Monday, November 17, 2008 by Daniel

Monday Night Social Climbing

The start of a new tradition?

Rebecca and I arranged to meet James M at Ironworks tonight to get him on the wall - it's just criminal to belong to a climbing gym and NOT climb. We extended the invite to the whole CFEB crew, albeit with very late notice, and Max and Evelyn showed up for a little hanging out and pulling plastic. James acquitted himself admirably, flashing two 10a's and getting up a 10b with minor difficulty. He's definitely a natural.

My tally: 10a(c), 10d(f), 10d(c), 10b(f+)

The first d was a new one just put up today, and I fell because I stepped off-route, and when Rebecca corrected me I got flustered trying to fix it and just peeled off. I think I should get this one clean next time. The second d was one I did Friday, and it was even easier today - which is good, because YET AGAIN I fell off one of Jim's 11a's after only one or two moves. Why-oh-why are 11a's so much harder than 10d's?! The last 10b was also Jim (he was a busy boy today), and I re-dubbed it "too much shit in my way." At several points in the climb, angles are hampered and body positioning is made very awkward due to very large holds from other routes getting in your way. I don't know if I was just tired (I was), or if Jim was feeling mischievous (he probably was), but this felt quite a bit harder than your run-of-the-mill B. I'll have to try it again later.

We're going to try and make Monday night climbing a regular thing, with a standing invite to the Crossfit crowd to join us if they like. Next week we'll do GWPC, which (if not too crowded) is really a better place for social climbing, anyway.

2 comments:

Ev said...

Yeay! I'm all for it. It was a blast. Daniel: your climbing has come a long way. The first time I saw you climb was at a comp and I saw you struggle with stuff that seems like just a breeze now. Fantastic. Wonder if CF has anything to do with that?

Daniel said...

Thank you. I have noticed a real step up in my climbing the past couple months, but I think there are a few different factors.

Practice - I climb at least twice a week pretty religiously. This has probably helped more than anything.

Weight loss - a few pounds makes a huge difference, I find. For every five pounds of fat I gain, I probably drop a letter in comfortable climbing. Right now I'm leaner than usual, so it's relatively easy.

Crossfit - hard to quantify how much this has helped, though I think it has. I think squats help a lot, and if I ever get pistols those will REALLY help. But since climbing uses so many different weird combinations of muscles, I suspect CF has been the rising tide that floats all boats.

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