by Kristen Hubbard

“There is superstition in avoiding superstitions.”

-Francis Bacon

An itchy nose means you’ll be having company. Ringing ear? Someone’s talking about you. Expect money if you’ve got an itchy palm. And a shiver of the shoulders is perhaps the most morbid: a rabbit jumping across your grave.

Call it allergies, a hunch, or just a chill if you want, but these are just a handful of superstitions quoted to me as a kid. My grandma had one for every movement, emotion, and bodily function. After I thought a bit more about my knot-tying obsession when climbing, I chalked it up to the fact that my childhood was riddled with superstitions.

Here’s what I do: When I’m tying into a top-rope, I have to untie the eight knot and then retie it for myself before I’ll climb. I have to retie any knot, no matter if I know who tied the thing or not. My fate depends on it.

My first instinct is to attribute silly superstitious quirks like this to being obsessive compulsive, plain and simple. I mean, watch a season of baseball and no one will disagree. But I’ll go a step further and dare you to break down the habits of any one of your climbing buddies.

Take most boulderers. They will obsess over brushing one specific hold until their toothbrush is worn down to dingy brown nub. One climber I know is religious about it. He’ll brush. Drink water. Chalk up. Brush again. Drink. Chalk. Adjust the crash pad. Brush. Chalk. Climb. If he doesn’t brush that certain hold enough, then he won’t send the problem.

Another climbing friend of mine can tell you any piece of gear he’ll use on any given route at Seneca Rocks. He’s been known to draw the route on a bar napkin and pinpoint where all gear should be placed. However, bump into the guy at Seneca and you’ll notice that he pulls out his entire rack before he climbs, looks it over, and carefully chooses what he needs as if he’s never climbed there before.

Maybe these aren’t so much superstitions as the way our mental and physical struggles materialize. It’s more of an obsession with preparedness than actual superstition. From the way you pack for a climbing trip or tie in, to what you eat and how you train, you’ve got a routine that instills confidence and calms you at the crag.

Defined, a superstition is “an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.” I’ll admit, the few times I haven’t followed my “tie and re-tie” method, I start out shakier and don’t feel the flow of what I’m climbing. But it’s not the way the rope is tied. It’s me. It’s feeling prepared. It’s knowing I’m ready to send something I’ve been working on. I can make all the knot excuses that I want, or even believe in a little superstition, as long as I can also admit that maybe that knot isn’t the only reason I didn’t succeed. But on those really bad days, it helps to blame the knot routine. My climbing partner knows better anyway.

Kristen Hubbard is an avid climber and runner living in Richmond, Virginia. She can be reached at khubs1@juno.com.