Keep a climb journal

A saying that applies to Life as well to climbing goes something like: “One of the best ways to avoid bad experiences is through good judgment. Unfortunately, one of the best ways to learn good judgment is to live through bad experiences.”
When most folks get back from a climb, their head is usually full of thoughts like, “next time I try this peak, I’d do X, Y and Z differently”. Don’t think you’ll remember it all, because you won’t.

To learn from every climb, keeping a climbing journal is one of the best things you can do.

Entries can start off simply: date, peak, route, partners, times you took for legs of the trip (car to camp, camp to summit, etc).  This “who-what-where-how long it took” type of information is a good start.

But the paragraph(s) in my journal that I really like to look back on is the “Lessons Learned” part. This is the catch-all spot for everything from “bring more stoppers and less cams” to approach tips, good camping areas, maybe important GPS waypoints, descent info, good restaurants found on the way home, and anything that you think would be good to remember.

After you make your journal entry, simply copy and paste key information and post it to the Mazamas route description blog so others can easily learn from your experience.

This journal can be helpful in several ways. If you ever try the same climb again it will of course be useful, but you can also email the info to friends who are trying the route so they can learn from your experience. Also, knowledge gained from a specific route usually translates over well to similar climbs. Keep a journal and watch your hard earned experience start to turn into an investment many people can benefit from.  Keep your journal on a computer so you can easily email it to others.