Friday glee is stacking hands, fists, and anything that works

[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: I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but I am in the Peak district and have now actually visited this problem and touched its un-holds with fear and reverence:

Melvyn Bragg (V8 offwidth roof crack)

Comments

[astridv]

That's some scary shit, that crack. I cringe at the very thought of jamming my hands or feet in there.

I'm going bouldering today, too. Well, buildering. There's a promising spiral staircase with stone steps on the other side of town and I'm thinking of taking a look.

[wpadmirer]

Cracks are scary. I had a friend who went hiking recently at some beautiful rocky sites (she doesn't climb), and she found a crack with a rattlesnake in it. YIKES!

[astridv]

Yikes!! I hadn't even thought of snake. I just keep envisioning my hands slipping, with my feet jammed in the crack... that doesn't seem like a good position to be in.

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, it's amazing.

Though I was climbing in Tennessee last year and a guy jammed his hand in a crack and got stung by a yellow jacket.

[emperor]

I'm looking forward to hearing your Peak exploits :) Those off-width cracks are painful just to watch!

I feel like I'm making progress again after a few weeks of going "OMG, how much have I forgotten?"; the strength and stamina aren't what they were, but I feel like my technique is improving (and my inside-leading-head is getting less dreadful).

Also, I did some bouldering with a couple of people at the wall after my usual climbing session, and it was quite good fun.

[wpadmirer]

YAY!

[wpadmirer]

I have been climbing regularly again, though it's not as much as I would like. My partner injured a knee. (Yes, this woman has a self-destruction gene.) This time she did it jumping from a tree into her kayak while wearing scuba gear.

Yeah, I didn't ask either.

[emperor]

Are you sure she didn't just do it tripping over the cat, and is just trying to construct stories so implausible you won't think to question them? :-)

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, I'm sure. She gets injured in the most bizarre ways. Since I've been climbing with her, she stabbed herself in the hand with a kitchen knife (required stitches), cut the tip of her thumb off (required surgery to reattach and there's now a pin in the bone), and now jumped from a tree with her scuba gear on and banged up her knee.

She's a danger to herself.

[astridv]

Well, at least that's a better story than "slipped on the stairs" or something. Still, hard to imagine a situation where jumping into a kayak in scuba gear would be required.

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, they were on the coast and apparently had tethered their kayaks to a tree along the bank while they went diving. Then they climbed up the bank and decided they'd just drop from the tree into the kayak.

(slaps forehead in amazement)