Gripped – August 2019

Have you learned to embrace being

injured over the years?

For the majority of my climbing life, I had

some sort of injury. I have learned a lot

from those times I was injured and I tend

to shift my focus until I’m healed.

Climbing is becoming increasingly

popular. Where do you see your role

as a professional climber in helping

to shape the future of the sport?

That is a big question, but I do think that

as a professional climber I have a responsi-

bility to have a positive impact within the

changing climbing culture and community.

I think the biggest positive impact that

I can have as a professional climber is to

share all this psychological and well-being

stuff that I am interested in. There is also

this idea that I have all these people fol-

lowing me on social media and I feel my

responsibility is to not to waste their time.

Jude Spancken is a writer based in the U.K.

Why do you think this “send” attitude is so

engrained in our climbing culture?

Climbing really is the most goal-oriented sport when you think

about it because there is nothing clearer cut then getting to the top

of something. I actually think that competition climbing is prob-

ably the best when it comes to talking about this because a comp

climber in training will create problems that brings weakness to

the surface. There is just something about outdoor climbers that

many seem to have this attitude of getting to the top is the goal

and anything short of that is a failure.

We hear a lot about the flow state these days, which can

be described as an “optimal state of consciousness where

we can feel and perform our best.” I know that you teach

about it, when did you learn about the flow state?

You hear people talk about it and intuitively you know what they

mean. I started doing my mental training research and you don’t

have to go very far before coming across flow. I read Mihaly

Csikszentmihalyi’s book called Flow and realized that this is

something worth looking into. We all know what it feels like.

It really is just like this subconscious but complete absorption in

what you are doing when that thing is challenging and you are

still seem to be doing everything right. You are just performing

at your absolute best.

Opposite top:

Findlay freeing the

Salathe Wall 5.13

on El Capitan

Opposite bottom:

Findlay on Le Pirate

on Aiguille d’Argentière

near Chamonix

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