Climber September/October 2017

James Pearson &
Caroline Ciavaldini
So why this one? I did a big project
last year, The Voie Petit on Grand Capucin
on Mont Blanc. That was last summer,
nearly a year ago now. It took a lot of
focus and I knew afterwards that I would
need a couple of months on and off to
regain my full motivation. So I gave
myself some time.
We travelled a lot and I gave some
time to James who had been my sparring
partner for nearly a full season, to focus
on his trad projects. Eventually I did start
training again and I could feel that my
motivation was going into a new direction.
I wanted to learn to trad climb on-sight,
something that I had not really done
before. That is a very delicate subject
that would be worth another column
entirely… you English often say you are
not fit for sport climbing, but with a little
work you could be great in endurance –
on-sight trad is really pumpy.
I trained on our climbing wall in our
house, progressing through all of our old
circuits and feeling a little fitter every day.
We visited Annot, a great trad climbing
area in the south of France, full of cracks
of all shapes and sizes. Every day I could
feel the progression of learning new
skills, then one day in a tiny crack where
I had to crimp like an animal to place
some gear I started feeling some pain.
After 20 years
of climbing I
am still learning
Ironically, with all the intensity of hard
sport climbing and competitions, I think
it is trad climbing where you are often
at the most risk of injury. There are lots
of times where you don’t really warm up
properly because there are just not the
right routes to warm up on and you often
find yourself pulling harder than necessary
out of fear, or a simple desire to feel
locked onto the holds.
I stopped fairly fast as the pain was
not going away and came down from
the route, but sadly by that point the
damage had been done. At first I did
think that, as usual, I had stopped early
enough to recover fast. It was only a
small pain. But it is taking time and three
weeks down the line I am still waiting.
I didn’t worry at first, trying to actually
enjoy the time off climbing and focusing
on other things… but now it is getting
too long. I have started climbing a little
bit again; only easy and without my
little finger but I know I have to be very
careful. Three years ago James had a
similar injury and after some time he
realised he could actually climb if he
kept his little finger in the air – like
you British drinking tea.
Unfortunately for him, in doing so
he modified the way he held his arm in
the air, causing several other muscular
tension problems that lasted much
longer than the original injury.
I know I can’t climb too much that
way but just easy climbing should be
okay and I am enjoying climbing just
for the pleasure rather than constantly
pushing myself more and more. I keep
coming back to finding your balance,
which is easy to say and obviously
harder to do, but if it wasn’t we’d all be
perfect and I wouldn’t be writing this
column about injury. I am also starting
to look forward to training again and
that makes me realise the good side
of my injury, being forced to take a
break finally helps me to regain full
motivation, something that I did
struggle with the last year.
Not being able to climb gives me
lots of time to dream of the routes that
I want to try and now I am simply
looking into the future where I will be
allowed by my body to climb, train,
improve, test myself once again. After
20 years of climbing I am still learning.
If we look hard enough we can normally
turn each situation to a positive and
at the same time learn how we can
minimise the risks in the future. I’m
still learning and I’m sure I’ll be injured
again at some point in the future, but
for right now I’m enjoying missing the
effort and enjoying getting back to
wanting it. You come back more
motivated than ever. n
Caroline drinking tea and
keeping her injured little
finger in the air – very British.
Photo: James Pearson
Caroline and James are supported by Edelweiss, La Sportiva, The North Face,
Wild Country, Altimssimo and Biomechanica. They also founded the S.P.O.T. project,
a charity aimed at helping less fortunate climbers. You can find out more about
this and maybe make a donation, buy a T-shirt or pass on some climbing gear at
www.spotclimbers.com
Read more from Caroline and James at www.onceuponaclimb.co.uk
www.climber.co.uk Sep–Oct 2017 53