Friday Glee!

[wpadmirer]

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.

And let me share a vid! This is rock climbing over a river! http://www.jest.com/video/4163/cool-rock-climbing-competition-over-a-river

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.

Comments

[emperor]

I went climbing with colleagues again; they've even bullied me into going next week (my last week in this job). They're a very friendly bunch to climb with :)

[wpadmirer]

That sounds great!

[astridv]

Wow, cool vid. (That drop looked pretty scary!)
my glee: I'm starting to get the hang of that wall run, after watching a few tutorial on youtube that pointed out all the mistakes I've made. And the weather's been all spring-like; buildering season has started.

[wpadmirer]

We're having summer weather here in Florida. It's kind of amazing!

[rydra_wong]

Wall run? Are you going all Parkour? Details please!

(I've always wanted to do a wall run.)

[astridv]

All Parkour, hell no. :) No, but I figured some of the PK techniques are very useful to integrate into climbing, particularly that wall-up part. Right now there's a problem in our bouldering cave where the first grip (a nice, big hold) is about 70 cm above my highest reach while standing on tiptoes. No footholds. I mean, damn! So I'm suddenly very motivated to master that jump up the wall. (I haven't even attempted the top-out part of the technique though that would certainly be cool to be able to do. But for now I'd be happy if I could just run up a wall and grab the ledge.)

Here, check out these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNNEhjxg-w0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0zYuoooEzs

If you're interested in the top-out part, I think the second and third video in this link have some useful excercises:
http://www.le-traceur.net/parkour-moves-form-bewegungen_passe-muraille.php (They look useful to me but like I said, I haven't even gotten to that part yet. It looks much more difficult than the first step.)

Belated reply is belated

[rydra_wong]

Thanks for the links -- I've only just got round to watching them. Interesting info!

With the top-out stuff, it looks like there's some overlap with standard climbing mantel/top-out tactics, except that apparently parkouristas don't do heel-hooks. *g*

I haven't even gotten to that part yet. It looks much more difficult than the first step.

Trust me, climbing top-out tactics are less effort, because you're not trying to do a muscle-up. And I speak as someone who's shit at top-outs. *g*

[rydra_wong]

Belated comment because I just got back to my computer from my climbing trip:

I went on a bouldering trip to St Ives! Lots of new experiences: new rock type (greenstone), new location (first time climbing on sea cliffs), new techniques (my first successful handjams!), new understanding of the full horror that can be indicated by the words "gully" and "zawn" ...

It was great.

ETA: Forgot to say thanks for posting this!

[wpadmirer]

My pleasure! I was glad I could help. I enjoy this group very much, and it was a small way to thank you for running it!