Advice I'm Glad I Took (and wish I would have taken more of)

Regular readers know that I'm a middle-aged husband of one and father of two. My wife and boys are the most important things to me in the world. Because they're important I have real job that provides a steady income, but only gives me three-weeks of vacation (I'm lucky at that!) per year. Honestly, I would love to spend that time almost entirely on climbing trips, but alas, I get about twelve weekdays per year to go on climbing trips - not a lot. I was just flipping through the forums over on Mountain Project. I noticed one for Ride Offered- Boulder to the Valley Leaving 9/6, and when I saw it, I felt a nostalgic little tug at my heart.

I was lucky enough to live in "The Valley" for two falls when I was a still a college kid. All-told, my ticklist from that time is rather unimpressive. Though I did have a blast, make and cement lifelong friendships and learned more about myself by sleeping in the dirt than I could have ever imagined. The climbing was amazing, and I truly became a much better climber during my time there, but the climbing exists almost as a footnote when viewed from a dozen-plus years later. After I returned from my second excursion, my full-time adult career started - climbing, and adventuring in general, took a necessary sideline.

So, onto that advice. If you're young, and you can, do it now. "It" might be climbing in the Valley, backpacking across Europe, paddling the Inside Passage...you name it. Do it on the cheap, but do it now. Adulthood has a way of popping up quickly and once it does; it is usually here to stay.

If you wait for the perfect time; you will never go. Don't ask yourself "Why now?" but instead ask yourself "Why not now?" and "If not now; when?"

Go and cast yourself into a great adventure - its lesson and memories will soothe your future.

Throwin' it Back to "Living the Dream" Last Summer

Last summer my good friend Phil and I went on a climbing trip to the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. You can revisit that post if you'd like, or you can just enjoy some of the photos set to music in the video below.

Cross One Off the List!

I love Thoroughfare, and I have loved it since the first time I climbed it on a top-rope close to a decade ago. At that time, if anyone would have asked if I would ever lead it, or any 5.11 trad route for that matter, I would have told them they were crazy! Even my considerably bolder early-twenties self would have thought leading 5.11 on gear was unlikely - I just did not have the mindset, commitment, or process that I do now. Latching the jug you see me holding in the picture below, is the result of over a year-and-a-half of hard work, dedication and commitment to a process. Two years ago this was an impossibility, and last night it became a reality - it won't land me in any of the mags next month and #Thoroughfare won't be trending on Twitter anytime soon, but I accomplished a goal I was not even aware that I had until recently and considered impossible up until a few months ago. There is no secret to doing this, and I really believe anyone can do it...set a goal, create a plan, and work the plan. It will take sacrifices along the way, but that moment, where you blow so far through any prior expectations you could have conceived of for yourself, is worth every bit of sacrifice along the way - the smile on my face speaks for itself.

James Schroeder, hitting the jug at the end of the difficulties on Thoroughfare (5.11a) at Devil's Lake - Jay Knower Photo

Chasing Fitness Part 1 - Overview

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, or any other kind of expert so this is not professional advice - it is merely a record of what I did to lose some weight and gain a modicum of fitness. It worked for me, it might or might not work for you. Be safe, and check with a qualified professional before starting any diet or fitness program.

Back in January my friend Jay started suggesting that I join him on a climbing trip this spring. I was hesitant because Jay is an exceptionally strong climber, and even twelve years ago when I was at my fittest I could not keep up with him. In the time between, Jay has become stronger while I have lost some ground.

In February, Jay finally convinced me to pull the trigger on tickets to Palm Springs, California - Joshua Tree National Park would be the destination for our trip. I suddenly found myself with two months to prepare. A winter of cross-country skiing and coaching peewee hockey had left me with a reasonable cardiovascular base, but standing 6'3" and tipping the scale at 206# my body mass index (BMI) was still on the wrong side of twenty-five. BMI is not perfect, but it was pretty clear I was overweight. I needed to drop weight and get stronger and I needed to do both of them fast.

Joshua Tree 2014

I thought about writing a big, long article for this, but instead I think I will let the pictures do the talking, enjoy my first YouTube video:

I will follow this up with a posting of some of my favorite stills from the trip, and possibly a written trip report as well.

American Alpine Club/The North Face Live Your Dream Grant

Some of you may know that I spent the last nine days on a climbing trip to Joshua Tree National Park - an overwhelmingly awesome experience that I cannot wait to write about as soon as I collect all of the pictures. In the meantime I want to talk about one of the most exciting things to happen during the my time there despite it being only loosely connected to the J-Tree trip.

Last Wednesday, after three straight days of climbing, my climbing partner Jay and I headed into town for a rest day. Aside from showers and flush toilets, this meant access to cellular service and all its attendant modern-day e-goodies. Missed calls, missed texts, and full inboxes lit up our individual smart phones. Aside from the chance to talk with my wife and son, I was most excited about a waiting e-mail from the American Alpine Club (AAC) and a voice-mail from a Denver number.

A Red Recollection

I am psyched! I say that with the full knowledge that what I am psyched about means very little to very few, other than me. I onsighted a 5.11a sport climb today - which in the greater climbing community is about as noteworthy as me having successfully put my socks on this morning. Climbing a 5.11a sport climb is not easy, but it is not even remotely cutting edge, nor has it been for forty or fifty years. I will not be coming to the "Hot Flashes" section of a Climbing Magazine near you anytime soon.

My experience in climbing is that it vacillates between an intensely personal pursuit at the local cliff and a small team pursuit in the mountains - my accomplishment today was of the former sort. After over a decade of climbing taking a backseat to the rest of my life, I have entered a period of my life where it can be one of my top focuses - only my family being more important. As such, I have been faithfully counting calories and training for nearly two months in preparation for an upcoming climbing trip, and hopping on A Red Recollection today was meant to be a test of the effectiveness of that preparation (photo). I am exceedingly happy with the results. Today, at thirty-four, I led (in better style mind you) as hard of a sport route as I ever have in the past (and that was fourteen years ago when I was only twenty). To me this is a big deal, but more so because of the relative experience and the way it played out than the simple grade of the route. I have done harder and scarier things in the past, but this felt like a big step for me - today.

A Different Time

My friend Jay recently wrote a short blog post about an adventure we had many years ago. It was fueled by youthful exuberance and an inability to rationally calculate risk. I wrote a description of the same adventure as a part of a route description for Pause for a Whisper on Mountain Project a while back too.

It is interesting to see the different perspectives on a life-changing route. We were young, foolish, and proud back then; aging has only partially cured us of those adjectives, but we have both acquired enough marbles in life that playing for all of them sight-unseen no longer seems worthwhile. If either of us had been able to see past the horizon of our early twenties, and into the happy vista of our mid-thirties; we would not have put one in the cylinder, spun it and pulled the trigger like we did. Alas, such is the beauty and the curse of youth; too ignorant to know better, and so blinded by the moment that the future being risked does not matter.