sawyl | How not to read a problem (Reply)

Midway through an afternoon of bouldering we were resting up, watching a group of people wrestling with a recent problem on the vert wall. After they'd given up without sending it, we looked at each other and decided to give it a try:

E:	Are we doing the grey problem?
Me:	I guess so. I think it looks OK. [I feel up the first couple of holds] Yes, it's OK. The holds feel unexpectedly grippy and positive...
E:	OK [hops on a does the first few moves out to a big bridge] Flippin' 'eck this is hard! What's the next move?
Me:	[from the comfort of the ground] I think you have to bump your foot in to the middle and then up. The hold is covered in shoe marks, so that's got to be it...
E:	Gah! [promptly completes her flash and comes back down] I thought you said it was easy...
Me:	...I only said I thought it looked easy. Clearly I was wrong. [I climb on, only to peel off on the second move] Very, very wrong. Something tells me you're never going to let me forget this, are you?
E:	Nope!

I finally managed to get it but it took me at least five attempts and my beta was very different from E's thanks to my additional reach and a willingness to crank and smear my way through one of the moves in the middle. It was a fun problem, solidly technical with a couple of tough moves and hand holds which, despite my initial assessment, weren't particularly good.

After we'd done, the people who'd been working it earlier came back down and one of them said to E, "You made that look really easy..." To which I replied, "Yes, but she's really good; it was definitely much harder than I thought it was going to be!" At which point E repeated my initial reading and how very, very wrong I was...