Friday glee is pulling on pebbles

[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, a NON-GRITSTONE video: Alex Honnold and friends on a slabby V5 in the Shawangunks.

Comments

[niqaeli]

I went climbing! Twice, this week!

Er, that's pretty much the extent of my glee. But it's pretty gleeful considering I'd been really awful at getting my ass in gear and over to my wall.

[rydra_wong]

\o/ That is fully glee-worthy!

[rydra_wong]

I have un-glee because a stinking cold has preventing me from climbing so far this week.

But I have some glee because I have the new edition of Peak District Bouldering. Gritstone porn!

[niqaeli]

Ooo! That's some really gorgeous rock.

(Hm. When I get a little stronger and better at climbing, I should see what kind of outdoors bouldering there near me. Goodness knows there's some beautiful rock in Arizona!)

[rydra_wong]

And now I have the new Southern Sandstone Bouldering guidebook too! Shit rock, but stubbornly loved and cherished and cataloged in ridiculous detail because it's the only rock even vaguely near London.

The gritstone is astonishing stuff. Known to British climbers as "God's own rock." The standard put-down question re: new climbing stars is "But what has he done on grit?"

[emperor]

Boo, colds suck :(

I'm going to be in the Peaks in a couple of weeks, so have weakened and bought Western Grit. I might chicken out and find some limestone instead ;-)

[rydra_wong]

Don't fear the grit! I mean, okay, it wants to drink your blood, but apart from that ... *g*

The thing is that because it's so abrasive, the friction is incredible; it feels like you can trust holds in a completely different way. IMHE. Anyway, looking forwards to seeing what you make of it, and whether you find it's your cup of tea or not.

And the Peak District is breathtakingly beautiful.

[miss_s_b]

I introduced my work colleague to top-roping. He'd only ever bouldered before.

[rydra_wong]

\o/

[emperor]

I dogged my way up a 6a+ on lead. This might not sound like much, but one of the people I was climbing with tried it on top-rope afterwards and struggled too => I wasn't just making a meal of it because I was on lead. This is definitely progress :-)

[rydra_wong]

\o/ Sounds like you're definitely getting your lead head on indoors.

[tea]

My glee: I am getting better! And a whole bunch of it is because of things I read here. Keeping a hip towards the wall whenever possible really made a noticeable difference this week (no more ass pulling me off the wall, hah), and I spent a while on some easier routes trying to make them as smooth and silent as possible - even on the ones I can do ten times without trouble, it was surprisingly difficult to do them without slamming around!

Annnd, I beat my nemesis wall from the last four weeks! It was lots of teeny little round foot holds, with grips for the hands that did have little cups to them but were much smaller - all the top joint or two of my fingers - than I can usually deal with, and they were all turned in towards each other in pairs, so I had to grip with my elbows sticking out in order not to fall off (does that all make sense?) Anyway, it was really hard to stay on the wall, demanding not only of my grip and foot placement, but of really strategic balancing to keep from tipping over while reaching. I'd done it maybe 10 times before, getting 75% of the way through half the time, and falling off immediately the other half, and I stuck it last night on the second try. Yeah! So satisfying.

It was really humid and hot in the gym last night, which meant I was sweating a pile, but I actually felt like that helped because my flexibility is really bad, but I could stretch a lot better than normal. (Maybe I should look into that hot yoga thing!)

[rydra_wong]

You only started climbing in May, right? It sounds like you're learning technique amazingly fast. \o/\o/\o/

I spent a while on some easier routes trying to make them as smooth and silent as possible

That's a great exercise, and I really need to do it more often: I have terribly noisy feet.

I had to grip with my elbows sticking out in order not to fall off (does that all make sense?)

Like you're trying to pull apart elevator doors? Yeah, that's called a "gaston" (named after the great alpinist Gaston Rebuffat).

I actually felt like that helped because my flexibility is really bad, but I could stretch a lot better than normal.

FWIW, I find that after a climbing session I can often stretch very deeply because all my muscles are warmed up, so it can be a good idea to include some yoga as part of your cooldown routine (if you want to improve your flexibility and avoid post-climbing stiffness).

[tea]

Yeah, this was why I could never stretch randomly to improve, because I never did it while warmed up. This was pointed out to me recently, and now I tend to take advantage of the "oh man my hands" breaks by just sitting there constantly stretching. My left leg is awwwwful, I can't sit 90 degrees because of it, so improving it even a little would be awesome.

Aha! A gaston is exactly it. And yes, this was my fifth (once a week, but now I have it in my schedule to go Sundays as well, whoo) time. The technique is the fun part to figure out - the basic physical ability, I think, is going to take a bit longer & more frequent climbing.

[wpadmirer]

I've been working a 5.8 route that is nothing but slopers and all the feet are really high. It requires smearing, balance, and a lot of leg strength to get up the route and when I finish it, I'm usually finished. (grin)

But today I did it, and did it pretty well. This is a route that a month ago I wouldn't have been able to do.

Progress is SO nice!

[rydra_wong]

\o/ Slopers are haaaaard.

[wpadmirer]

I hate slopers with every fiber of my being. Thus why my climbing partner Kim insists I do this wall. (sigh)

[fadeaccompli]

Not only do I have plans for bouldering with friends tomorrow, but I found out that a classmate who did rock climbing for a kids' day camp before is interested in going bouldering with me because, as she says, "I've got the shoes anyway..." So it's sort of future glee, but still! Glee.

[rydra_wong]

\o/ All forms of glee are valid and accepted here!