The Day I Sent Nordic Plumber

A few days ago I fell on the very end of the slopey rail that finishes Nordic Plumber. This came after about 1 hour and 15 minutes spent on the wall climbing and resting. As soon as I lowered, the anger was replaced by a strong nausea, and the next 6 or 8 hours I wanted to vomit. I'd never experienced this level of exhaustion from a redpoint attempt.

This next section is the "nitty gritty" for Nordic Plumber. Skip down if you don't care about specific moves and numbers.

Start on Nordic Flower. The first 6 bolts climb like a really long v8, part of which is always varying levels of wet. From here, sprint through physical moves between no hands kneebar rests. After 20 meters, you've arrived at the intermediate anchor.

Here, I sink into a comfortable no hands kneebar, and tie myself onto the anchor with a bight of rope. Next, I call off belay and pull slack down until it reaches the ground. My belayer pulls the rest of the rope through and puts me back on belay.

Once recovered, you immediately jump into a funky v3/4 using some kneescums. Then it's easy climbing but never easy enough to stop for 10ish meters, which brings you to another kneebar. It's tough to shake on this one because the wall is steep and the foothold is bad, so you clip, breathe, and launch into a really cool v4 sequence, hooking behind a flake with a heel while you hold body tension to cross into a jug.

Climbing just beyond the intermediate anchor.

 Next, you paddle through more jugs and reach a kneescum, which helps you catch your breath but not recover much. This next boulder isn't too difficult but it's powerful and risky. It's a v5 sequence of deadpoints and swings through crimps and jugs.

Then you arrive at a jug rail with no feet, so you are jamming hands and feet in the crack as you motor along. When the rail runs out, there are 2 good spots for hand jams, allowing you to shake before the next boulder. I taped my left hand specifically for this, because the left jam has a painful pebble that digs into the back of your hand.

That pebble rips through any tape I've put on!

From here, another v4 begins, in which I cross into another left hand jam, and kick my right foot over my head to jam into a crack, and reach super far to a jug. A swing, a skipped clip, and a few jugs later, you've arrived at the final kneebar rest, just beneath the sloper rail.

Kneebar rest just below the final rail.

The right knee allows you to recover, the left one doesn't. Unfortunately, you need to alternate otherwise your right calf will explode....

When your calves can take it no more, and with 50 meters of climbing under you, you launch into the (v5/6?) redpoint crux, a sequential and slopey rail with horrible heel hooks, a campus move, and a heartbreaking stab into a jug at the finish.

So there is the breakdown. Nothing mega hard or cruxy, except maybe the first few bolts. The abundant rests on this route are a blessing and a curse. They leave you with too much time to think. Every rest, you look at how much further you still have to go. How much luck you will need to hit every hold on every boulder problem correctly...it's such a mind game!

After my first time punting on the finish, I felt optimistic. It was heartbreaking, but it was undeniably progress. The second day back on the route, I was able to make it to the same spot. I had some negative thoughts going through my head in the final rest below the rail. I blasted off feeling really well recovered, and as soon as I did the campus move about halfway out the rail, I felt my whole body drain immediately. I kept fighting all the way back to the same move as last time - stabbing into the jug. But I didn't have it, and came peeling off again.

This punt was different, however. On the bright side, I noticed that as pumped as I was, I didn't have that feeling of overwhelming exhaustion or nausea. It was your standard "oh I fell because the moves are hard and I was pumped" rather than "I fell and now I need to lay down with a bucket and consume fluids the rest of the day". With this in mind, I thought maybe I could have another try later that day, if only for the fitness.

Unfortunately, there was a darker side as well. I began to think about how I could fall on such "easy" moves. I thought about friends of mine that I'm sure would float up this route. I started to compare my efforts to their imaginary ones. And more than anything, I thought about Southern Comfort.

I think about this route (Southern Comfort) every day.

I would have liked to think I was close to sending Nordic Plumber, because I was falling on the last hard move. But I couldn't shake the "lesson" I'd learned from SoCo, which is that falling on the last move doesn't always mean you are close. Sometimes you fall on the last move for months. I started to envision myself falling on this rail for the next 2 months. I wasn't sure I was motivated enough to invest so much into the route.

Feeling a strange combination of defeat and optimism, I hiked back up to the cave in the mid afternoon. I decided this attempt, being mostly for fitness, I would climb faster and take more risks. And I did.

The bottom half went really smoothly. I spent less time resting in the kneebars, but I committed to truly going no hands when I got them, rather than alternating hands to shake.

At the intermediate anchor, I adjusted my kneepads a bit, and visualized myself moving quickly through the next section. I confidently skipped a draw that's usually a bit taxing to clip, and continued into the kneebar below the v4. Quick shake, and a spontaneous but deliberate change in beta got me through, feeling more secure than it ever had. Another skipped draw and I made it to the kneescum before the v5.

Just after the rope switch on my send go.

I wasn't feeling too pumped. I felt properly warm. I launched into the v5 and made it through to the hand jam rest. I felt that pebble dig into my left hand, drawing blood through the tape. After a few minutes I did the last boulder problem before the rail. I felt good. The terrain was super familiar, having just been here earlier in the day. Another skipped draw and a line of jugs lead me to the kneebar below the sloper rail.

Here, I am proud. Or maybe content is a better word. If I fall on the last move twice in a day, that's still pretty good. At least I'm a consistent punter. In french, we say "nothing happens twice without happening a third time". In english, we say "third time's the charm". I was curious which it would be.

Part of the reason I rested less earlier on the route was in hopes that my calves would be fresher here, and I could rest in the last kneebar longer. This wasn't the case, and I had to leave the kneebar a bit earlier than desired.

I've no idea how, because every bit of the rail felt as hard as previous attempts, but I did make it to the jug. BUT IT WASN'T OVER. Given the state of my forearms, the jug might as well have been another sloper. An equally absolute effort allowed me to match this "jug" with my left hand, and thus bump my right hand into a hand jam. Talk about euphoria. Suddenly I was relaxed, sunk down on the jam, and clipped (after skipping the previous 4 bolts).

Not having enough juice to clip the anchor was a serious concern of mine. I moved up to some jugs above the rail, and tried really hard to find more hand jams. Thankfully I found a couple of flared jams, just enough to give the fingers a break. Soon, I began the last 1 or 2 meter traverse right to the anchor, and let out a huge scream of success as I clipped the anchors.