climbing and mobility test
I finally went climbing last night. My climbing partner and I have both been really busy this past month. I had some free time this week. He didn't. I've been really itching to climb though, so I went bouldering. Yesterday was apparently not the right day to go to the rock gym. It was dollar night for women, plus various companies were showing rock shoes. The place was packed, even the boulderimg space.
Still, climbing, even bad climbing, beats not climbing at all. And the climbing wasn't even remotely bad. For whatever reason, I boulder better now than I did last year, the last time I bouldered. I've top roped since then but no bouldering. I'm not saying that I'm good. The hardest route I tried was a V2- which I did in pieces. I couldn't get enough crash pads together for the entire route and I had no one to spot me. I have the social skills of a jelly donut, so despite being in a room filled with boulderers, I never asked anyone.
It was an interesting mix of people actually. More newbies climbed in the building room than I had expected. Of course the twenty something hard bodies doing only the hardest routes were there. Also, the kids training for competition ran their circuit of routes. but more than a few climber were, like me, hitting the easy routes. I didn't see many people in the middle.I hadn't expected so much competition for the easy routes.
I'd really missed climbing. There's a visceral thrill in being on a wall and moving on it that l can't get anywhere else. Bouldering is scary because it is literally unaided climbing. No ropes. No protection. I've had the pleasure of knowing that hard I been free soloing, I'd be dead. (There are crash mats.) Still, I'm going to be there every week, with or without my climbing partner But maybe a sparser night.
The other thing I'm doing this week is trying out a new mobile writing solution. It's a very expensive handheld PC that I have on loan for the week. It's not bad. The thumbboard is a bit tiring to use for long periods of time. The handwriting recognition is not bad though, and much less tiring. I wrote this entry using a combination of the two. I'm seriously thinking about buying this.
Still, climbing, even bad climbing, beats not climbing at all. And the climbing wasn't even remotely bad. For whatever reason, I boulder better now than I did last year, the last time I bouldered. I've top roped since then but no bouldering. I'm not saying that I'm good. The hardest route I tried was a V2- which I did in pieces. I couldn't get enough crash pads together for the entire route and I had no one to spot me. I have the social skills of a jelly donut, so despite being in a room filled with boulderers, I never asked anyone.
It was an interesting mix of people actually. More newbies climbed in the building room than I had expected. Of course the twenty something hard bodies doing only the hardest routes were there. Also, the kids training for competition ran their circuit of routes. but more than a few climber were, like me, hitting the easy routes. I didn't see many people in the middle.I hadn't expected so much competition for the easy routes.
I'd really missed climbing. There's a visceral thrill in being on a wall and moving on it that l can't get anywhere else. Bouldering is scary because it is literally unaided climbing. No ropes. No protection. I've had the pleasure of knowing that hard I been free soloing, I'd be dead. (There are crash mats.) Still, I'm going to be there every week, with or without my climbing partner But maybe a sparser night.
The other thing I'm doing this week is trying out a new mobile writing solution. It's a very expensive handheld PC that I have on loan for the week. It's not bad. The thumbboard is a bit tiring to use for long periods of time. The handwriting recognition is not bad though, and much less tiring. I wrote this entry using a combination of the two. I'm seriously thinking about buying this.