The virtues: Perseverance

I crowded into Tom’s table at dinner one night when Chicken Mama’s Rendezvous was quite busy, and he was talking about his project. In answering rapid-fire questions from his friends, he happened to run together the responses to “What’s the climb called?” and his comment on his project. “It’s ‘Sex Power,’” he said. “I don’t have it.”

In climbing, a “project” is a route a climber repeatedly attempts to successfully or cleanly complete. The climber ropes up and gets on the climb 10 or 20 or 40 times, only to fall off when attempting a series of moves or one move in particular. A project pushes the climber’s limits. It’s often above the grade a climber typically leads or links a series of particularly strenuous moves. It’s a challenge and it’s a way to grow as a climber. (A project also often applies to attempting a route never before completed, though that’s not the kind of project Tom was talking about.)

“Sex Power” is rated 8a in the French grading system, which is the one employed in Thailand. That roughly translates to 5.13b in the Yosemite Decimal System used in America. The territory of most mortal climbers is usually somewhere around 5.10 or 5.11. It’s on the Ton Sai roof, which is bountiful territory for projects. The routes are steeply overhung and often technical, with complicated and occasionally acrobatic maneuvers.

Tom, a joiner (yes, like Snug in Midsummer Night’s Dream), from Tyrol, Austria, said he stopped counting after 10 attempts at the route, but estimated he’d tried it between 10 and 50 times. He agreed to let me film him working his project as an example of perseverance.



Click here to see the video.