Leading off the weekend

Quick couple of hours climbing at New Rochelle with Guillaume, Eric, and Joana. Lots of good work in a compressed session: Eric worked his way back into the 8s, Joana kicked off the day by sending her project V2, and Guillaume and I saddled up back on lead. We warmed up on an 8 and tackled a few challenging 10s. Much more comfortable on the sharp end this time, taking a couple of falls made it much easier to relax and focus less on the possibility of falling and more on stance, progress, and making the clip.

Nice whipper by Guillaume off the lead headwall on the front of the gym. Clean fall, big air. Other climbs with less clean falls emphasized the importance of a dynamic belay, which prevents a falling leader from penduluming into the wall on overhangs and roofs. Good belaying technique to know, with the caveat that the number one priority is still to catch the leader.

Big lead fall in the Grampians, Australia: