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Kelly Birch
@kellyabirch

21,755 followers

Shelter // V13 🤩 . This is one of those boulders I’ve seen in videos for years, hoping one day I’d make it to Squamish and be strong enough to do it. As silly as it sounds, I was honestly nervous to try it at all because I feared disappointing myself. Thankfully, I was able to let go of expectations and truly enjoy the one session I had on it… and I sent ☺️ Definitely a ‘wait, what just happened?!’ moment! . An aside: as I’ve been breaking into harder grades (V12-13) over the last year or so, I’ve been learning so much about myself as a climber… and about how arbitrary the grading scale can be. (Especially considering that FA-ing, grading, and guidebook-writing are overwhelmingly male-dominated endeavors… but that’s a whole other caption). I sent this “V13” in one session, but there are plenty of others I likely couldn’t send in 20 sessions, if at all. The style of Shelter really suited my strengths, requiring body tension through poor feet and pulling on edges. Of course, climbing consistently harder grades can be a measure of progression, and I do feel I’m climbing better than ever right now! But what really motivates me is this delicate, intense, emotional process of goal-setting… of getting invested and pushing myself, while somehow remaining detached from expectations and the outcome. Every hard climb I try is a unique challenge and teaches me something. In this case, I picked a climb I really wanted to do, I tried freaking hard and executed, and it felt awesome. Love this silly sport so much. 🥰 . 🎥: @mqtran (thank you for the support today!) . @kinetikclimbing #climbing #bouldering #squamish #squamishbouldering #girlsboulder #girlswhoclimb #climbing_videos_of_instagram #climbing_worldwide