Practice makes perfect
Too-quick couple of hours at New Rochelle today with Guillaume, Brian, Joana, Joe, and Kristy. Improvement on all fronts: Brian continued his full-frontal assault on lead climbs, feeling the pump on an 8 and a 9; Joe sent one of his several bouldering projects and passed the roof on his 8+; Kristy sent the 11 in the corner and is *this* close from getting the V4 that's bedeviling all of us; Joana is one move away from sending her slabby 10 in high-stepping style. Guillaume and I managed to dive headlong into leading an overhanging 12 and a roofy 11 - worked out most of the moves on the 12 (reachy moves down low, hard overhead clips up high) except the perplexing final moves to the anchor, but the clipping stances on the 11 were scarier.
Disconcerting reggae Pink Floyd tunes tonight, but that karmic imbalance was righted by the unmistakable aura of visual style (blue pants + white oxford, tucked in + pink shirt = righteous duds). It's in fact very motivating: dress funky and there's no backing off from any moves.
Followed up by a revisit to Stand for some burgers, beer, fries, and onion rings. Might have to institute a weekly weight chart if we make this a habit...
4 comments:
Well, if anything, we looked good climbing.
Man, those lead climbs fried me. I'm finding that I have to rethink sequencing from the ground up. Partly due to thinking about clipping positions, but also due to dealing with avoiding snagging the rope on your feet or legs. Humbling.
Way to slug them out. Efficiency becomes key both because the climbs take longer and because clipping stances are 3 point affairs at best. Certainly makes it easier when you get back on toprope though.
It took me a while to climb to the stances rather than climb to the clip. Getting the flow for the climb is trickier on lead but it'll come with time.
What do you think of using a finger in the biner to stabilize the draw (like in the picture)? It seemed good to me, but after watching some videos, it doesn't seem super common. I also realized that it might tempt you to hold onto the draw in the event of a failed clip.
I struggle with this. I've always stabilized the inside of the biner with a finger, but it can get tricky - sometimes your finger inside prevents the gate from opening cleanly and the rope from dropping in.
If I get facile with pinching the rope in with my entire hand outside the biner, I'll try that for a while.
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