5 days after landing in Manchester airport from South Africa, Mina and I were back there again but this time heading to Red River Gorge in the US for just under a month.
My back felt a bit of a mess and an appointment with my chiropractor when I was home only confirmed this. I needed to stop climbing for a while.
However everything was booked and paid for so we headed out there anyway and we had a great time. We met up with old friends and made lots of new friends. I was blown away with how beautiful Kentucky was, we arrived as the trees were turning autumnal. The area is pretty flat and covered as far as you could see in red, yellow and golden leaves, it was pretty incredible really. The rock was often honey comb featured and every crag we went to was better than the last one.
The first week I stuck to low 7s and climbing some amazing routes but I could feel my back getting worse even though I was being super careful. By week two I was basically just warming up on 6s then stopping and week three I wasn’t even climbing any more. Even with all the giggles and great experiences we had it was still a tough trip. It was a weird experience being on a climbing trip knowing I was only making an injury worse and then knowing I was going to stop climbing anyway when I got home.
Mina working the moves on the beautiful ‘Kaleidoscope’ at Drive By crag
Immaculate Deception at The Sanctuary, Red River Gorge. Photo: Marc Bourguignon
Making the decision to stop was probably the hardest thing, but now I have decided I am relieved to have finally stopped. I can focus on putting my time and energy into making myself better and also do some things that are totally different that I never normally have time for.
I am totally playing things by ear but I hope by seeing and speaking to lots of different people and reading articles I can piece together some sort of rehab program that will not only fix me but make me a stronger climber than I was before.
I have decided to write a little rehab diary on here once a week about what I have been doing and what I have learnt. More for my own benefit as I then I have something to look back on and hopefully monitor progress!
It is hard to be sad when the skies are so beautiful!
Best of luck in the recovery.
I ended up on a trip recently where had to make a similar decision due to illness. Looking back now and seeing the gains/benefits received, it was the best decision I’ve made in a while……
Hey, just curious of what type of back injury you have. Just over a week ago I got a microdiscectomy for a herniated l5s1 disc. I have learned a lot over the past couple years struggling with my back issues and would like to share some of it with you. Hope you are able to find a solution to resume normal activity.
Hey! Thanks for your message. It is a bulged disc at L4 so not quite so bad as your herniated disc. It has been going n for over a year now but seemd to have made good progress in the last few weeks.