I am typing this post at the rock-climbing gym while my 14yo chats with the staff about the right amount of painful in a good rock-climbing shoe. I didn’t know that planned shoe discomfort was a thing in the world beyond women’s dress shoes, but they are having a lengthy conversation about “aggressive” shoes.
Tonight I almost leveled up, you guys. I have been working slowly on a route rated 5.10b, and it has been a struggle. There’s a move near the beginning that seemed like a cruel joke for a long time, but now I can do it pretty consistently. On Tuesday I made it three-quarters of the way up and ran out of gas. Tonight I got past that part, all the way to the last hold...and then fell trying to match.
In climber-speak, if you want to send a route, or check it off your list, you have to match: get both hands solidly on the last hold. I'm almost there.
I couldn't get a good picture of the route because I couldn't back up far enough to capture the whole thing. I was going to guess that the route is 40 feet tall; Joe thinks maybe it's a little taller. I'm trying to use just the green holds to get myself from the floor, down by the yellow caution flag at the bottom of the picture, all the way to the ceiling, which is three or four holds above the top of this picture.
I'm pretty sure I can do it on Saturday, as long as they don't take it down before that. I'm also pretty sure I'll be too sore to tackle it tomorrow.
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