On Saturday I had the unique opportunity to go deep water soloing on the Psicobloc Masters Series wall in Park City, Utah. Ive heard others talk about how scary and terrifying it is. I always knew in my mind the reality of the fear of fall from a significant height into a pool of water especially if that fall happens mid move on the route. But up until now I never fully realized the entire experience. For the competition the routes went all the way up the 55 ft. wall. Once that was over they removed all the holds past about the 35 ft. mark to keep it safer for the public. There were various routes on either side including the lower section of the comp route, which was graded at 5.12a supposedly. I tried it and was only able to stick the first move and after that just seemed so impossible(there were no feet!!) I played around on the other easier routes and had a blast. I ended up only dropping from the top once. All the other times I either downclimbed to a more comfortable spot to jump from or I just downclimbed all the way. To add to the fear factor of the fall, the water was COLD and so was the weather. There wasnt a great way to get warm so you would just stand around dripping wet in the cooler weather with the wind to make matters even worse. It would have been much more fun if it had been warmer; probably less scary too. Nevertheless it was a great time and I would totally do it again! And now I can relate to all the athletes whove competed on that wall. Many props to them for the shear amount of commitment they have climbing that beast. Heres a little video of me climbing a simple 5.9 and then making the full length drop into the pool. Enjoy!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 06:09:38 +0000