Friday glee has rolled-up jeans

[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: Jordan Buys on Cry Freedom, 8b+

Comments

[wpadmirer]

My climbing partner is back and I've been climbing with her this week! YAY! Climbing today at 4 pm. YAY!

[rydra_wong]

\o/ \o/ \o/

[emperor]

Excellent! I've had yet another climbing-free week :-s

[rydra_wong]

Woe!

[emperor]

I'm seriously considering a bouldering session at the wall tomorrow just to get some climbing action in!

[rydra_wong]

Hey, nothing wrong with bouldering ...

[emperor]

I probably needed a :) on my original comment!
More bouldering would almost certainly be good for my climbing, but it remains not quite my thing...

[rydra_wong]

I should have had a *g* on my comment! I figured it was clear we were both speaking in jest.

Everyone's going to have their climbing preferences, and I know bouldering's not your thing.

But FWIW, people do rec it a lot as a way to get stronger fast and focus on technique. So you might find the odd bouldering session pays off when you can get back on routes again.

[emperor]

Mmm. The Inverness wall's bouldering section, while not large, is much better lit and ventilated than the wall in Coventry. This is a distinct plus!

[wpadmirer]

You have my deepest sympathy. My partner's been gone since summer, so I'm VERY pleased to have her back!

[astridv]

I finally got the details of the wall run right, I think. Okay, at a very modest hight (garage roof) and I skip the topout because people tend to be cranky if they see someone climb on top of their garages. (Jumping up at a ledge earns you enough suspicious looks though once you tell them it's for training I've had no problems.)

Anyway, I figured out an important piece of the puzzle which I'd not considered so far, which is that I need to focus my attention entirely on hitting the wall with my foot, and completely ignore the grabbing the ledge part because that's an automatism anyway. Once I started to really focus on the proper spot on the wall while running at it, it became much easier.

But I'm never gonna manage the parkour-style topout... way too difficult. I prefer the climber's style where you get your heel on the ledge and haul your body over. Not as elegant but hey, whatever works. :)

[wpadmirer]

Wow. Impressive!

[rydra_wong]

ZOMG! I dream that one day I'll be able to do a wall run.

[astridv]

It's not as impossible as it looks like. Still tricky because there are so many details to think of within such a short period of time, but once you know what common mistakes to avoid it becomes a lot easier.

I found this tutorial very helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNNEhjxg-w0
(except they say to put the foot waist-high; most tutorials say hip-high which I find much easier.)

There are a couple more YT tutorials like this one.

[hongi]

Ashima Shiraishi...my hero. My god what a climber.

[rydra_wong]

I knooooooow. I just put up an effort! post about her 5.14cs. I mean, how amazing is that?