your glee, we wants it

[sixbeforelunch]

Friday glee post is open. Anything and everything climbing related that made you proud or happy this week is welcome. Cheering on other people's glee, also welcome. Have at it. *g*

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Despite the fact that I was having a bad brain day: two V3s! Two V4s!

AND I NAILED THE CRUX MOVE ON THE V5 FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!

(I actually jumped up and down on the mats yelling with glee.)

I've still got to link the whole thing; it's cunningly designed so that your hands are dying by the time you get to the crux.

But I've got two weeks left to do it, before they re-set the wall ...

[sixbeforelunch]

I know I say it all the time, but you really do amaze me with your mad skillz.

Playing race the route setters always adds some interest to the problem. You can do it! *cheers you on*

(Love your new climbing icon, BTW.)

[rydra_wong]

The icon is of the amazing Angelica Lind, who's one of my favourite climbers to watch -- you can see her in action in the 08 women's bouldering championships. She's just so precise and confident in her technique.

[silveronthetree]

Oh fantastic! Awesome skills!

Wall resetting, I'm in two minds about it - great because you have new things to try, but incredibly annoying when you really want to complete a problem.

[abyssinia]

I am continually amazed by your superwoman skills.

YAY YOU!

[sesamoid]

Oooh, that's always the pressure with gym routes! Finish your project before it is gone forever... nice work!

[silveronthetree]

I'm going bouldering tomorrow morning! I haven't been climbing in the last two months because of thesis writing. I found this community, read the climbing glee, and watched a few videos and realised how much I miss it. And told myself that I had no excuse not to arrange to go climbing this week!

[rydra_wong]

W00t! I hope it gives you a good break from the thesis writing; I've found that climbing usually does wonders to re-set my brain when I'm frazzled.

[silveronthetree]

That's what I'm hoping.

[sixbeforelunch]

Yay! I hope you have a great time. :)

[sesamoid]

Exciting. Have fun!

[abyssinia]

Got back to the gym after about two weeks of school eating me alive to find, as I expected, everything re-set (luckily I conquered the ones I was working on last time I was there).

Handily climbed most of the two-dots I tried (yay) and made some progress on 2+'s and really felt like I had technique - like I was aware of my movement and flowing rather than flailing at the wall like a mad thing.

Yay climbing!

[rydra_wong]

Yay flow! I love it when that happens.

[sixbeforelunch]

like I was aware of my movement and flowing rather than flailing at the wall like a mad thing.

That is always an awesome feeling. Mad scrambles can beat a route, but IME, a sense of flow and body awareness is more satisfying even when you don't beat the route. (Although having both is the best. *g*)

[sesamoid]

Yay, that is always satisfying. What's the rating system you're using? It's different from the one I know.

[abyssinia]

Yeah, my gym doesn't use the standard "V" rating system.
Every route has a label at the start with a number of dot stickers - 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 and sometimes a plus (slightly harder) or minus (slightly easier). I asked once how they compared to the V system and I think, if I remember right, 1 and 2- is like V0 to hard V1 and 2-3 dots takes you up to V4 or V5 by the time you get to harder 3 dots and it goes weird from there or something, but that was just a guess from a more experienced climber.

So I think right now what I'm climbing would be comparable to V2's maybe and maybe starting to poke at the V3 level, but I'm not positive.

[pellucid]

I'm still not as strong as I want to be right now (and not as strong as I have been in the past when I've been climbing more regularly), but my body is remembering well, and I'm consequently having a little love affair with good technique. That was my goal today--just to be really precise with every move, which was easy enough on the easier routes and far too hard on the ones that were more challenging--and it just feels so good to know your body is moving the way it should be to do the work you need to do.

And in an interesting contrast, I ended up climbing today with my friend A., who was one of those super-strong guys who came in and could just haul himself up the walls even though he had no technique--and continues to climb like that even after a year of steady climbing. He's still so sloppy, even as he sends 5.11d's and such, and it drives me CRAZY!!! Yet he spent the whole time today admiring my technique, which pleased me (even though he won't LISTEN when I try to suggest technique things he might try to improve his own technique--stubborn man!).

[sixbeforelunch]

That was my goal today--just to be really precise with every move, which was easy enough on the easier routes and far too hard on the ones that were more challenging--and it just feels so good to know your body is moving the way it should be to do the work you need to do.

That is indeed an awesome feeling. I love the body awareness part of climbing.

And hee at the silly man. Listen to the woman, she knows what she's talking about. *g*

[sesamoid]

Yeah, I can relate to that. I'm pretty much in the same place - and it's definitely good to know you can make your body move right even if it needs to be stronger.

[sesamoid]

I led my first trad route!

[rydra_wong]

\o/ I know just enough about trad to know what a huge deal that is.

[sesamoid]

I was so excited! It was just a 5.6 and I probably placed way more gear than was needed, but it was still awesome.

[sixbeforelunch]

That's so cool! :)