Jarem Frye

When you shin is glistening with sweat you know you’re pushing yourself! I climbed 2,000 vertical feet today. My friend Erin belayed me for two and a half hours in the morning in which time I busted out more normal goal of 1200 feet -ten 120 ft routes. I went to lunch where Sara and the kids met up with me and we all ate together. Then we went back to the gym and I climbed two more routes bumping my record to 1440 ft. Craig told me to plan on seven pitches a day so while I was so close I decided I may as well try to do two days worth and climb 14 routes, so I climbed two more making the total 1680 ft.

I was content with stopping there as we were becoming pressed for time because of a rodeo my nephew was riding in. We really wanted to be there for that and it was an hour away from the gym and I was so drenched in sweat that I probably smelled worse than the horses we’d be seeing. We were about to leave but we found that the kids had tangled several ropes on another wall and pulled one down. I got the tangled ropes back to normal and tied the loose rope to my harness and climbed an odd 5.9 on a corner to set it back up in it’s proper place.

After getting down, Sara turned into the old coach from Rocky! “Back up and then down climb it and that will be another pitch” she encouraged. I gave her a look that said “really?” She simply said, “well, go on!” So I did. I only made it up again and didn’t down climb. I did the math and let Sara know that I’d just reached 1760 ft. “How much more would it take to reach 2000?” she asked. Two more 120 ft routes I said. As you can probably guess, she made me do those two as well, but what you don’t know is that she made me do them fast! “We’re going be late” she pushed. Don’t un-tie or anything just do them both back to back. I took one rest on each route but in the end I did it. I climbed 2,000 feet in one day, with 19 pitches climbed in all. That’s the same vertical footage and the same number of pitches as the entire route we’ll be climbing in one week on El Capitan!

Yes, I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of my wife and grateful for her support and for all the support of everyone else who has belayed me (Curt, Bart and Erin). I know that El Cap is a different challenge and that it will be more challenging with all the gear and no comfy padded floor to come down to after every 120 ft + carrying all the food, water and equipment, but I’m very comfortable with the idea of doing it over three days. I haven’t felt this ready for something big I’ve been talked into ever! The last thing I really had to prepare for was the LIVEstrong Challenge and I wasn’t ready for that at all! I did finish though and I will finish El Capitan as well!

After all the climbing we went to the rodeo. Sara pointed out that it was our third bleachers event this week, “all with people trying to kill themselves” she pointed out. After the World Superbike Championships and the demolition durby, it was fun to watch our nephew ride sheep in the ‘muttin bustin’ and then to see the other events but what I liked the most was, the true American spirit that was there.

I was reminded of some pretty great things about America. The “quick cowboy prayer” offered at the start of the even was sincere and heart felt. I remembered that we are a nation that was founded on good Christian principals (and with a lot of help from God) and that some of us still trust in Him. After that, the flag was brought in by two girls on horses and after listening to Trace Atkins sing about how we’d kid everyone else’s tooshies, we listened to the National Anthem with our hands over our hearts. I remembered my friends who do the tooshie kicking, and the sacrifices they make, my good friend Garrett who rode an IED to a new life as an amputee, and others who return with all their limbs but never become as stable as Garrett is emotionally, all so I can live any life I want too!

I saw a skinny little boy hoist a 50 gallon barrel up to his dad on the other side of a 5 ft fence for the barrel races, and remembered that America was founded by by hard working strong people, who got that way by starting young. I saw dad’s proud to the brim of their ten gallon hats, of their son’s and daughters. I remembered how important family is in America.

I have to say it’s been a great day!

Now I’ve decided that I need to start liking country music. The whole cowboy way just seams to be more in touch with God, country and family and it shows in their music more than in the kind of music I like. Just a thought resulting from a great time with my brother and his family, and my family at a good ol’ country rodeo!

Now I’m really tired. My awesome wife is going to give me a massage and then I’m going to sleep in the valley of the dead until church tomorrow!

Last night I rushed to the gym after spending the day with the family at the Word Superbike races in Tooele.

I got there just after 7 pm and bouldered around a bit to get warmed up while I waited for belay slave Curt to arrive.  He got there as I was resting from 5 V0’s that I had just flashed while feeling a little belittled by several comments from other climbers as they told me how “awesome” I was.

I really don’t like being told that I’m great for doing very mediocre things with a prosthetic leg.  It’s been very hard for me to stick to 5.8 and 5.9 grades with only the goal of building endurance for El Capitan to keep me motivated.  The temptation to push for hard grades is always nagging at me, especially at the gym where so many people are watching the guy with one leg climb.

I even had a guy walk past me before I even started climbing (I was just sitting there after putting my climbing leg on) and say to me, “dude, you’re the biggest bad a$# I’ve ever seen!”  And that’s just for sitting there!  Imagine how cool I’d be if I had Prana pants on!!!

It’s taught me some mental discipline and focus though and I’m sure that’s going to help on the big wall.

So, with only two hours to climb, I had a goal of climbing 1200 vertical feet again after one rest day.  My first go on the wall was 5.7 with all left foot moves which made it feel considerably harder for me than the 5.8 I’ve been lapping.  I climbed up to the top, down  climbed to the bottom foot hold and climbed back to the top without resting on the rope or getting off the wall.  I could feel the pain in my left hand fingers already.  Already it was a little hard to hang on.  I stayed tied in after Curt lowered me and shook my arms out for about a minute before taking a second go.

My hope had been to bust out three reps in quick secession while I was fresh.  The unfamiliar route and my aches from Saturday quickly made it evident that I wasn’t fresh to begin with.  I abandoned that route and took a bit of longer break.  About 5 minutes this time and I got on familiar 5.8.

I broke out two reps on that and after shaking out a bit I went for a third.  Halfway down my down climb portion I came off the wall.  I really couldn’t hold on and I didn’t want to injure myself so I had Curt lower me for a rest.  At that point I had 50 feet of bouldering and now 540 feet of route down.  Almost half way to my goal of 1200 feet and I had an hour and 15 minutes left before closing time.

Normally (all two times I’ve done a lot of vertical footage) I’ve stopped for lunch at about halfway and I’ve always taken a bit of rest time to belay and chill between laps.  This time that wasn’t an option if I was going to get anywhere close to my goal.  I pushed for two more laps in quick secession and had 7 reps down with 25 minutes before closing.

I pushed for another rep after a few minutes of resting and finished my 8th rep in 5 minutes (not bad for 120 feet of climbing).  I told Curt I wanted to rest for a bit before I went for rep 9.  I figured if I was on the wall when the closed they’d let me finish.  I busted out my 9th rep with 5 minutes left before 10:00.  I waited a few minutes before an employee walked by and overheard my plan to do one more rep.  “Hurry it up guys” he said to us as he walked by, so I jumped on the wall and went for number 10.  I made it up and half way back down before I hit the down crux.  The same place I’d come off before.  Giving it all I had I tried to hold on but I couldn’t move from those holds without falling off the wall.

“Just lower me” I called down to Curt, and the night was done.  After adding up my successful reps, my bouldering and my half reps, I came out at 1150 vertical feet.  So close to my goal!  My comfort is that I did this in two hours, still being quite sore from my 1200 feet the other day and It surpasses what I’ll actually be climbing on El Cap during each full day there by a few hundred feet.  In addition to that, the climbing will be mixed aid climbing, free climbing and jumarring, and this was all free climbing today so I think my fingers will have a bit more of chance.

I’m off to the gym again this morning to try to get another 1200 feet in today.  Then 1200 tomorrow and then some serious rest for this battered body!  I’ll know for sure that I can do it at that point.  I’m already 100% confident that I can handle it but after this week I’ll feel like can handle it with at least some ease.  I’ll know that it’s not going to totally kill me like the LIVEstrong Challenge did when I did that.  I finished the ride, but I wasn’t ready for it, it was 40º and pouring rain the whole time and the last five miles I was fighting cramps in my calf.  That was miserable.  I know I will finish the climb and reach the top of El Capitan, but I want to be happy when I do.  I want to still love climbing!  I’m getting pretty confident that I will.

Ps, this was written on Tuesday, May 31 and posted later when I was able to get internet working for a brief moment.