‘Life begins when fear ends’. This quote is from the spiritual teacher Osho but it might as well have been said by Lynn Hill. That emotional control in the face of danger defines the art of climbing. This inner peace is born from the agreement between mind and body, from respect for oneself and the environment, in stone or on a mat, in two complementary worlds: yoga and climbing. It was a switch that produced a spark eleven years ago that ignited the Escalada Asana project, that is, by Sonia Gracia and Rubén ‘Pulpo’ Giménez.
This Sunday, Sonia will again give a class to the entire ‘Encordadas’ forum. He will participate in the meeting of climbers who moved to Trasobares this year with more than two hundred climbers. “At first we met to spend the weekend in Calcena, climbing and setting up a market with the clothes we had left at home. I included some yoga sessions with stretching and meditation. Five or six we made a poster that spread for up to a year and suddenly there were eighty of us,” Sonia recalled in an event that became a national reference.
Calcena is the one who established that alliance between stone and mat. Diego Quesada did not hesitate to open the hostel doors to him when Sonia told him about her idea to combine their two hobbies and create a three-day applied yoga retreat for climbers. . From that fuse ignited a passion that Rubén later joined, configuring a proposal of workshops, courses, classes, hangouts, activities for clubs… towards the environment.
Successful connections
It is not difficult to identify the subtle threads that connect the physical sequence between asanas, yoga positions, and sequences in a path. “In both there is an intrinsic motivation to refine a technique of certain gestural movements, some postures that make us move towards a goal. Many asanas are natural wall transitions. Sometimes, when we climb, without realizing it, for example, we do the warrior position,” explained Sonia Gracia. These similarities in balance strength, proprioception, and elasticity development make yoga a perfect exercise for static stretching or dynamic muscle toning before launching into sectors.
This Sunday they are giving a practical workshop in Trasobares as part of the ‘Encordadas’ climber meeting
This caspolina was introduced at the same time in two latitudes, inaugurating the twenty, and continues a double evolution, understanding that they come together by “facing your limitations, facing your own needs.” In this internal battle, shaucha must prevail, a yoga term that describes the clarity, the purity of mind that grows in meditation from full concentration, from finding dharana. “In mental dialogue, a climber wonders if he can or not, if he can pass that challenge or fall, a continuous dialogue with fear. When that emotion is transferred to the body, yoga provides methods to navigate those moments, resources to overcome them.
Sonia talks about the power of deep meditation (dhyana) or knowing how to breathe (pranayama) to face the challenge of verticality or to prepare to enter the channels. “Many professional climbers use yoga for their preparation, For example, to imagine the lines before entering the stone, they meditate to know the movements mentally, they make an internal projection,” explained the Aragonese teacher.
These reflections and teachings were transmitted, thanks to the encouragement of a friend, in a complete book created during the pandemic thanks to a crowdfounding and that can be purchased on its website (www.escaladasana.es). A work “written from humility” with a theoretical background of the networks woven between the two disciplines, its philosophical basis, its differences and a large practical part that describes in different positions with technical sheets and from illustrations it suggests specific blocks that can be combined. to create a session or plan.
In the last part they presented neurolinguistic programming to create good communication habits, to learn to speak well for oneself. «Because that is the most important part that yoga provides, which talks about non-violence of oneself from personal reflection and self-awareness. Many times in the stone we do the violence, we tell ourselves that ‘we can’t’ or ‘that the other is stronger’, a self-need that affects self-confidence and we need to know how to control growth. Think of a body flowing on a rock.