Climbing, climb on
Made it into the climbing gym today. What’s more, I made it onto the climbing wall finally. Got to climb with a guy I have seen there many times, Wayne, I think, was his name. Middle aged, probably 180ish lbs, very good climber by my eyes. He reminds me of Chris, sticks to routes that are a workout but doesn’t feel the need to prove himself. It was good having someone who knew more than me helping out.
Climbed a 5.5, no problem
5.6 no problem, starting to feel a bit of fatigue.
I decided to stick with 5.6 since I could already feel fatigue setting in
5.6, quit 1/3 of th eay up. My arms wouldn’t work.
took a break, drank water
back to 5.6. About halfway I started failing again. My hands wouldn’t work and the pump was killing me. I hung out on the rope a little, tried to get blood flowing. It seemed like every hold or two I would fall again. I eventually made it.
I called it a day there. three climbs
Anvil or Hammer 
on October 18, 2006 on 9:15 pm
Just stay with it. Always think “push” with your feet, not pull with your arms. Sometimes the only difference is in your mindset but that can be a big difference. Practice attaining the body position that allows the most weight to be on your feet – try allowing your heels to come away from the rock if the footholds are big enough, this allows you to stand in balance better. Keep your body in close to the rock, I mean CLOSE to the rock, like touching the rock with your body; and straighten the leg you’re standing on to allow you to GET CLOSE TO THE ROCK. Don’t lean back to look up for the next holds, just move your head, not your shoulders. And don’t overgrip, you’re on toprope so you can relax your hands some, no big deal if you relax them too much and fall off, this is practice remember. Take small steps, step no higher than you have to, high steps mean moving your hips away from the rock unless you have good hip turnout ability. Always remember to keep your tailbone over your heel, your body should be moving from over one foot to over the over foot, sort of back and forth with your hips each step. If you’re not doing that, you never get to relax your hands and the constant tension will burn you out quickly. Try it again!
on October 19, 2006 on 7:41 am
Thanks Chris, Good stuff there.
I did feel my technique slipping away. As the height and, more so, the distance toyed with me a bit. With bouldering, I limited the distance I had to travel dramatically and thus rested more often. Actually covering 30-40 feet in a go did some of it.
More important though was simply that the technique is a little different. Since I was basically climbing straight up, I needed to obey the guidelines more. I also know that, per usual, as I fatigued, my technique broke down further. A little practice and time, I’ll find it. It was a nice change from the abuse of bouldering (falling hurts).