Friday glee now knows the answer to "But what has he done on grit?"

[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: Adam Ondra spends a few hours on the gritstone.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

My partner graduated last Sunday, but doesn't leave until the end of the month. Much to my surprise, I was contacted through the belay board and asked to climb with a guy named Adam. He's been climbing a couple of months, and is very strong, but new to top roping. He climbed a 5.11 with me giving him beta. He's much stronger than me, but I understand HOW the moves need to be made, even if I can't do them myself. Very nice guy who works for the wildlife commission here in Florida.

I'm also climbing with a new person on Saturday whom I met through the gym's Facebook page. So it looks like I may not have to go back to the auto-belay quite as quickly as I thought! YAY!

[emperor]

Hurrah for new climbing partners :)

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, it's a pleasant surprise! I'll see how the new partner for today goes. Hopefully I'll have found a couple of people I can climb with!

[rydra_wong]

Yay new climbing partners! Yay schooling the newbies! *g*

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, I've been around long enough and understand enough that I'm a better teacher than I am a climber. Not that I'm stopped from climbing!

[emperor]

Ah, yes, "I'll just turn up and on-sight some E7s. Good day out" :-)

I got my current top-rope project at the wall; I think it's my first 6C :-)

[rydra_wong]

\o/ \o/ \o/

[wpadmirer]

Congratulations!

[cofax7]

I climbed two vanity 5.11bs this week!

AND the gym is resetting ALL the routes on the main walls because there's a youth competition tomorrow. So on Sunday it will be ALL NEW ROUTES for me!

I love new routes: they're like a book you haven't read yet.

[rydra_wong]

Yay new routes! \o/

[wpadmirer]

WOW! 5.11bs are impressive! And new routes, YAY!

[emperor]

New routes are always good :) Also, 5.11b is impressive stuff!

[juliet]

I went climbing! For the first time in about 6 months. Hurrah :)

My grade is (unsurprisingly) down (some more :/ ) and I really need to work on my risk-taking as I am more risk-averse than I want to be. But it was lots of fun, and my mum has offered to come & babysit on a regular basis so I can get over there more often.

Everything aches a bit today... And I'm wondering if wearing barefoot shoes on a day-to-day basis has let my toes spread enough that I need to get bigger climbing shoes. Tight, sure, uncomfortable, sure, but my toes were uncomfortable to the point of feeling bruised/tingly after 45 min which doesn't seem quite right.

[rydra_wong]

And I saw you! Hi! *waves*

And I'm wondering if wearing barefoot shoes on a day-to-day basis has let my toes spread enough that I need to get bigger climbing shoes. Tight, sure, uncomfortable, sure, but my toes were uncomfortable to the point of feeling bruised/tingly after 45 min which doesn't seem quite right.

I definitely find that if I'm off for a month or more, my sense of what's "tight" in shoes re-sets and my previously-comfortable climbing shoes feel painfully tight, to the point where I'd imagine they'd shrunk if I didn't know that couldn't be the case. So it could just be that.

But I've been wearing barefoot shoes for years anyway (when not cramming my toes into tiny climbing shoes ...), so it's possible that any foot change in response to them took place long ago.

[juliet]

Yes! Hello! It was v nice to see you! *waves* (sorry; couldn't remember how cautious you are about RL/online connections so erred on side of not mentioning)

It may indeed just be that. I am thinking I will wait a bit and see how my feet settle back in (assuming I really AM back to going semi-regularly *hopes*) and make a decision after a couple of months.

[rydra_wong]

I try not to publicly connect my DW and RL names, but we've certainly mentioned before that we both climb at the Arch/Biscuit -- that's no problem.

(It doesn't narrow things down beyond a lot of London climbers, after all. *g*)

Thanks for the thoughtfulness.

[wpadmirer]

Getting back to climbing after a long lay-off is always a tough transition. Though for me it's my hands that suffer the most. Arthritis sucks.

[rydra_wong]

I got to go to Stanage for a couple of days!

(And promptly badly bruised my heel, because my bouldering mat is too old and squishy and now I have to replace it. But still, Stanage.)

[wpadmirer]

Cool! I send vibes for the heel to heal quickly.

[emperor]

Have you got any skin left after the grit? :)

[rydra_wong]

Surprisingly, yes.

Possibly because I didn't get a huge amount of climbing in after that, since I couldn't fit my heel into my climbing shoes any more and ended up wearing someone else's two-sizes-too-big worn-out spare Anasazis with a lot of pairs of socks, and also wasn't entirely sure I hadn't broken something so didn't want to bang my heel again ...

Still got to do Pebble Flakes, though:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=73195

And really, when it's a gorgeous day and you're outdoors and you're at Stanage and eating a picnic and watching people throw themselves at Deliverance, life can't be too bad. *g*

[emperor]

Nice work :)