The Motivator

I remember sitting on my mother’s couch on a rainy afternoon back in 94, watching the 25-year anniversary of the Woodstock festival on TV. While hundreds of thousands gathered in Saugerties for “2 More Days of Peace and Music”, I blissfully perched in front of the tube with my younger brother. There were no worries; the kitchen was stocked, the bathroom was always accessible and we had the best seats in the house. We were set to go nowhere — but, of course, that will only last so long when you’re mom’s a hippy.

“What the hell are you two doing?” She asked with a little squinty look in her eyes. “ How could you just sit here and watch history happen on the tube when you can go there and be a part of it?”

Well, she had a point, I guess. But, we were damn comfortable right where we sat — and besides, my friends Jerry and Felix were heading over to chill. I spat excuses like gunfire: “It’s closed.” “My car won’t make it.” “I don’t have any money.” “It’s supposed to rain forever!” Then, like someone taking the needle from the record, everything went silent. She shut the television off, took a good look at the two us, and laughed in our faces. My mother laughed in my face. It wasn’t two minutes later and I was in the car with my brother. We were going to kidnap Jerry and Felix and then hit the New York Thruway…Woodstock was on the agenda.

We made it about 10 miles south of Saugerties when we were informed by police that only locals were being let into town, and that we should turn our car around and drive home. With my mother’s laugh echoing in my brain I turned around, drove just out of site of the police barricade, and ditched the car off to the side of the Thruway. We’d do this the ol’ fashioned way -- with our thumbs out. A few minutes later a local picked us up in his truck, charged us 5 bucks each, and whisked us into Saugerties.

Dropped off at the foot of a grassy hill, with a makeshift 12-foot fence before us, we could hear the music in the distance. We could see the lights in the sky. We could feel the earth tremble. We hadn’t even climbed this fence yet, and we were already experiencing something special. It was time to head in.

Nine Inch Nails was ending their set. I can recall front man Trent Reznor smashing the hell out of the drum set as we walked towards the masses, and the hard rains slapping at my t-shirt. I can recall taking in the smells, sights and sounds of 400,000 carefree people making history – and thinking that now it was 400,004. I can also recall muttering under my breath, “Thanks, ma.”

My point here is, there’s always a motivator; someone who can make you go from being an unbeliever to a full-on leader. But, unfortunately, the motivator doesn’t always get their due. They usually don’t even realize it when they’ve played an integral part creating a great moment in someone else’s life. Take Lev Pinter, for example. As Sonnie Trotter puts it, “Climbing calls and [Lev] just goes.” Lev lives for climbing. He does it for himself, traveling, climbing and living freely. His world revolves around making his dreams realities — but how many other people has he inspired to chase down their own dreams along the way? We’re sure he doesn’t know. And what about the La Sportiva Solutions pro crew — Abbey Smith, Jason Kehl, Chris Sierzant and Timy Fairfield – who traveled the dirty south together on a mission to climb with everyone and anyone they’d meet? The old school Powell-Peralta/Bones Brigade-inspired tour was a first of its kind for our sport. It created a foundation for more uniquely interactive and grassroots team tours, and stoked more than a few climbers as well. Those athletes started something that others will feel compelled to continue. In Brian Solano’s Spray, Joe Kinder talks about Surf Safari, a route that Chris Sharma put up at Mickey’s Beach when Joe was 15 years old. He remembers reading about it, and says, “That shit pushed us to try harder, and motivated us to climb 5.11b!” Likely, Chris didn’t know that…until now. There are others: Cody Roth is a psyched, passionate and egoless climber, who articulately shares some personal views through a memoir of his bouldering adventures in Black Label, South Africa. Anyone who reads it is sure to get a dose of travel itch. And Bernd Zangerl writes, “Reverberations of happiness [came] down from the mountain peaks above me” about sending his most difficult problem to date, Anam Cara. Those words are more visual than a photograph. You may even be brought back, relating it to a moment you had…

You see, the details aren’t in the climbing; the details are in the lives of the climbers. Their actions contribute to the one thing that keeps us all going – motivation.

There is one more thing I should mention; Sometimes that motivator’s motivation can leave you stark naked and caked in dried mud, driving home in Thruway traffic with garbage bags for pants and three silent friends all praying the cops don’t pull you over. Of course, that’s a whole ‘nother story.

See you out there,

Joe Iurato