Friday glee wants to climb that one day

[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: this is a trailer for an upcoming climbing film, but it works wonderfully as a short in its own right, featuring Barnaby Ventham climbing Not To Be Taken Away (V4), one of the most striking lines at Stanage Plantation.

Comments

[astridv]

I've done a lot more bouldering recently and come to enjoy it as much as toproping. Which is so cool since now I can go climbing even when I can't find a partner. Two weeks ago I was in an adventurous mood so I figured I'd try my first route in green (medium) level... and it worked, yay. I mean, I clawed my way up that wall in a way that wasn't very elegant, but I got up there. So that opened up a lot more possible routes. The more you boulder, the more fun it gets.

Oh, and more glee: Last week we went toproping and were met with a dozen new routes made with brand new holds... awesome grip, bright colors you can't mix up, it was the BEST.

[rydra_wong]

\o/ Yay bouldering (I own my biases *g*).

And yay for new fresh-out-of-the-box grippy holds! Though I find they shred my skin like nothing else.

[astridv]

Ouch, they do indeed. Recently there were a few times where I stopped because my hands felt like they were being shredded, not because my muscles were giving out.

When I climb outdoors on ropes, I'm wearing gloves now. I bought them to be prepared for the winter cold (snort, well that hasn't happened) but turns out they're really convenient 'cause ropes feel nasty on the palms.

(I own my biases *g*)

I can see where you're coming from now. :) I still love toproping at least equally, but they're both really, really fun.

[wpadmirer]

I've been spotting my partner as she boulders after we finish top roping. I enjoy watching bouldering, so YAY! for your success with it!

And there's nothing like new routes to make top roping a blast.

[astridv]

They're really good about changing the routes at my gymn. Sometimes almost overeager - one week you're working on something, next week it's gone - but that way it never gets boring. I've never seen that many new ones in one day. I tried to climb them all but I think I missed one or two.

I like watching the others boulder, too. It makes a good spectator sport!

[wpadmirer]

My gym has a bunch of new routes up for top roping! So I can share the glee about that. And my partner and I are going to try to go tonight. It's about to be very quiet in our gym as the university students will be gone soon. Double YAY! for not having to wait for routes. (grin)

[rydra_wong]

Yay for quiet gyms! *g*

[ridicully]

Even though I only managed to go climbing about once a week for the last four weeks (Boooh!) I'm still improving slowly (Yay!).
I'm also getting closer and closer to finish one of the roof routes.

[rydra_wong]

Yay roof routes! Roof stuff always makes me feel badass. *g*

[wpadmirer]

I share you pain about once a week climbing, as I've been getting that myself, since my partner has been swamped at work.

The first time I succeeded in hanging completely from a roof route, I was SO proud! I send good vibes on you getting that same feeling.

[ursula]

I made it to the gym this week, after losing a couple to travel & a nasty cold.

I also got my math anxiety & climbing article onto my website (it came out in Math Horizons last month):

http://people.uwec.edu/whitchua/notes/mathandgymclass-mathhorizons.pdf

[rydra_wong]

That's an excellent article, and I'm fascinated by your strategies for learning maths. Would you fancy making a new post in the comm linking to the article? It seems like something more people should see.

[ursula]

Thank you! I've reposted.

[astridv]

Good article. I'm going to link it on my flist, if that's okay.

I could rant for ages about how school PE can smother kids' enjoyment of sports. I'm still angry, 25 years later.

[ursula]

I'm happy for you to link (maybe send people to the new community post I just made, so we can discuss too)?

[rydra_wong]

Oh, do rant about it! It's an important topic; I think it fucked up physical activity for so many of us.

I avoided all "sports" with fear and loathing for a solid twenty years before I discovered climbing, and that was almost entirely down to school PE and what it can do to a dyspraxic kid.

[astridv]

It's an important topic; I think it fucked up physical activity for so many of us.

Yes! It causes actual damage if it turns kids *off* sports and it is such a common story. I used to think I was just a freak but more often or not, when I talk to someone about gym class, they hated it as well. And I really believe that kids have a natural inclination for physical activity which just needs to be encouraged, not stifled.

Our gym class consisted of the teacher giving us a ball (volleyball, basketball, handball, one time a soccer ball without even explaining the rules once) and picking two students who were to select teams while the teacher leaned back and did nothing for the rest of the class. That's what we did 95 % of the time. That may be an awesome way to spend an hour if you're into ball games, but I wasn't. Years later I figured out my unablilty to catch a ball was caused by my need for glasses... hard to catch a ball without 3D vision.

I had quickly internalized that I sucked at sports. That was just a fact. I sucked at it, so I hated it and tried my best to get out of gym class. I remember what it was like to find out I didn't suck at running. And that's what I thought. Not: hey, this is something I'm good at. No, it was: hey, I don't suck at this. (And I only realized this now, after reading the article.)

I was just very lucky that from age 16 we could pick three kinds of sports to concentrate on, and I picked jazz dance as the main subject. New teacher! That was the first time I enjoyed gym class. It was fun! I practised in my spare time... for fun! I got an A! I think from that I got the self-conficence to tell my parents I wanted to do Judo. I expected them to laugh at me, that's how messed up I was. Of course they thought it was a great idea, and I joined a dojo and it was as awesome as I thought it would be. Couldn't wait for a week to pass until next class.

I just needed to find some sports I enjoy to undo the damage from gym class like that *snaps*. I'm telling you, if I ever run into my teacher from grade 5-10, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind because he did do his job wrong.

I was talking to a freshman the other day, saying how great I think it is that nowadays they offer all kinds of funsports in gym class, but he said that they had still been mostly doing ball games. Meh. Guess depends on which teacher you end up with. Anyway, at our university they've started to teach the next generation of teachers stuff like rollerblading and even parkour. So hopefully future school kids with an ineptitude for ball games are gonna have a better time than us.

[fadeaccompli]

I went climbing with two friends, banged my elbow up seriously coming down a wall, climbed the only V1 in the gym that I can do more than once while showing it off to friends... So, no one specific moment of awesome, but all in all, it was a deeply satisfying climbing experience.

(Is it weird that I get all excited every time I get bruises while climbing? It's not that I want to be in pain, but it feels like it proves it's Real Exercise.)

[rydra_wong]

War wounds w00t! I admit to having photographed some of my more spectacular bruises and scrapes. So, erm, it may be weird, but you're not alone in your weirdness. *g*

I don't think it's masochistic either; I suspect it makes me feel as if I'm having an adventure and taking real (albeit very modest) risks. As someone who's been physically scared and afraid of hurting myself all my life, it's a big deal.