Making It Over The Arête

I put on my harness and shoes and walked up to my posse and saw that Josh was hanging as well.

I'll catch you as soon as I flip this. Say what? I figured that Josh
meant that he would belay for me after he had gathered his rope which he had just used for lead climbing.

I told Josh that I wanted to go in the corner pocket. Are we playing pool now? I told him that, ironically, I don't know how to play pool but I do like to refer to the route as the corner pocket.

As I started to climb, I thought about what Patti said: some days we climb well and some days we don't. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason...

This day was a good one. I felt strong and balanced.
When I came down from the corner route, Josh suggested that I cut my fingernails in order to climb better. Guess he must have heard me leave a couple on the wall. He said that even his, which are micro, needed to be cut.


I had a date with the 5.8 Face Plant route. I couldn't shake the fact that I faltered last time. I climbed it with lots of encouragement from the posse on the ground. My ascent was not anywhere in the neighborhood of pretty but as Mike said, I made it over the arête.

Jessica faced a challenge too. Josh left his rope after lead climbing and suggested that Jessica tackle the route. She hung in there, ended up hanging like a bat and made it to the top.

It's funny that I was able to climb that 5.8 but when I did my warm-down route, a 5.6, I sputtered. As I continued to try to make my way to the top, the guy climbing next to me said, Keep going; it's like a puzzle. You can do it.

Sometimes I feel like all of the climbers in the gym make up the posse.