Cosumnes River - Climbing

Daniel made a really good post about this with pictures and all here, so I'll just stick to my own quick notes.

Climbing outside hits all kinds of massive anxiety buttons for me. So going on an outdoor climbing excursion is always kind of a mixed bag. Sometimes I do better at conquering the fear than others. Yesterday was not my best day.

My hips were in very poor shape from the previous day's trail run, and so the clambering and scrambling that always comes with an outdoor climbing excursion (that are already one of my prime anxiety buttons) was harder and more painful than it should have been. Even, on a relative scale, this was pretty easy scrambling.

I was pretty discouraged when I couldn't figure out how to start the 5.5 climb, and I did the 5.8 'unconquerable' but only about an inch at a time - I'd gain a couple inches, fall, gain a couple more inches, fall, rinse and repeat. It was stubbornness and Kat's patient, helpful belay, that got me to the top and not much else. (Daniel, who is reading over my shoulder, just informed me that the first climb was a 5.8 - not a 5.5 - so i guess that makes me feel somewhat better).

I tried unconquerable again towards the end of the day, and I managed to do the beginning a bit better than I had the first time, but I was very quickly reduced back to 'gain an inch' fall, and about 1/3 of the way up decided to call it a day.

It was a beautiful location, and while the sun was out, it was a beautiful day. The company was good, and it was very nice to spend a whole day away from the house and from work.