Sunday morning crew

Kicked off Sunday with a nice climbing session with Kenway and Jill at TRC. Got there just after 10AM and left around 2PM, so I won't be able to recall everything. Started off with a 9 and a 10-, both coming out from under the big arch on big juggy holds. Jill, who introduced Kenway to climbing all those years ago, got re-acquainted with the pump after a bit of a layoff from climbing. Confident after the nice warm-up, I went after the white 10 up front; I made it up smoothly and managed the last clip, but couldn't hold on to finish it off. Kenway took an exciting fall from the same hold, and we both took pretty big falls on a new 10 (yellow), me at the first roof (nearly left me forever childless) and him after pulling the second). Next I tried the pink 10b and made it to the last clip while Kenway went after the red 11 (seemed much harder than last time). Finished up working the bottom of a 10 with sketchy initial clips, which appropriately enough was titled 'Harder than you think'.

I figured out why the 10b is giving me so much trouble. It's quite reachy for me, and requires a lot of 'open' strength (imagine a negative face where you have three points on, but your legs are extended so you can't rotate into the next move, and the next piece as just at the extent of your reach). I'll try repping these moves in the bouldering cave next time. Malcolm Smith with some advice on climbing face-on and training 'open' strength: