When I was really young, I wanted to dance. As I grew up a bit, I wanted to be a musician. For a while, in college, I wanted to be a politician. Then I got into rock climbing. My secret dream career hasn’t changed since.
If I could be paid for doing anything I wanted full time, I wouldn’t mind pulling down at the crags every day (that means climbing, folks! 🙂 ) The truly unfortunate part is that I’m no Adam Ondra.
I can sport climb* up to about a 5.10b (that’s the American rock climbing difficulty rating). To put it into perspective, this is the difference between me and what the best professional climbers are doing:
5.10b –> me
5.10c
5.10d
5.11a
5.11b
5.11c
5.11d
5.12a
5.12b
5.12c
5.12d
5.13a
5.13b
5.13c
5.13d
5.14a
5.14b
5.14c
5.14d
5.15a
5.15b –> Angela Eiter (top female professional climber right now)
5.15c
5.15d –> Adam Ondra (top male professional climber right now)
So, yeah. There’s that. The teensy tiny little problem standing in the way of my dreams.
I don’t have much of a chance at becoming a full-time professional writer either, but believe it or not, I’m probably far closer to being able to pull that off than making a living as a professional climber.
But it would be sooooooo rad… 🙂
*Sport climbing is where a route is pre-bolted with places to clip in the rope. It’s somewhat easier and far safer than traditional “trad” climbing because you don’t have to place gear into cracks to hold the rope in case of a fall, just clip a carabiner into the bolt.
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