Brooklyn Boulderdash

Finally schlepped over to Brooklyn to see what all the fuss is about at Brooklyn Boulders, met up with Joana for a little evening bouldering. We spent about an hour an a half on V1-V3 problems, with a few attempts at unrated climbs that felt V3-4ish. Nice variety of problems - they currently have a mostly vertical central bouldering wall and a few rooms with steeper stuff. Joana was climbing well and impressing the guys standing around. I actually like the routes we got on, but I see JK's main point - a lot of the moves, even on the easier climbs, involve very long reaches that were either deadpoint or dynamic for me, and would be frustrating if my reach were just a few inches shorter. Felt like alot of the finishing moves, some kinda desperate, often involved long throws. Their pads are cut out at the base of the wall to allow the holds to go down another six inches; even though you'll likely fall clear it's a little unnerving thinking about your ankles.

That said, it was a good vibe and the new wall and holds meant (finally) good friction indoors. Not likely to last too long, given the volume of activity - I've never seen so many climbers with spankin' new shoes... There's also a long easy traverse that's a good endurance test. Nice changeup from leading, and a good variety of new stuff to throw in the MPHC/Palladium/Coles mix. Not a lot of toprope/lead stuff up yet, but they're still developing. We finished off with a little Metolius training session on rock rings.

Favorite moment of the night: JK, in all her Brazilian badassness, casually asked a guy standing behind the counter to fetch her some water. I think Ivan was a little taken aback...