Me and My Shadow - Mina Leslie-Wujastyk

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has already established herself as one of the best sport climbers in the country, with redpoints up to 8c.

For the past few seasons she has been attempting Rainshadow, Steve McClure’s iconic 9a at Malham. It’s more than a step above her previous ascents, and initially something that it hadn’t even occurred to her to try. It seemed too unfeasible.

When pushing the limit at some point you will find it. We often say this with risk taking, but the same is true when pushing your physical boundaries. Over time Mina has become more confident that she could successfully redpoint Rainshadow, but at first it was an impossible dream. Staying motivated for a few sessions on a route isn’t hard; but staying motivated when your project enters double digits and multiple seasons isn’t easy.

I wanted to understand how Mina stays focussed on a long term goal, and how she does that in the face of the chance that she might never succeed.

In the last episode with Dave Thomas we saw how a need for control, maintaining integrity and establishing your own identity were important. Finding ways to enter that elusive flow state was how Dave achieved this.

Mina isn’t out for risk or resolving inner conflicts, but her story boils down to the same key features: desire, belief and understanding her own identity. The difference is that for Mina flow is a tool to be utilised.

Factor Two is brought to you by Wil Treasure and UKClimbing.com

Music credits:

Looking Back Lee Rosevere

Somnolence Kai Engel

Quit Bitching Broke For Free

Aspirato Kai Engel

Pulse Sioum

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/