Friday glee is contemplating broken ankles

[rydra_wong]

Climbing? Training? Boosted? Beyond even trying to process what's happening in the world?

Video: Teaching New Tricks to Old School Legend -- Louis Parkinson coaches Neil Gresham in how to climb "comp style" parkour-influenced boulder problems.

Context: Neil Gresham has excelled at sketchy trad among other climbing disciplines. He is one of the very small club of people who've climbed Indian Face. He put up a new and terrifyingly dangerous E11 last year.

So the sheer level of NOPE in his face in his face at the prospect of skipping along some large holds a very short distance above a mat is extremely charming to me. That's how I feel about moves like that (though I learn far slower than Neil does).

I empathize with his instinctive certainty that he's going to break his ankle and/or faceplant into the wall, and have great respect for his willingness to show how anxious and uncertain he is. And Louis is a very very good coach.

Comments

[ivy]

Seriously! Highly relatable, hahaha.

[rydra_wong]

Also I feel I can confirm that Neil's not hamming it up because I learned half the climbing techniques and trad skills I know from various instructional DVDs he's made, and bless him, he hits "deeply uncool mid-80s BBC TV children's science programme presenter" every time; performing skills are not his strong point.