Wednesday, March 18, 2009

"I love climbing girls"

The title phrase is a direct quote from Guillaume, tonight at TRC. Parse it as you will...

Just me and G, and we tried out a new strategy: intervals of 2-3 leads and 2-3 boulder problems. I think it's a good way to mix things up, especially if you have time for the switching and a little rest in between. Our docket:

  • 9 (teal), 12a (pink/blue)
  • V4, V3+ [get yer contact strength on...]
  • 10 (yellow), 11 (pink), 11 (blue camo)

To address the issue of one person always hitting a new route first, G hit upon the idea of a little randomization - rock, paper, scissors for the first lead of each new route, with the person "winning" getting first crack. This, of course, means there's a distinct possibility of climbing twice in a row; that's how I ended up with the 9-12 doubleheader.

Started out too hard tonight; the 12 before being fully warmed up set up a flash pump - for both of us - the effects of which lasted the entire evening. The 12 is a fun, burly climb, traversing up from right to left on an overhanging face - no feet to the left, lots of right heel hooks and leaning way out left to clip. Sussed out the bottom moves last time, but hit a wall at the last bolt; G looked good working the entire route. The rest of the evening we spent fighting the pump on whatever we climbed. I will note that the pink 11, up the front arete and through the pyramid blocks, is an ugly, uncomfortable climb. The blue camo 11 is the long one Brian and G worked the other day, up a vertical face, across under the roof and up through the arch apex, then trending up and right to the finish - excellent fun.

Note: like a tool, I brought the axes but the dry tooling routes are not officially sanctioned yet. Ms Psst seems to think it'll be a little while before they're good to go.

7 comments:

g said...

That quote was taken out of context!

But now I'll say it: I love climbing girls!

brian said...

Someone finish that dark green V4?

kenny g said...

Nah, we never made it to that one - tried a few other problems. Both involved big holds and contact strength galore. Fun, though.

We were pretty fried from the overzealous start of the evening (my bad).

kenny g said...

Oh, my tools are stuck in the closet at home right now, but the dry tooling routes aren't available yet.

If you're dying for them, though, Eric has a spare key to the apartment...

g said...

Brain, you should try the V3+ we tried, it starts in the corner opposite to the entrance and involves the huge peanut hold. K did it, I couldn't, but its a nice problem.

I don't know what we did wrong but today I feel like a train ran over me.

That pink is really bad, let's never do it again.

kenny g said...

Agreed on the pink (11?). It's an ugly, hateful route.

I feel well roughed up today too. Even given the fact we timed our climbs poorly, I think we worked pretty hard (if not smart). I thought you did excellent on the 12, BTW.

The V3+ is a blast, short but sweet. And with a giant peanut.

g said...

Can't go wrong with a peanut!

On the 12 you did the first part much better than I did. I think its a route worth working on.

I also think we should give that blue camo a go on a regular basis, its good for stamina.