Life is characterized by limitations. Choosing a profession, for example, means you have to put your heart and soul into another profession. Choosing a sport means that if you want to play this sport and develop, you can't play twenty other sports at the same time. Limitations supposedly restrict our range of decisions, but they also have something good about them, as they give us a framework, simplify the complexity of life, allow us to focus and thus get the most out of ourselves.
This is particularly true when it comes to choosing our favorite sport, regardless of whether you prefer bouldering, climbing or via ferrata.
Restricting ourselves to one area opens up completely new possibilities. Even though climbing paradoxically makes us feel particularly free and independent of certain restrictions, such as those of everyday life, we are all the more frequently confronted with our limits in the most shameless way: Those who stand a few meters above the last bolt, perhaps above a mobile belay device that would only be lucky to absorb a catch, usually have rather limited options. Most often it's the way up, maybe sometimes to the side, preferably not down, but certainly not the option of simply leaving the situation. In such moments of confrontation, it is important to push boundaries, develop further and define a new limit.
Far above the last bolt, photo: Michael Meisl
But why do we climbers always end up in such borderline situations? Do we collectively suffer from cognitive dissonance or are we simply naive enough not to recognize our limits? Why do we find ourselves in the same situation over and over again: fight, no flight?
Climbing is the opportunity to push limits
Climbing gives us the precious opportunity to surpass ourselves. We are all limited by so many factors: strength, technique, time, psyche, etc. and yet there are those magic moments when everything works together, every muscle fiber cooperates with the others, the mind focuses on what is important, the will drives us upwards and the courage never leaves us. In these rare moments, we actively (and sometimes with a little luck) push our own boundaries.
Such magic moments are when we finally manage a move after many attempts. They are there when we rub the rubber of our climbing shoes on a steep step and the foot holds against all expectations. And they are also there when we overcome our fears, continue climbing and reach the top.
The moment of glory is when the move is finally made, photo: Michael Meisl
Limits are nothing static
Inherent in climbing is the overcoming of limits, the exploration of one's own limits in order to emerge stronger and more holistic as a synthesis of the degree of difficulty and one's own physical and mental ability.
Of course, it's not about measuring yourself against yourself at all times and pushing your limits. It is good when we arrive at the diversity of our possibilities and learn to feel comfortable there. But as Hermann Hesse so aptly put it: "Only those who are ready to set out and travel can free themselves from paralyzing habituation". Then, at the latest, the next great moment will come when we manage to give more. To achieve something that we would not have expected of ourselves.
That is your limit. It is there to give you a framework in which you feel comfortable, in which you can blossom and which gives you the opportunity to emancipate yourself from it and develop further. To be more than you ever expected of yourself and to become exactly what you envision for yourself.
At the end of the day, you know why you pushed yourself to the limit again, Photo: Michael Meisl
LIMIT #2: Alpine climbing in Tyrol - the hot-off-the-press issue!
In this issue, we have dedicated ourselves entirely to alpine climbing in Tyrol. On 136 pages, we present the impressive vertical diversity of Tyrol. With exciting stories from 15 climbing spots that offer a deep insight into the history of alpine climbing in Tyrol.
