Friday glee is coffee-powered

[rydra_wong]

The Friday post of glee is where you get to tell us about your climbing-related happiness this week.

It can be a new achievement or adventure, or just that you climbed and had fun; it can be that your favourite climbing wall is expanding or that you bought new rock shoes or that you found a cool ice-climbing vid on YouTube. No glee is too small -- or too big. Members are encouraged to cheer each other on and share the squee.

N.B. Please feel free to post your glee on any day of the week; the Friday glee is just to get the ball rolling.

To enhance this week's glee: Lena Herrmann on the first female ascent of Battle Cat (8c+).

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I went climbing on Monday and climbed for three hours. I didn't do anything difficult. I just decided to have fun. So I climbed all the easy routes multiple times. (It was crowded in the gym, so hogging a project was not nice.)

I came home with friction burned hands and really sore feet (still sore feet today!), but it was really great.

Some Friday I will go and work projects.

[rydra_wong]

Yayyyyyy climbing and having fun!

[wpadmirer]

It really was wonderful.

[emperor]

More new routes :) They hadn't been graded, so it was a bit "that doesn't look totally impossible, let's give it a go", which is always fun (even if some of the routes did turn out to be totally impossible ;)

[wpadmirer]

Oh yeah, that moment is always interesting. You look at something that doesn't look too hard and then find out you were working the beginning of a 5.12 - way out of your range. Or at least MY range. (grin)

Glad you had fun!

[emperor]

I'm pretty sure (having looked it up) that 5.12 is out of my range, too! I have once managed to top-rope a 7a after weeks of trying, which WP tells me is 5.11d.

[wpadmirer]

You're better than me. I've done a 5.10. But I console myself that I didn't start climbing until I was 55, so I'm allowed. (grin)

[ivy]

I've never made a 5.10. (I'll be 41 in a couple weeks.) Go you!

[wpadmirer]

LOL! Well, thank you. That makes me feel good. I had a partner who was 22 and we really pushed each other. I was doing 5.10s pretty regularly, and we were climbing three times a week. Then she moved to Washington, D.C. to go to graduate school - and then my rock gym went out of business. (sigh)

So after more than a year, I'm trying to get back to the climbing at least once a month. There are signs we may have a new gym sometime in 2018. I live in hope.

[ivy]

Oh, that sucks that your gym went out of business! I hope one does open near you. We have two here so I am spoiled for choice, but almost all my friends vastly prefer bouldering to top-roping and I'm the other way around. (I trust the rope. I'd rather take a fall on it than off it!)

[wpadmirer]

Two gyms! An embarrassment of riches!

I'm with you. I like the rope. I will take far more risks with the rope than without it, which makes me work harder.

Also, since I don't bounce as good as the young'uns, I think it's better for my health. (grin)

[rydra_wong]

Yay new routes! Sometimes I've found gradelessness can mean you get on something you'd ordinarily think would be out of your league and get further on it than you'd expect. It takes the pressure off!