A serious Sunday climb
Oct. 23rd, 2016 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylDespite feeling tired after my Sunday morning training run, I dragged myself down to the climbing centre for what was supposed to be a short session. I did a series of warm-up routes with the idea of tackling the one new auto route I haven't finished — it features a hard crux up on to the headwall &mdsah; and going home. But just as I was finishing my easy sequence, Iz arrived and suggested some lead climbing.
I did an easy route and took a few practice falls to try and get my head into the right place. I started gently, just dropping back on the bolt, before building up to some proper falls taken from above the clip. As ever with practice falls, the hardest part is convincing yourself up to let go; because the actual fall, once you bite the bullet and take it, is completely safe and actually rather fun.
With my confidence improved, I climbed one of the longer and more overhung routes up the prow. Stupidly, towards the top where it went into a roof section, I psyched myself by convincing myself that I was getting a cramp, that I was running out of shoulder strength, and that I wouldn't be able to make the last clip under the roof. Fortunately, Izzy wasn't willing to let me give up and pointed out that I was three moves away from the anchor and the last few holds were all giant jugs. And with that encouragement, I pulled back on and made the last moves with ease. Back down on the ground, I realised how absurd I'd been: my shoulder was fine, my forearms were barely warmed up, and I'd made the clips as smoothly as could be — proving that the problem was entirely in my head.
Izzy powered up a 6c next to the route I'd climbed and had a similar moment just before the top where she convinced herself that the last clip before the anchor was going to be hard. After dropping back and regrouping for a minute, she realised that the penultimate hold was extremely positive and just went for it. So good was the hold that she didn't bother going for the final jug but clipped straight from the big ridge.
At this point, we handed the borrowed rope back and went to work some of the slabs, including something graded 6c+/7a. The route, which featured some very hard, very carefully balanced moves up to slopers took a while to get right but when we found a beta that worked, we both stormed it. I'm not quite sure how to count the route, but I'm going to bag it as a 7a — goodness knows, I don't have many of them under my belt, so I need every last one! — although I'm pretty sure it wasn't that hard given that I managed to send it.
We finished the session with a spot of bouldering to cool down. Izzy, who is officially unstoppable, mopped up the easy problems, made a serious attempt at a 6C+ sloper problem on the roof, and finished by campusing a whole series of moves above the overhang. I did some of the easy boulders and finished with three circuits of the ten degree board. The last sequence was a real struggle, but I made it to the last hold without coming off which is all that matters...
I did an easy route and took a few practice falls to try and get my head into the right place. I started gently, just dropping back on the bolt, before building up to some proper falls taken from above the clip. As ever with practice falls, the hardest part is convincing yourself up to let go; because the actual fall, once you bite the bullet and take it, is completely safe and actually rather fun.
With my confidence improved, I climbed one of the longer and more overhung routes up the prow. Stupidly, towards the top where it went into a roof section, I psyched myself by convincing myself that I was getting a cramp, that I was running out of shoulder strength, and that I wouldn't be able to make the last clip under the roof. Fortunately, Izzy wasn't willing to let me give up and pointed out that I was three moves away from the anchor and the last few holds were all giant jugs. And with that encouragement, I pulled back on and made the last moves with ease. Back down on the ground, I realised how absurd I'd been: my shoulder was fine, my forearms were barely warmed up, and I'd made the clips as smoothly as could be — proving that the problem was entirely in my head.
Izzy powered up a 6c next to the route I'd climbed and had a similar moment just before the top where she convinced herself that the last clip before the anchor was going to be hard. After dropping back and regrouping for a minute, she realised that the penultimate hold was extremely positive and just went for it. So good was the hold that she didn't bother going for the final jug but clipped straight from the big ridge.
At this point, we handed the borrowed rope back and went to work some of the slabs, including something graded 6c+/7a. The route, which featured some very hard, very carefully balanced moves up to slopers took a while to get right but when we found a beta that worked, we both stormed it. I'm not quite sure how to count the route, but I'm going to bag it as a 7a — goodness knows, I don't have many of them under my belt, so I need every last one! — although I'm pretty sure it wasn't that hard given that I managed to send it.
We finished the session with a spot of bouldering to cool down. Izzy, who is officially unstoppable, mopped up the easy problems, made a serious attempt at a 6C+ sloper problem on the roof, and finished by campusing a whole series of moves above the overhang. I did some of the easy boulders and finished with three circuits of the ten degree board. The last sequence was a real struggle, but I made it to the last hold without coming off which is all that matters...
