Climbing report card

I've had my report card back from our recent trip to Turkey. We'd originally planned to hold a debrief over breakfast on our last morning, but there wasn't time — and I heard a rumour from Gavin that both he and Tom had forgotten to set their alarms! As one of the others said, we've all got a pretty good idea of our weaknesses and what we ought to be doing to improve; but it's always good to have something in writing. Here, for the record, are some of the key points:

Areas of Strength

• Climbing general knowledge!
• Problem solving
• Figuring out different beta

Improvements During the Week

• Lots of mileage climbing
• Looked more confortable leading
• Clipping efficiently

Areas to Target

• Strength; work on steeper bouldering
• Talk myself into routes and not out of them!
• Try harder!
• Drills that force good body postion

Goals for 2018

• Lead more than once a year
• Climb outside
• Work 7as

Halloween climbing

Walking down to the climbing centre to meet A, I bumped into P&D and Dasher and Blitzen. Blitz was his usual dignified self but Dash was so hyper and excited to see me she ran over to me like a crazy thing and was doing little jumps of delight. I'm not entirely sure why she was so pleased, given that I'd seen her on Sunday, but still. As we were chatting, A arrived and we headed in to do a bit of climbing. We started by finishing the only two routes from the quarry we hadn't climbed on while we were doing mileage on Saturday, and then crushed some of the routes on the slab. Once we'd got some climbs under out belts, I fished out my rope and we had a go at pseudo-leading with a safety top rope. Rather to my surprise, I was still able to remember how to butterfly coil a rope and I managed to get A home in time to watch the final of Bake Off. I walked home through town, but it wasn't that busy considering it was Halloween — although, in a consession to date, one of the buskers was wearing a little witch's hat...