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Last Saturday, I attended B’s surprise birthday party and caught up with the rest of the Posers for the first time in too long. There were a lot of new faces in the group – some climbers, some not. It was nice to catch up with everyone again and to reminisce about the old days, but it was also kind of embarrassing.

When some of the A and W introduced me to K, they went on about my 7A achievements in climbing. As proud as I am with what I achieved through my climbing, I like to think I’m honest enough to feel embarrassed when I’m made out to be a better climber than I really am.

Listening to A and W, you would think I was a 7A climber. Well, the fact is, I have projected and red-pointed 3 7As, but that’s all I’ve done. By definition, a 7A climber is someone who can approach a 7A route and have a good chance of completing it. In other words, they generally climb at the level of 7A. Even at the best of my climbing, I was climbing at about a 6B on a good day and a 6A on a bad day.

Why the nit-picking about what I could and couldn’t climb? Because I find that I can only feel proud about what I can achieve when it’s the truth. I feel like a cheat and a liar to allow myself to be made out to be more than I am. At a time when it has become ever more important for me to remember the best of what I had been in order to believe that there has been at least some personal fulfilment in my life, it is important for me to have a clear grip on the facts and the fiction.

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