What is a project to you?

I was so inspired by the Dawn Wall sends that I have decided to change my definition for my version of the word, 'project'. That is, at least, until I am inspired to change it again. In the recent past 'a project', for me, was red pointing the hardest route I could find. Now, my 'project', is to send 5 5.11+/5.12- minus climbs in a consecutive order at a sick new crag a friend bolted recently adjacent to a classic crag. The goal is to make the fifth route a red point hanging draws send of the oldest classic in the area which I struggled for years to send. The question is, "Was there a time in your climbing life that was significant and made you want change your own definition of what you considered to be 'projecting'?

To me " project" is pretty much a multi pitch climb ( over 3 pitches) that we summit without bailing. Makes it nicer if it's a tower or a column of some sort. I'm still obsessed with making a full on summit on Washington Column. Any style goes pretty much. I could get into banging out low grade desert towers too.

In life, "project" is more of a work gig, always looking for new experiences places and challenges.

I once spent 4+ years working a 35 ft route I bolted. When I started the process it was just a climbing project, but over the years it became something else entirely. I learned more through that experience than perhaps any other single climbing goal I've achieved; but the mental, physical and emotional toll it took on me throughout the years was pretty harsh. It made me grow as a human being as well as a climber, for which I'm grateful. A very special experience but not one I'm looking to repeat anytime soon; this climb moved well beyond any notion of a 'project' I had when I started it. My idea of a project nowadays is something that is a reasonable goal for me to achieve, not a multi-year-examine-your-soul process that may or may not be completed. That's something different, although I don't have a word for it.

That route became a part of me, my life and who I am as a person, although writing that down sounds stupid as shit. But when my friends asked what my next 'project' was going to be after I finished it, it felt empty inside to consider what I had done just a simple project. It was much more than that to me, much more than just another climbing project. My idea of the term evolved over that time period, and what it meant to me

A project to me is, a climb that I' not sent in whatever manner or style I chose, that I have a personal desire to accomplish. The details might be different but the drive always feels the same.
j-

To me, a project is a route I am cleaning. And by cleaning I mean removing the moss and bushes.

Jay Samuelson wrote:But when my friends asked what my next 'project' was going to be after I finished it, it felt empty inside to consider what I had done just a simple project.

Stone Nude wrote:Eva Mendes.

Jay Samuelson wrote:a multi-year-examine-your-soul process that may or may not be completed. That's something different, although I don't have a word for it.