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Falling off walls
Aug. 20th, 2008 10:01 pmSo, the wall closed over the last few days to do maintenance and completely reset the routes. Today was the first day it was open again, and I hied me there after a half an hour in the gym, to see what was what.
The good news: I finally have definitive confirmation over what grade system the wall uses: it's French. The bad news: there is nothing, now, easier than a French 5.
Now, the fives aren't alphabetised, yet, so I don't know whether they're at the easy end or the hard end. (The sixes and sevens are alphabetised, but not the fives.) There're two on the slab wall, which I sent: one with a little bit of cheating at the very last move and one clean, with no dogging on the rope. I'm pretty proud of that: both of them required a good bit of thinky.
There're two other fives, both on overhangs, which I tried. One's a grey, and I think the only straightforward way up is to smear, dyno, and jump, which'll get you to the top of the overhang. I can get my fingers on the hold after the jump, but I don't have the strength to pull it off.
The second one's a black. I can see two ways of getting to the top of the overhang, and over it: one's a dyno, and I tried that several times on my first attempt. Again, I can get my fingers up, but I don't have the strength to capitalise on that. The other way involves clever footwork, and balance, and smearing: I tried that on my second attempt, and I can see how it should work, but I just couldn't make it go right.
Two more fives, a white and a blue, share a slightly overhung corner: really the most minor of overhangs. Now, the white, that one's almost easy until you get to the top. I got stuck on the third move from the finish, where the holds stop being even slightly juggy and there's a move - two moves - that require much fingertip grippy and balance while smearing. No can do.
The blue - I'm quite proud of my attempt at the blue: I got up over the crux of the overhang, and then you have to smear up and reach sideways, and I couldn't quite get my arms to do the right amount of heaving.
There's also a red five, but I think that's closer to a 5c than a 5a: I could barely get it started, certainly couldn't string together the first three moves.
I'm going to be made of ouch tomorrow, but I'm going to try and get in another attempt tomorrow evening, before the open mic poetry. Last chance to conquer before two weeks of slack: I'll probably have to spend a week or two playing catch-up before I can send anything after I get back.
Wow. Did I get lengthy, much, over climbing? Well, I love it, and there were a great bunch of lads down there this evening to trade belays with (and even a girl or four, after half seven), so it was really great craic. (I spent two and a half hours there. Definitely going to be ouch tomorrow.)
Achievements:
Some of the Ehrman book, some of Goodman's Rome and Jerusalem (much more enjoyable than the Ehrman). .5 hours Latin, .5 hours Greek.
Running: 29 minutes, for 2.3 miles. Intervals of 7.5mph, and man did my bad ankle complain. It'll complain even more when we do it again tomorrow.
Rowing: 5 minutes, for 1.1km.
Climbing: See above, re: 2.5 hours.
Writing: .2K, some cleaning-up work.
I got deep-fried chicken and chips on the way up the road, the supermarkets being closed and no fast, greasy carbohydrates in the house. Mmm, grease.
My hands, where I've ripped through callouses, hate me, I think. I've taken a paracetamol to make my shoulders stop screaming, and now, I need to make with the packing and throw some more shit into the case for the day after tomorrow.
All I really want to do is fall over. But necessity calls.
The good news: I finally have definitive confirmation over what grade system the wall uses: it's French. The bad news: there is nothing, now, easier than a French 5.
Now, the fives aren't alphabetised, yet, so I don't know whether they're at the easy end or the hard end. (The sixes and sevens are alphabetised, but not the fives.) There're two on the slab wall, which I sent: one with a little bit of cheating at the very last move and one clean, with no dogging on the rope. I'm pretty proud of that: both of them required a good bit of thinky.
There're two other fives, both on overhangs, which I tried. One's a grey, and I think the only straightforward way up is to smear, dyno, and jump, which'll get you to the top of the overhang. I can get my fingers on the hold after the jump, but I don't have the strength to pull it off.
The second one's a black. I can see two ways of getting to the top of the overhang, and over it: one's a dyno, and I tried that several times on my first attempt. Again, I can get my fingers up, but I don't have the strength to capitalise on that. The other way involves clever footwork, and balance, and smearing: I tried that on my second attempt, and I can see how it should work, but I just couldn't make it go right.
Two more fives, a white and a blue, share a slightly overhung corner: really the most minor of overhangs. Now, the white, that one's almost easy until you get to the top. I got stuck on the third move from the finish, where the holds stop being even slightly juggy and there's a move - two moves - that require much fingertip grippy and balance while smearing. No can do.
The blue - I'm quite proud of my attempt at the blue: I got up over the crux of the overhang, and then you have to smear up and reach sideways, and I couldn't quite get my arms to do the right amount of heaving.
There's also a red five, but I think that's closer to a 5c than a 5a: I could barely get it started, certainly couldn't string together the first three moves.
I'm going to be made of ouch tomorrow, but I'm going to try and get in another attempt tomorrow evening, before the open mic poetry. Last chance to conquer before two weeks of slack: I'll probably have to spend a week or two playing catch-up before I can send anything after I get back.
Wow. Did I get lengthy, much, over climbing? Well, I love it, and there were a great bunch of lads down there this evening to trade belays with (and even a girl or four, after half seven), so it was really great craic. (I spent two and a half hours there. Definitely going to be ouch tomorrow.)
Achievements:
Some of the Ehrman book, some of Goodman's Rome and Jerusalem (much more enjoyable than the Ehrman). .5 hours Latin, .5 hours Greek.
Running: 29 minutes, for 2.3 miles. Intervals of 7.5mph, and man did my bad ankle complain. It'll complain even more when we do it again tomorrow.
Rowing: 5 minutes, for 1.1km.
Climbing: See above, re: 2.5 hours.
Writing: .2K, some cleaning-up work.
I got deep-fried chicken and chips on the way up the road, the supermarkets being closed and no fast, greasy carbohydrates in the house. Mmm, grease.
My hands, where I've ripped through callouses, hate me, I think. I've taken a paracetamol to make my shoulders stop screaming, and now, I need to make with the packing and throw some more shit into the case for the day after tomorrow.
All I really want to do is fall over. But necessity calls.
