Throwing Yourself at the wall

Eventually there is always a task that cannot be sidestepped or brute-forced.

When I first started climbing, there was a route at the local gym I badly wanted to complete. What started as a casual attempt became a compounding case of embarrassment: The more the problem defeated me, the more I needed to defeat it.

I can still picture the handhold that caused me so much grief. The little orange rectangle was just small enough to cu…