Climbing with Katie Stujenske
Katie is a senior at OHS, and is an avid rock-climber among other athletic pursuits. Co-editor, Zaid Badiger, catches up with Katie to learn more about climbing.
Pixel Journal: What sport do you participate in?
Katie: I am a rock climber. I train both indoors and outdoors, but I primarily prefer to climb outdoors on big walls.
PJ: How much time do you commit to climbing?
K:The amount of time I spend on climbing truly varies week by week. During the coldest part of the winter and the hottest part of the summer, I don’t usually climb outdoors, so I train about 20-25 hours per week. During the peak outdoor climbing season, which unfortunately overlaps with competition season, I could be spending any amount of time from 15 hours to 30 hours a week.
PJ: During the offseason, my training primarily focuses on preparing for competition season. During this time I spend 6 hours a week in team practice, and a further 6-9 hours climbing in the gym on my own or with team mates. Outside of the climbing gym, I work with a personal trainer for an hour a week, and then spend about 5 hours a week running.
K: During the on season, I’m either doing the bare minimum or working at my absolute maximum. I tend to climb for 4-6 hours outside of my 6 hours of team practice per week, and I drop my running down to 3 hours a week. However, the reason I keep my training so light is because every free weekend I either go outdoors to climb or I compete. Competitions generally entail 4-6 hours of driving each way, and 3 hours of climbing. A day of climbing is generally 3 hours of driving each and then as much climbing as can be gotten in before the sun sets, typically about 8 hours.
PJ: Do you compete? If so, at what level?
K: I do compete, and have done so for several years. In rock climbing, there are two main competition seasons. Most climbers (myself included) specialize in one or two disciplines. For myself it is speed and sport climbing.
Speed climbing is a discipline in which all climbers climb the same route, and are judged based on the amount of time taken to complete it. In sport climbing, all the climbers climb the same routes but they change from competition to competition. Climbers are judged based on the highest hold that they reach. The final discipline is bouldering, in which, unlike sport climbing, climbers climb without a rope over pads.
While each type of competition requires the same basic motions, the skills necessary for them are completely different. In many ways, it can be compared to skating. Bouldering is like a short figure skating program, focused on a few hard tricks. Sport climbing is a long program in which one must have a higher level of endurance and artistry. Speed climbing is (naturally) like speed skating in which you know every motion, and it never changes.
I enjoy bouldering, but it doesn’t appeal to me at all compared to the others. It’s all power and strength. You throw a few hard moves and then it’s over. For me, climbing is far more than just a physical sport. It’s a spiritual pursuit. Sport climbing is what clicks with me the best of the indoor sports. Because it is longer, there is far more artistry required. Every motion affects your ability to complete the route, and not a single one can be out of place. The more fluid you are, the smoother you climb, the more energy you conserve. When I climb at my absolute best, it is because I have reached a point in which I am no longer thinking. There is no worry about what I have already done or what is to come. There is no thought about pain or discomfort. There is just me and the movement. Speed appeals to me in much the same way, and, if anything, sends me even deeper into this state of pure focus.
Whereas sport climbing takes at least three clips (approximately a quarter of most indoor routes) for me to enter this state, and I exit it every time I reach a rest point, I enter it the second I touch the holds on a speed route. A lot of this is based in my routine before I begin the route. From the second that I walk onto the mat, every step is the same. Clip in, chalk up, adjust the timer location, even the way that I swing my arms and jump to get adrenaline going is the same. When I’m at the peak of my training, I don’t have to think about a single motion. I could do the route blindfolded.
In climbing, my goal is not to complete a hard or scary route. It’s to reach that perfect point of balance in which the world vanishes. Inside, sport climbing and speed climbing are the only way to achieve that. However, my true passion is for big wall climbing. Big wall climbing refers to those routes that take many hours, or days, to complete. On such routes you are typically so far from your belayer that they vanish and there is nothing but the wall and the wind. There are no distractions, and it becomes the perfect puzzle of motion, a graceful dance from position to position.
PJ: What does your lifestyle look like because of climbing?
K: The nearest outdoor climbing areas are 4 hours away, and I often travel far further to climb. I cut my teeth on the granite of Rumney, in New Hampshire, and I make the trip to Southern California to climb at least once a year. For speed climbing I go to Baltimore. Any weekend or vacation possible, I travel to climb. As a result, my social life tends to be nonexistent in order to get schoolwork done. When in St. Louis, the only human interaction I get is with my parents and my team, but it’s worth it. Given the choice, I will take a gap year after college to be a dirtbag climber. When I climb, every sacrifice becomes worth it. Climbing is the purest, most beautiful thing I have ever encountered, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.