Blind man in a strip club
Headed up to TRC with Guillaume, Chloe, and Eric for a little Monday night climbing. Everyone was climbing well: Chloe was attacking her 9s, Eric kept pushing his leads and took a couple of big falls on an overhanging 9+ (yellow), and Guillaume was the usual monster.
G and I tried out a new plan: alternating easy/moderate leads with a single harder route. Initial warm-up on The Traverse: G 68, K 63 (Guillaume has an explanation for why he fell off; you'll have to ask him...). The moderates felt good, a chance to warm up and climb in control and focus on movements (9-10 range). It was also a good way to work the power endurance that Brian mentioned in the comments a few days ago. The project was the dark green 12 Guillaume and Meghan worked the other day: it starts up one side of the arch with balancey and just-awkward-enough moves, then crosses the roof with two burly and reachy clips, traverses the top of the arch with a lunge to a bomber hold and requires a swing to place your feet on the opposite side of the arch before crossing the edge of the roof and gunning for the chains.
Guillaume fought his way up under the roof, and really styled the second roof clip - strained undercling with your right hand, feet up high, and a reach over your head with the left hand desperately trying to corral the chained draw. Took a couple of big falls, and one that should have been a little bigger - slapping for the finish hold from the last bolt, his final fall off the face above the arch nearly took off his head when he swung under roof (my bad, G - more slack next time, promise...). Meghan totally styled the route, working out the tricky sequence under the arch apex and absolutely flashing up the rest of the climb. She really does make it look easy.
I, on the other hand, managed my way up the first half of the route but kept muffing the second roof clip, thereby missing all the burly fun above. I really did feel like the blind man in a strip club: I could hear the thumping music, taste the overpriced watery beer, and feel the sticky carpet under my feet, but definitely knew that G and M were having more fun than me. Damn...
8 comments:
First, good work Eric. Very impressed you took those two falls.
Last night felt better for me, even though I didn't achieve anything... at least I didn't fall off my warm-up this time (thanks to Danielle putting on "The Eye of the Tiger").
Clearly miss Pssst McDonald dominates us in every respect, but looking at her yesterday, it seems to me that her power endurance, smooth clipping and ability to rest in places I wouldn't even think of resting are really the most important ones. I think yesterday I didn't take full advantage of the easy climbs to practice some of those things, in particular clipping, finding good stances and resting. I'll try to pay more attention to those on Wednesday.
BTW, your belay was fine K., I still have my head.
Yah, agreed that Meghan really can utilize rests - my question is, how do I get that power endurance to hang on like a monkey?
I'm hoping the answer is practicing them on the easier climbs, and building up a reserve of endurance. Traversing should help...
Especially if you don't fall while resting!
Thanks to the beautiful catches Guillaume made, I hardly noticed the falls. I felt like the climbing was good last night. I warmed up on a couple of 5.8s and a 5.9 (which I then later lead) and I think warming up properly is helpful. Leading also felt good--maybe leading outside helped my headgame. I also tackled a 5.11- which wasn't too bad at the start, but then I go stuck. It's now going to be a project. I realized that I've been neglecting building my technique while I worked on learning to lead.
Chloe was definitely on a charge and she should be kept on the 5.9s now. And I have to give GF the fall of the night award. I'm just glad he ducked quickly!
Hey, proof that Guillaume doesn't have that big a head after all!
Ouch. And I thought you had my back!
Kenway likes the back.
OK, for the record, I did NOT post that jedi pic.
Robes make me look fat...
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