Friday glee thinks it's definitely winter

[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: New Hampshire climber Bayard Russell is introduced to the idiosyncrasies of Scottish winter climbing by Nick Bullock and Guy Robertson (and by "introduced to" I mean "traumatized by").

Do we have any winter climbers in the comm?

Comments

[astridv]

Icy, slippery rock! That looks not so appealing to me... way too hardcore.

[wpadmirer]

I live in Florida. I wouldn't survive belaying in that!

[astridv]

I don't even mind the cold so much, but that rock looks reaaaally untrustworthy and slippery with all the snow and ice.

I actually found I like winter quite a lot when the temperature drops below freezing, like we enjoyed until today: zero chance of rain that way!

[allochthonous]

I had an operation this week so no climbing but I got my first shoes last week, which I've climbed in a few times and seem to do the right amount of toe-scrunching without being actually painful, so I was pretty happy about that (having read so many horror stories about how difficult it is to buy shoes!).

[rydra_wong]

Yay shoes! What did you get? Sounds like they're a good fit/model for you.

[allochthonous]

I got Boreal Jokers which seem to be a reasonable entry-level all-rounder and suit my massively wide feet. Plus the guys in the shop (Urban Rock in Westway) were very patient about my dithering between two models and trying and retrying for ages, so I felt reasonably confident I ended up with the right ones!

[wpadmirer]

Shoes are hard. I have friends that buy them so small, I don't know how they get their feet in them. I refuse to wear mine that small. Tight, yes. Feet killing? Nope!

[emperor]

I bought some tighter shoes, and had to sell them because they hurt too much :(

[allochthonous]

I only went down half a size, and that's bad enough - I've no idea how some of the guys I've seen at the wall get their feet into shoes as tiny as they do!

[astridv]

I used to buy my shoes as small as possible like everybody says you should, but I got tired of getting my poor toes squeezed. For the most recent model I tried half a size larger which is much more comfortable, and works just as well on the wall. I think it might even work better.

[ridicully]

I went climbing for the first time in a month this week! And I could still do V2s! I also worked out how to do freshly set problem that had a lot of people puzzled. Excitement!

[rydra_wong]

Ooh, yay! Nice problem-solving skills!

[wpadmirer]

YES!

[emperor]

I've played around at the indoor ice wall(!) in Kinlochleven, but never actually done any real winter climbing. I've yet to find someone keen to go with (my usual partners have this strange idea that snowy mountains are for falling down strapped to planks of wood, not for climbing up).

[wpadmirer]

I think they're for looking at through big picture windows while drinking something hot.

[emperor]

This is a valid approach! And the one I will be using until I have more winter skills and partners.

[wpadmirer]

I climbed for the first time in several weeks last night. It was good, but my endurance was shit. (sigh)

[ridicully]

But endurance can be built up! And getting back to climbing is the first step :D