Friday glee is climbing it because it's there

[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: The Conquest of Everest -- a contemporary documentary about the 1953 expedition. Warning for 1950s British attitudes towards "natives", etc., but it's a fascinating historical record (I haven't watched all of it yet).

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I'll have to send Pat the link to the Everest site. I live with a man who reads and watches everything about Everest that he can!

I rock climb, and he likes mountain climbing. He's going to climb Mt. Whitney this summer in California.

[rydra_wong]

You might want to point him at SteepEdge -- or not, depending on whether the household finances could stand the strain. *g*

All the mountain climbing films his heart could desire, including a bunch that (AFAIK) aren't available on DVD ...

[wpadmirer]

Thanks! I'll let him know about it. It looks like a great site.

[rydra_wong]

I'm sure he'll appreciate knowing that one of the founders is Sir Chris Bonington, who has a few connections with Everest. *g*

They come by their mountain cred seriously, these guys.

[fadeaccompli]

This Wednesday at the top-rope gym, I did an absolutely fascinating slab climb. (5.8, or somewhere around there.) It's nothing exceptional in the grand scheme of things, but it was the first time I'd actually tried out a route that was clearly designed for the slab, as opposed to just being "Well, since you're on the slab, that lowers the difficulty somewhat." Lots of absurdly small and distant holds, for a 5.8 rating... but leaning in actually made them possible.

So it ended up feeling odd and interesting, because I was using different holds, and different moves, than I had been able to before, and actually paying a lot of attention to where my weight was going. Very different from my more standard "cling madly to the wall with both hands while seeking the next foot/hold" approach. I look forward to running it again next week.

[rydra_wong]

Eeeee slaaaaaab. I am very, very fond of slabs. Really well-designed slab problems or routes are wonderful.

It becomes a sort of exercise in minimalism: how few and how tiny can the holds be, for it to still be possible? And there's usually very little strength involved; it's all balance and technique and thought.

[emperor]

I still find myself substituting strength (especially grip-strength) for technique on the slabby routes, but I'm getting better :)

[rydra_wong]

I have the advantage of having no strength to substitute, and thus being forced to use technique. *g*

[fadeaccompli]

Ha. Me too, on that one. I have only baaaarely been able to start doing anything at all with routes that are set on overhangs for even a few holds, so learning technique on slabs is much more fun than displaying my strength lack some more.

[rydra_wong]

Work on both! And learn back-stepping and flagging and all the tricks you can to economize on power on the overhangs. In my experience, you'll gain a lot of strength just from climbing regularly, and then you'll have strength and technique.

I'm waaaay stronger than I was, but still very weak compared to most of the people climbing at the same level as me. Which is ... kind of awesome, actually. I realized the other day that I now expect myself to be able to climb on a par with people who have far more strength than me. And often, I do.

[fadeaccompli]

I'm not sure how I compare, really; I notice lack of reach more than lack of strength on pretty much everything but overhangs, these days. But I am trying to build up strength somewhat, little by little. If I could find an actual class for climbing technique that wasn't aimed at eight-year-olds, I'd take it in an instant.

[rydra_wong]

I've mentioned The Self-Coached Climber, right? Not the same as a RL class, obviously, but I learnt a huge amount about technique from it when I was starting out.

[fadeaccompli]

I think you have! I'm just not very good at self-motivated study stuff; I like having someone else to give me advice and deadlines and the like. But I'll take a look at it anyway.

[rydra_wong]

You could report in to the comm when you finish each chapter, and then we could shout at you! If that'd help. *g*

Seriously, it made so much difference to me when I started.

The other bit of advice I have: watch other people on the overhangs, and specifically look for the people who are climbing in a way that looks elegant and laidback, not the people hauling themselves up by their arms. It's even better if you can find some really good climbers who are of a similar height and body type to you.

[emperor]

Would a DVD be better? This one by Neil Gresham is quite well-regarded, though I'm ashamed to admit I got it for Christmas and haven't watched it yet!

[fadeaccompli]

Probably the same issue with not self-motivating... But I am curious as to your review once you watch it!

[rydra_wong]

My review's here, in case it's of interest.

Amazingly cheesy music and presentation, but I found it very useful.

[fadeaccompli]

Some of the bits were around a big, shallow corner, too, which made it all the more interesting. (If not quite as "interesting" as the decidedly non-slab 5.8+ that was set around a very sharp corner, further down that wall...)

[wpadmirer]

Ooo, cool! I love slab routes, but we only have one slab wall in our gym, so the routes only change about every three months or so.

[emperor]

I went climbing for the first time in pretty much a month! It was good to get back to it. My stamina's taken a hit, but I made it up a 6a+ slab, which was pleasing :)

I'm moving to Inverness soon (new job), which is Very Scary, but I think will mean more outdoor-climbing opportunities...

[rydra_wong]

Yay climbing! And ooh, Inverness. UKclimbing.com's crag search says that will put you near some very nice gneiss ...

[emperor]

I hear that's very gneiss to climb on ;-)