?”. This was a question I’ll never forget as I thought it determined what kind of person you are. It may well have just been an innocent question, but me being me, I made it into a matter of life and death. I thought so much about it, and in the end I decided there was only one answer; Mountain. I love the mountains, they fill me with inspiration and I never fail to be impressed when I’m amongst them or on top of them (very rarely!). I probably didn’t want to decide mountain back then as I knew she was a beach person, but I couldn’t hide from the truth of the matter! As the first sign for Innsbruck suddenly appeared a wave of excitement washed over me and I had all my answers. The fact I was filled with enthusiasm and had a smile on my face was enough to convince me that I was doing the right thing and I was doing it for the right reasons. It feels good to be here, really good actually. Perhaps this is just the romance of the situation, and given some time it will wear off, but knowing that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it while it lasts. The true measure of what this move means will becoming very apparent in the future when I can look at it with hindsight. In 12 months from now I really wonder how all of this will look…

Now that I’m here I’m open to anything. In fact, I want to ask a big favour of anybody who reads this blog. If you live in or around Innsbruck and wouldn’t mind an extra person tagging along then please drop me an email. I’m keen for everything, and I literally mean everything. I’m happy to go bouldering, sport climbing, aiding, alpining, via ferrata’ing, anything. I want to adventure, I want to discover all the new and cool stuff that’s around here. I’m not all that bothered about grades, I just want to have a bit of an adventure. So, if you’re local or semi local then get it touch (you can do so by emailing unclesomebody at gmail dot com).

I’m hoping that the next blog entry will actually comprise of something to do with climbing, instead of all this waffly pseudo inspirational stuff that seems to be appearing at the moment!

The last few weeks have been spent trying to become an organised person, so that I didn’t arrive at my leaving date with a million things still to do. Unfortunately the attempt at organisation wasn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped, although this is largely due to external factors over which I exert no control.

The biggest concern for me was finding a decent estate car, and I succeeded in that quest over the weekend. The old adage of “it’s it’s not broken, don’t fix it” rang so true, and I’ve ended up replacing my silver 2002 VW Passat with a silver 2003 VW Passat estate. It’s not a radical change, but I know that I’ve got a car which will see me right in my European adventures so I’m happy. The biggest welcome addition is cruise control… which is going to make the long drives a whole lot easier.

Since returning I’ve been getting back into the daily routine of training, and even running! My psyche was full to the brim after not really climbing for 6 weeks, and so when I got back home I wanted nothing more than to eat, sleep, and train. I definitely put a bit of weight on whilst with James and Gaz, so I’m hoping that a few runs per week can see me get back down to a fighting weight sooner rather than later. The other horrific realisation is just how weak I am at the moment. It’s interesting in how it’s become apparent though, as I’m not hugely weaker in every department, only certain specific ones. It was a surprise to find just how weak my arms had become, as I struggled to do anything more than a single one armer. I think this may be down to the redundancy of such a skill within rock climbing, as I’ve spent a long time climbing on rock and not training. In fact, the last time I did any length of concerted training was probably before Switzerland in September last year. I spent the winter in Switzerland and the spring in Font, so my rock climbing skills were utilised above my basic strength skills. I think that may be something to do with it, but I also think that a 6 week stint of work (yes, it was work!) probably has more to do with it.

All this weakness has only had one effect though, which is ultimate motivation. I want to feel powerful again, to feel like I can crush holds whilst seemingly floating between them with grace. The road to such a place isn’t too complicated; it will just take a bit of time, some patience, and plenty of hard work.

The big move to Innsbruck is rapidly approaching and in 12 hours it will become a reality. I think some people thought that this was a bit of a pipe dream when I first mentioned it, but I believe that the only way to make dreams a reality is to stand up and take action. Once that ferry takes me away from these shores, I can’t see a reason or a time when I may want to permanently return. I have this strange feeling that this small move to Austria will be a catalyst for other change, or perhaps I’m just hoping it will be but the end result may well be the same. Self fulfilling prophecies and all that…

I had a really good talk with my man lucozade a few days ago, and he was asking me about what turned it all around in my life plan. A few months ago I was looking towards an end in my climbing life. I wanted to get a couple more blocs done and then I felt like I was finished as I thought I’d peaked in many ways. But time is a great friend, and it’s soothing tick tock made me realise that I’ve not peaked at all. Some people view life as a series of up’s and downs, you ride the wave to the crest, then a downhill will follow, but you need to remember that another wave will follow. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, and I’d like to call my modified wave function of life the Lucibald wave. What really happens is you ride a wave up until it seems to peak, and the feeling is usually one of a plateau in performance. What happens next? You just hop on board another wave and ride it again, so instead of taking any downward movement you just keep moving up! That seems to be a much better way to live and that is how my view on climbing changed. I felt like I’d hit a plateau, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to go downhill, it means I need to raise my game and get on the next wave. That is what this move is all about, it’s about taking the initiative to get on the next wave and do everything in my power to ride it to it’s peak.

Lucozade left me with a nice little message and whilst some readers will no doubt berate it’s simplistic approach to life, others may understand that it’s possible if you dare;

“Whether it’s greener or not is irrelevant. A real man doesn’t follow a road, he goes forth on his own journey and leaves a trail for others”.