I live in a van and have for over 20 years. But who cares right? Well! Some do! The District of Squamish is working on a by-law that will outlaw sleeping in your tent, vehicle or RV for all people, within the entire district (the one exempt area is 20 min from town, requires 4x4 and lacks toilets). WHY? Due to the rising number of complaints regarding irresponsible wild campers, to those uncomfortable with people who sleep in vehicles or tents, the District considers wild camping 'an environmental and social hazard.’ However, many residents live in vehicles due to socio-economic factors, …
Climbing Tips
A collection of posts relevant to improving your own climbing. They say it is a wise person who learns from their mistakes, but an even wiser one who learns from others. So go ahead, learn from mine!
For those interested in competition, please check out the competition post category which covers many personal stories, experiences and lessons learned from various Bouldering World Cups and locals. Here you can learn what to do, as well as what not to do. I didn't start competing as a youth so everything was very new to me, and hence, I feel I got a perspective which many competitors take for granted. My four year 'experiment' had a very steep but valuable learning curve which many of my stories share.
Chipped Off
It was one of those projects which I am sure you can relate. The kind that keeps you up at night as you imagine and feel yourself doing the moves. If given the chance, you would drop everything to travel across the world just to have another try. For Randy Puro and a few others, that line was the low start to Lesson Six. Randy recently made the voyage from California to Squamish, specifically to revisit this old project of his. He mentioned that the holds felt different, larger even. He thought it might have been chipped. Later confirmed by locals, the work is obvious as seen in the photo. So …
Advanced Movement Training for Climbers
It isn’t hard to tell a great climber from a good climber but what makes them stand out? Is it their big, burly biceps and Popeye sized forearms? Do they have a special ability to handle internal pressure and fear that allows them to move without care? Is it the efficiency with how they climb, making it seem as if they are just floating up the rock?While it would be hard to point to one specific thing that makes an excellent climber, one thing is for certain, there are movement patterns that great climbers do very well. Precise footwork and perfectly timed movement is something all athletes …
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The Slow-mo Road to Recovery
Sometimes people call me Slow-mo. Though only certain people… The nickname comes from my speed of doing things. Slow-mo rhymes with Thomo so it is sort of funny. But only sort of. My pace can be frustratingly slow for not only some route climbers who I'd only describe as bright eyed and bushy tailed, but also for myself. When it comes to injuries and their accompanying lessons, I feel incredibly slow, or perhaps a better choice of word is stubborn. I like doing things at my own pace but sometimes, that isn’t an option.It has been over a year and a half now of working alongside an injury that …
Injury Prevention by Training Smarter
As climbers we push ourselves constantly; climbing and training through pain to either luckily climb past it or inevitably have the pain stop us from doing what we love. Recently, I met my wall; there was no way up, down, backwards or forwards to keep climbing. A wall is a stop sign with a cop car behind you. You have to stop. 100%. My wall gave plenty of warnings before actually setting its pillars down. In hindsight, those warnings taught me some valuable lessons. For one, when I start climbing again, training smarter will be my priority. But what does training smarter mean? And …
Nationals
Do you remember a time when you wanted something so bad, all your energy and thoughts combined, spiraling towards that one and only, which finally in the end, was swept from beneath your feet? You go through a few days of disappointment and upset yet, somewhere in the deepest of spots, a small feeling knows that what you wanted isn’t necessarily what you needed. Anyway, that’s been my last couple months…! Nationals… slight disaster…!! Not just the event, but more the time leading up to it. My shoulder was a mess; pain was my constant. After BC provincials, it was to the point where it …
Breakthroughs, Part 3
To save the eyes of any weary reader, this will be the last of my series on breakthroughs simply because after this event, there were no breakthroughs, only realizations. For now, I’ll tell you a little story about the competition which took place at the end of January, the BC Provincials. Headed into the crowded zone of qualifiers, my goal was to bring the state of mind needed to do my best: that of relaxation and focus. For the past few years of my competition journey, I knew this was necessary but wasn’t sure of the how, let alone my capability. But in the qualifying round of the …
Cowboys and cowgirls. Breakthroughs. Part Two.
There was a bus that bobbed along the city streets, like a bottle in the ocean. It was crowded and filled with people who seemed to be minding their own affairs. The guy next to me was watching an Instagram video of a young girl dressed in a bikini, blowing kisses to the viewer. Across, a darker woman sat with sad eyes, staring out the window to a distant world. Though like any other, the bus ride felt odd, foreign like. Not foreign as in people speaking different tongues, but foreign because I was sitting on this bus with only one piece of luggage and, no child by my side.I often hear of …
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Breakthroughs. Part One
January was like this… a whirlwind of excitement, adventure, nervousness, and apprehension; emotional turmoil twisted itself into moments of empowerment and disbelief. Eye opening realizations and instants of complete disappointment wrestled with my core beliefs. While ancient hardwiring aimed themselves down pathways of comfort, something followed; challenging and provoking another way, showing other possibilities. It’s like this; you need to do something different to make progress. Usually it is something simple; like relaxing or taking conscious breaths. Yet, when found in a situation …
Tips on Splits. Part two.
This is part two of “Tips on Splits”. For part one, click here. Prevention: There are some things you can do to prevent a split for occurring, skin care and self-control on the rock being the most important. If you feel a tear is pending, yet you can't seem to stop, again, really consider stopping and try thinking long term. (You'll also probably send your project faster…!!!) If it is impossible to stop climbing, definitely tape up and change problems. The rock will still be there in a week’s time. Climbing with tape sucks but waiting a week or two for a tear to heal is …
Tips on splits. Part one.
Part one. In the last month i have encountered four split tips. This is something I am not accustomed to yet split tips are something many a climber suffer from. As many climbers prefer to climb in the wonders of a cold and dry environment, unfortunately, in this environment split tips are bound to happen. (especially if one skin resembles that of a lizard...in which case you want to always wash chalk off and moisture and avoid Anti-hydral, (It will dry out your skin too much) !!) My recent split tips have caused me blood and pain, but more importantly, …
Insights of Coaching
In front of me sat eight little people who looked up at me with a combination of eagerness and shyness. It was a scene oddly familiar from years back, yet completely anew. Here I was, about to coach gymnastics for the first time in years. Part of the job title was to display the gymnastics circuit for the kids later to mimic which made me feel slightly queasy. Let’s make a couple things clear, this is recreational gymnastic which means easy but I was never specifically any good at gymnastics and it has been years. Despite starting at an age considered ‘too old’, it was my first love and if …
the insides of a mind
Terry McColl photo My mind steps in offering words of facts and mediocrity which in no way convey what I want to say. The only thing I care to write about is the very thing which helped, yet it is that very thing which seems to have no words. It conveys an overall sense of complete emptiness yet completely void of any loneliness. Coupled with contentment and ease, it gave a glimpse of what was possible, offering a taste of what could be. It may seem like confusing talk, though to me it is quite clear though not concrete. The only way I would allow myself to go to the Toronto …
Interview with Squamish Climbing Magazine
Below is a a clip of an interview i did with Squamish Climbing Magazine just before the going to the Toronto Boulder World Cup. To find the rest of the interview follow the link below! Many thanks to those who helped get me to Toronto and thanks for reading! Big thanks to the Squamish Climbing Magazine for the interview! IFSC Bouldering World Cup Toronto: Interview with Thomasina PidgeonBy Tim Schaufele | May 30, 2015 Thomasina Pidgeon has been a familiar name in Canadian climbing for as long as I can remember. Originally from Newfoundland, Thomasina moved to Whistler and then Squamish, BC to …
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Puzzles in action
I like puzzles. Logic puzzles, crossword puzzles, 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles… But most especially, climbing puzzles… Bouldering has always intrigued and stimulated me because of the difficulties of solving these puzzles. It seems impossible, to promising, to doable. It’s like working on a physical puzzle between only you and the rock. Then there are competitions. They too are a puzzle. I find them interesting as well; to the point that I haven’t been on rock much because I want to get better at figuring out this puzzle. But it isn’t so much the physical side that confuses me. Nowadays I …
Commitment, sabotage and the temptations of Spain
The Spanish landscape reminded me of the long drives I’d taken in the southern states. The ground was dry and the air, fresh and crisp; it was akin to stepping into summer. The warm air filled the spot in me that had been longing to roam the Hueco Desert. The sun, it infiltrated me so deeply, I melted. This was pure enjoyment. My pre-coming wavering had been in vain. We were around a delightful combination of old friends and Sarrasonna rock. My body felt light and strong; movements came easily, relaxed and without thinking. It was back to basics; simple, pure and innocent. There were no …
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Adventures of a route setter
About this time last year I signed a piece of paper which felt somewhat like a contract to the devil. It required things of me which I had not been accustomed for a long time, mainly scheduled work. It wasn’t the work that made me shudder but more the obligation to stay in one place for an extended period of time. The thought sent shivers down my spine; the invisible wings on my back flutter. At that point, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but needing work and having been offered a job without asking; well, it seemed an easy solution. After all, it involved working with an amazing …
A cat on a rant with a mission
Apologies ahead but this will be a most negative rant spreading the most undesirable vibes into a wilting world and achieves nothing but a voice let to cry out its poison upon the listening eyes of some soul who will perhaps read and tut, and imaginably, tut again, in disapproval over the expression of frustration which burns inside of me. The Munich World ChampionshipsFortunately for the reader and perhaps the whole of existence, the fire inside has been extinguished. Flickering its last sparkle of light, only the aftermath of reflection remained. Analyzing everything from my thinking to …
Laval. Some first’s and some last’s…
Well this was most interesting. Unexpected and yet, surprisingly... a break through. Unexpected because the outcome wasn’t a worry in my head so the fear of it didn’t exist. And surprising, for a few reasons. Firstly, I’ll clarify, it isn’t surprising that I got last... Having been close enough to this border on numerous occasions, its occurrence is somewhat inevitable. This competition however, amazed me in a few ways. Firstly, it was the first time I felt strong in warm up. Second, it was the first time I took enough rest before a comp, which probably makes sense of point one. Third, I …
Three weeks of a whirlwind. Squamish. Part two.
Dedicated to the amazingly perfect granite cliff, Siám’ Smánit, which stands proud over the community of people who welcomed me back with a warmth and knowing which hadn't touched me for a long time. Thank you Squamish. X Sḵwx̱wú7mesh. It means wind in the native tongue. Anyone who has been there would understand the reasoning. Upon arriving a strong wind blew in off the Howe sound which surrounded the granite cliffs and Tantalus range. My eyes fell upon the pure grandness of the blue, green and grey. The view was spectacular. Unreal. My insides were confused; somewhat anxious. It had been …
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