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Friday climbing
Oct. 6th, 2017 08:21 pmFinishing work early, A and I went down to the Quay mid-afternoon to get some quality top rope time in while the centre wasn't too busy. On the way in we spotted Iz in the cafe and went over to say hello. Two weeks on from an operation to rebuild her left knee, off work to recuperate, and forbidden from doing anything that might stress her injury, she seemed a little bit out of sorts, but in no-time, she and A were comparing scars and surgical techniques used to rebuild joints. I felt a bit like a fly on the wall at a cyborg convention!
The climbing went well and I managed what might have been a clean send of a hard, technical fluro orange route that everyone. Unfortunately, I don't think I can count it because I wasn't happy with the last two moves — I did it late on in the session when I was tired and I think I might have dogged the rope a bit at the very end. But at least I'm confident I've got the beta absolutely dialed, now that I've realised that I need to stay low and in the centre on the crux instead of going up and left before moving across.
I've realised that climbing with A is really good for me: her determination has rubbed off and, feeling that I need to raise my game to live up to her standards, I've started doing 7s that I'd normally have written off as too difficult for me. And rather to my surprise, I've either been sending them or getting most of the way up only to drop the top move(s).
Thus, for no terribly good reason I decided to attempt a very sparse, very fingery 7a on pillar, where all the current crop of routes are disproportionately hard for their grades — they were all set by an amazingly strong guest setter a little while ago. The start of the route was brutal, with nothing but tiny crimps and chips for the feet, and a core-intensive move where you have to roll the right hand across to yet another painful crimp and then pull-up over an overhang to a hold which approximates a rest. At this point the route shifts from raw power to technique, with a series of balancy moves, some very big steps up on tiny, tenuous feet, and lots of pulling on the arete.
Rather to my surprise, given my goal was merely to get past the overhang, I managed to make it up to the penultimate move before dropping the attempt. After hanging on the rope for a while, I managed to bag the last move and complete a redpoint. As I came down, I checked out the bad last foothold and wondered whether I'd've been able to send the route if it'd been clean instead of being coated in chalk and shoe-scum.
When I got down, a guy came over to say how impressed he'd been with my attempt — he'd missed the fall at the top — and asked A if she was going to try it. She voted against and I belayed her on a hard-for-the-grade 6a, which she did not enjoy in the slightest, but which she still valiantly wrestled her way up only dropping a move up to bad hold close to the top.
When A came down, the same guy asked if it was OK to get a belay on the 7a because the two friends he was with were novices. I said sure — I never ask randos for a belay because you can never be entirely sure their technique won't turn out to be crap, but I guess TR belaying is likely to be safer than lead and anyone who can climb 7a can probably belay safely — gave him a bit of beta on the first couple of moves and let him get on with it. Although the guy made a pretty good stab at it, he really struggled with the early moves and couldn't get past the setup to the first crux — which, although hard and painful, hadn't felt particularly impossible to me.
After wrapping up, we finished in the training room and I talked to Gav while A did her physio exercises — some of them are pure comedy gold! — and cranked out a handful of pull-ups. Gav cheered me up even further by opining that fluro orange route was very hard for the grade, as was the 7a on the pillar. I'm now starting to wonder if, in combination with the 7a I pretty much cruised the other week, whether I've suddenly cracked the 7 boundary or, far more likely, whether I've been capable for climbing 7s for quite some time and simply haven't been trying hard enough...
The climbing went well and I managed what might have been a clean send of a hard, technical fluro orange route that everyone. Unfortunately, I don't think I can count it because I wasn't happy with the last two moves — I did it late on in the session when I was tired and I think I might have dogged the rope a bit at the very end. But at least I'm confident I've got the beta absolutely dialed, now that I've realised that I need to stay low and in the centre on the crux instead of going up and left before moving across.
I've realised that climbing with A is really good for me: her determination has rubbed off and, feeling that I need to raise my game to live up to her standards, I've started doing 7s that I'd normally have written off as too difficult for me. And rather to my surprise, I've either been sending them or getting most of the way up only to drop the top move(s).
Thus, for no terribly good reason I decided to attempt a very sparse, very fingery 7a on pillar, where all the current crop of routes are disproportionately hard for their grades — they were all set by an amazingly strong guest setter a little while ago. The start of the route was brutal, with nothing but tiny crimps and chips for the feet, and a core-intensive move where you have to roll the right hand across to yet another painful crimp and then pull-up over an overhang to a hold which approximates a rest. At this point the route shifts from raw power to technique, with a series of balancy moves, some very big steps up on tiny, tenuous feet, and lots of pulling on the arete.
Rather to my surprise, given my goal was merely to get past the overhang, I managed to make it up to the penultimate move before dropping the attempt. After hanging on the rope for a while, I managed to bag the last move and complete a redpoint. As I came down, I checked out the bad last foothold and wondered whether I'd've been able to send the route if it'd been clean instead of being coated in chalk and shoe-scum.
When I got down, a guy came over to say how impressed he'd been with my attempt — he'd missed the fall at the top — and asked A if she was going to try it. She voted against and I belayed her on a hard-for-the-grade 6a, which she did not enjoy in the slightest, but which she still valiantly wrestled her way up only dropping a move up to bad hold close to the top.
When A came down, the same guy asked if it was OK to get a belay on the 7a because the two friends he was with were novices. I said sure — I never ask randos for a belay because you can never be entirely sure their technique won't turn out to be crap, but I guess TR belaying is likely to be safer than lead and anyone who can climb 7a can probably belay safely — gave him a bit of beta on the first couple of moves and let him get on with it. Although the guy made a pretty good stab at it, he really struggled with the early moves and couldn't get past the setup to the first crux — which, although hard and painful, hadn't felt particularly impossible to me.
After wrapping up, we finished in the training room and I talked to Gav while A did her physio exercises — some of them are pure comedy gold! — and cranked out a handful of pull-ups. Gav cheered me up even further by opining that fluro orange route was very hard for the grade, as was the 7a on the pillar. I'm now starting to wonder if, in combination with the 7a I pretty much cruised the other week, whether I've suddenly cracked the 7 boundary or, far more likely, whether I've been capable for climbing 7s for quite some time and simply haven't been trying hard enough...
