Climbing is this long term, lifelong journey. It's really important to just take your time with it and keep it fun. I've seen a lot of people burn out because it starts becoming this job for them. It stops being fun. For me, it's been really important to keep it enjoyable. Listen to your motivation.
Chris SharmaI really learned to approach climbing not just with a pure athletic mentality, but also to appreciate all these beautiful places we get to go to.
Chris SharmaFor me now, I feel that climbing is a part of who I am. It's my way of life. It's my way of expressing myself. My way of being in the world. In the past, I questioned it a lot. Now it's obvious. This is who I am. This is what I do.
Chris SharmaIn particular, with climbing, we're climbing on these surfaces that Mother Nature has created. We search out the most perfect pieces of rock. It's so amazing that these formations are so perfect for climbing on. It's almost as if they were created for climbing.
Chris SharmaWhen you do hard routes, you have to try hard. They're not easy routes. You have to give everything you have. You have to get totally animalistic. When you're super pumped, I have to yell to bear down. [...] It's like martial arts. When Bruce lee threw a punch, he had to mean it. Haahhh! Like that. When you're doing a hard move, there is this excess energy you have to let out. Air explodes out of you.
Chris Sharma