Assault of the Monkey Club: Day 3

Today was day three of the Monkey Club's assault on NYC climbing gyms. The combat unit was composed of JK and myself (the rest of the group being at a fancy party for people with brains). And climbing we did.

We didn't let the heavy rain stop us. After meeting at Astor place, we rode the subway to MPHC. There I bumped into 4 unconnected people, all ex-Coles climbers. Weird.

We climbed at a fast and sustained pace, with very short breaks between climbs, trying every wall of the bouldering section, from the vertical, to the overhang. We started on a few V1s that felt easy. We followed that with attacking V2s. After I did a few V2s, I attacked the V3s. I did about 3 V3s in the area close to the doorway between the two rooms. JK worked a V2 in that same area. She persisted and finaly sent the problem which required a lot of body tension because it went from a full horizontal section to a fully vertical section, hence the feet were not great, and some moves involved quite a bit of body swing.

Then we each tackled a project. Both fully horizontal. Hers was a new ungraded project, on which a bunch of string dudes were working. I would say from the looks of it V2/V3 (although I did not climb it). JK gave it a couple of tries. On the last one she missed the next to last hold, making the problem substantially harder. She matched hands, took her right foot high, and jumped high to catch the final hold, her body being in almost an iron cross position (although rotated so that the left hand is substantially higher than the right). I think most guys had there mouth opened when she came down.

I worked on a V4 (I had tried two other V4s without success before). That one I could tell would work for me. It involved a lot of moves where you feet have to come high and inside. A guy gave me beta (for short people), which involved skipping a big part of the problem. The complete problem first went to the right and then came back left to a big piece shaped like a half sphere. The beta was to stay below the big piece, move your feet high, and then jump for it. This worked for me after a few tries. However, I am not sure if it is still a legitimate 4.

We kept going, I tried a few 5s. One which involved being fully horizontal sideways with one toe and one hand taking all the weight, and reminded me that I am completely out of shape. My core was simply too weak to hold the position. Time to get back to burpees I guess. Joanna tried a few more V2s.

We finished on a hard crimpy V3.

That's it for me this week.