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falling off walls
Jan. 21st, 2009 11:33 pmFirst lead climbing class tonight. Not much was done, leading-wise: I only led two routes. This was sport lead climbing: no need to place pro, just climb and clip. The one hard part was hanging with one hand and two feet on an overhang and trying to clip a quickdraw with a really stiff gate.
Falling is like flying, until the thud. Although I think I prefer falling from overhangs: there's less wall to bash into when you hit.
Afterwards, toproped a few more routes - there are grades up now, at last! - the blue 5+, the yellow 4, the green 4+ (twice), the orange 5, and at long last, with some slight awkwardness and a couple of falls but not with fail, the red 6a that has been defeating me for so long. (Last week I kept barndooring off the lower section. Embarrassing, just a bit.) The black with the undercling that I was falling off yesterday? Is also 6a, as is the white whose top move I can touch but not do. Everything else I've tried is 6a+ or 6b. No wonder they're a bit tough.
I'd like to climb outside someday soon. The wall is 11 metres tall (about 35 ft), and although I'm working on strength and stamina, I'd like to try practicing climbing longer routes.
Despite the fact that I had meat and potatoes in the Dining Hall at noon today, with apricot meringue (very nice meringue, too) for desert, and a chocolate bar before climbing, I was hungry enough to murder a whole packet of biscuits when I got home.
In other news, the laptop being Dead is not helping Project Get Essays Done. There is something incredibly alienating, and distracting, about a college computer room. I have always found this. It has become no easier to think in one since I acquired the laptop.
Oh, well. Onwards.
Falling is like flying, until the thud. Although I think I prefer falling from overhangs: there's less wall to bash into when you hit.
Afterwards, toproped a few more routes - there are grades up now, at last! - the blue 5+, the yellow 4, the green 4+ (twice), the orange 5, and at long last, with some slight awkwardness and a couple of falls but not with fail, the red 6a that has been defeating me for so long. (Last week I kept barndooring off the lower section. Embarrassing, just a bit.) The black with the undercling that I was falling off yesterday? Is also 6a, as is the white whose top move I can touch but not do. Everything else I've tried is 6a+ or 6b. No wonder they're a bit tough.
I'd like to climb outside someday soon. The wall is 11 metres tall (about 35 ft), and although I'm working on strength and stamina, I'd like to try practicing climbing longer routes.
Despite the fact that I had meat and potatoes in the Dining Hall at noon today, with apricot meringue (very nice meringue, too) for desert, and a chocolate bar before climbing, I was hungry enough to murder a whole packet of biscuits when I got home.
In other news, the laptop being Dead is not helping Project Get Essays Done. There is something incredibly alienating, and distracting, about a college computer room. I have always found this. It has become no easier to think in one since I acquired the laptop.
Oh, well. Onwards.
