Started the day with an easy 2 mile run at the Ashokan reservoir with G and Ariane. Certainly a pleasant environment for a run, and good compensation for a 6 am wakeup on a Sunday. Followed that with a good day of laid back TR climbing at Peterskill with Jess and Emile.
We headed for Dickie Barre, a newly developed area at Peterskill dedicated (mostly) to TR routes, with shiny new anchor bolts at the top of some of the routes. Not having a route map or even knowing the full extent of the area, we started the morning at the far left of the crag, where an easy walkaround allowed us to put down a rope at bolts over a short arete (I think MP has this area called the Bullwheel Faces). We climbed two routes in the 5.5-5.6 range there, starting either to the left or right of the arete, with both exiting on the right side at the top. Nice job by Jess and Emilie taking the plunge on those two routes, which were primarily face climbing between rounded horizontals.
First climbs of the day (Emily's Endeavor and Jess's Jaunt)
Good Monday night session at BKB, working both lead climbs and bouldering. Still a little beat from the weekend at the Gunks, but felt like we put in good work.
lead: 5.9, 5.10, 5.11(f)
boulder: V1, V2, V3, V4, V5(f)
The 11 went up and under a small roof to the top of the arch, the moves felt there but our endurance is still lacking - could go with more juice. The lead head is slowly coming back, which helps. Bouldering felt good afterwards, being already warmed up. G knocked off the V5, which involved a move from two vertical pinches to a high horizontal sloper pinch, followed by a subsequent identical higher hold.
Weekly trip to BKB with G and Jess, with newcomers Ragan and Marco along for the night. They're doing well for starting out (doesn't hurt that they're super fit); given that their first real time climbing was out on the ice I think they'll be fine.
Felt reasonable, but both G and I flailed on V5s tonight, partly because we chose devious problems. G worked all the moves on the last V5 on the steepest wall but will have to wait to link 'em up - lots of laid out traversing.
V1, V2, V3, V4
2xV5(f)
Finished with 3 rounds of hangboard work.
Quick trip to New Rochelle with Jess and G to do some leading. A bunch of good interesting routes today, the 10 in particular was thoughtful and small: powerful starting moves to a dicey first clip and pretty balancey climbing until stems in a corner at the top provided some respite. The 11 was slabby with tiny pinches and crimps, it killed me but G pushed through.
lead: 5.8, 5.9, 5.10
TR: 5.11
Not as rough as I thought the night might be.
Jess, myself, and newcomer Nikita headed to BKB last night. The back was actually less crowded than usual. It was a return for Jess and I after a period of not climbing much. We first did a 1, 2, 3, and 3 (all in the back). Nikita first did a 0 and a 1.
Hess and I then worked a purple 4 with an awkward start that moves sideways quite a bit. I thought it was a nice problem. We also worked an orange 4 with an bizarre start as well. I also did a pink overhanging 4. Then I worked a 6 (could not make it past move #2).
Nikita patiently worked on a yellow 2. Making small improvements on every try. When we decided to move to a different section, he had figured out at least half of the moves, maybe more. We then went to the small section before the beast.
Jess and I worked on two 3s. The second one Jess worked until the end of the evening (the last move was giving her a hard time). I also did a 5- with a crazy dyno at the end (it turns out you could do it statically). After that I worked a 6 that turned out to be too much for me. Nikita found another 2 which he worked until the end. He tried various sequences, but his hands were just too tired.
To finish the evening we headed to the Sheep Station for food and beers. We each ordered a poutine but disaster struck: they only had cheese for 1. Dang. We had to share.
Starting to see some good progress in the local climbing crew. Went to BKB with G, Ryan, Jess, and Hanneke, and everybody seemed to be climbing hard. Ryan was working V2-3 and Jess V3-4, and I saw Hanneke on V4-4+, including some roof problems on the beast.
With G, we climbed a bunch of stuff (more attempts then send on my part):
V1, V2, V3, V4
3xV6
2xV4
G was on fire, sending 2 out of the 3 6s we worked on. The moves felt there for me, just couldn't quite stick them. We spent the end of the evening in the cave working a couple of 4s, one that went down easy and one that definitely didn't. Productive to work on body control, tough.
Should be consistently sending (if not onsighting) V4, going to target work towards V5s.
Going up the stairmaster made me painfully aware of how out of shape I am. Once we reached the top it was clear getting on a free route would be hard. We made our way to Horseman which K and I had taken a look at when we last were there (http://www.themonkeyclub.org/2012/02/snow-days-pro-days.html). The party on it was almost done, and there was a party of two waiting. We decided to wait our turn. We weer surrounded by really good climbers (with lots of kids of all ages it seemed) climbing Apoplexy and the other climbs to the left and right of Horseman. I started getting nervous while waiting (especially with the crowds around), but I used my time to pay attention to how the leader before me went around and up the corner.
The start went fine, but going up in the corner I was too nervous and kept my body too much in the corner, making it more difficult than it needs to. Going around the corner was fine, but then I ran into the party coming down from the top. I had to wait a good 10 minutes for them to start down again. Luckily I had good feet and a good cam right at my foot. The rest went down well, the double ropes working well to get an acceptable amount of drag. I belayed Greg and Jess each on a separate rope. We walked down because we were one belay device short and I didn't feel like trying the double biner setup K had showed me last week without practicing it before.
We then went to Double Clutch which K and I had tried on our previous visit. I used my brand new Ballnut #2 as the first piece of pro, then a blue Cam, the piton, and a green cam before the crux (I tried a bigger one since last time we thought it might work better but it actually doesn't fit as well). Couldn't do it: yet again. Instead, I lead the start of the 6 just to the left of it and setup a TR. Jess followed the line I had used to clean it. Greg went back onto Double Clutch and did it first, getting over the crux with a heel hook far left. I did it next (clean), but with a slightly higher and closer hook. One thing that helped is that I really used my feet well before the crux not losing any energy. That climb was lots of fun, but just at my limit. Jess tried it but she got pumped from the traverse. Greg did it again with a modified start (from a boulder problem below). I went up again to clean t, but did not have enough juice to pull the crux and needed some help from the belayer.
All and all a great a beautiful day. It was the first time I felt like my head was back into it since the end of last year's ice season. Horseman actually felt better than the first time I climbed it as a second (http://www.themonkeyclub.org/2009/04/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow.html). Next time, to do Double Clutch, I think we should use a single rope and I would put only one piece before the piton to waste less energy.
Jess, Greg, and I met at BKB for a bit of bouldering tonight. Jess worked a bunch of V3s, Greg worked on a 7. I did V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, and V5. They were all onsight except the last one that took me multiple tries (maybe a dozen).
It felt good to get back to bouldering.
BKB with Jess and G, ran into Jill C there too. Warmed up V1-V2-V3 then worked a bunch of mostly vertical V4 and V5s in the front of the gym. G was pulling much stronger than me tonight, though I did put in a lot of work on the problems - need to work on proper body tension and balance, those were the moves giving me trouble tonight.
TRC with Jess and G on a Tuesday night - put some real work in tonight. Jess TRed a bunch of climbs, up in the 5.9-5.10 range. G and I led 5.9/5.10/5.11, with the 11 (overhanging face, up below and along an arete, then up another overhanging face) feeling really tough - we eventually finished it after taking turns to move the rope up.
It was no small consolation that Ms. Psssst - who was cruising 12s - found it pretty tough going as well.
Jess, G, and I went back to TRC, first time since before the holidays. Might just be my weakness, but I feel like the grades there are consistently getting harder.
Worked on 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11(TR). The 8 was a nice mellow warmup; the 9 felt all out of sorts, off-balance clipping stances and burly starting moves. The 10 went up to the big roof, with the crux move right after a difficult clip over the top with your right foot hooked out right - the next left hand was *way* out left with your body and left leg hanging below in space. Worked that move a time or two, ended up just throwing for the hold; G pulled his feet way up high where he could static over, but not sure I could do it that way.
Fun 11 to finish up, gigantic moves up an overhanging arete and face with a small lip. Too tired to nail the crux move 2/3 the way up (over lip, big R hand throw to sloping ledge, foot out left on a small chip), but G styled it - next time, will work on hitting the right spot on the hold.
G brought out the old school tunes in his climbing mix.
Tuesday evening night at BKB, crowded as ever: G, Ryan and Cate, Jess and I headed over on a warm, rainy night to get a little climbing in. Accomplishment of the night goes to Cate for finishing her first problem to the top, which she quickly followed with a slew of sends. Honorable mention to Ryan for getting out of the way before I landed on him.
G and I stuck with a ratchet progression: V0-V1-V2, V1-V2-V3, V2-V3-V4, V3-V4-V5. Felt pretty good and we worked a variety of problems, I kept up til the end but ran out of juice while G was still hitting 4s and 5s.
Jess, K, and I headed to BKB last night. All three of us started with V1, V2+, V3, V2, V3. Then K and I followed with V4, V3, V4, V5 while Jess did a whole bunch of V3s.
It was the first 5 in a while for me, I must say it was on the very easy end of the V5 spectrum.
I liked the up and down sequence of difficulty proposed by K.
(Edited to name the technique: The Ratchet)
Went with Jess on Wednesday. The place was packed, making it difficult to do a pyramid, but my body was an even bigger hurdle. We did V1+, V2, V2+, V3, V3, V4, V3.
I worked another V4 quite a bit. I did all the moves but could not link them. The V4 I did complete was great. I had seen someone work the first part (by far the trickiest) which allowed me to flash it.
Jess and I headed to BKB on a Sunday this week. Same pyramid, although this time we stayed longer and I actually felt it was a tougher workout because I tried 3 V4s on which I failed. On each of them I worked multiple tries and got within 1 or 2 moves of the end. Fortunately I found another 4 that was more forgiving. I tried at least 2 or 3 more 4s on which I made very little progress.
Just like last week, headed to BKB with Jess. Did another pyramid: V1, V1, V2, V2, V3, V3, V3, V4, V3, V2, V2, V1, V1.
Felt OK. Trying not to overdo it to avoid injuries.
