We were supposed to be a party of four today but Patti's newbie backed out at the last minute. It seems to take rock climbing newbies a few false starts before they actually enter the gym. Joe showed up -- that's him at the start of the Forever Loving Jah route. I climbed with Joe last Saturday while Patti was climbing outdoors.
Check out Patti on a route in Jackson Falls. Are you thinking the same thing that I am thinking? What is there to hold onto??? We had a great outing until I squared off with The Roadkill Helper route. Patti and I do our safety checks and I notice that she has her belay devices and I have my belay devices locked and ready. Only, I'm supposed to be climbing and looking at a figure eight knot and a back-up knot. You know that I never heard the end of that, right? Patti kept asking me if I was locked in...
After climbing, my upper body was all locked up and tense. I decided to do a little yoga but I don't know if Amy Bento's 10 minutes of power yoga was the best choice. I will concede that my body is not as locked up as it was before but, dang, I was tired after those ten minutes.
I do have to say that it's so refreshing to be barefoot. I really don't do it often enough. Since I've never taken an official yoga class, I often wonder if I'm doing downward facing dog right. My positioning is not as bad as I thought but, as with all things, there's definitely room for improvement.Route tally:
5.5, The Five
5.7, Sponge Bob
5.7, The Seven
5.8, Bright Idea
5.8, Face Plant
5.8, Rainbow Bright
5.8, The Roadkill Helper
What did you do active today?
WOW great photos! Is that Joe in the first one? Tell him I TOTALLY want to sex him up, I don't care how inappropriate that is. And Patti, what is she, the Fly? And here you are dogging like an expert. What a great day.
ReplyDeleteGingersnapper,
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have a way of making me laugh and, yes, that's Joe in the first and last photo.
Patti totally represents when she's climbing. She seems to think that I'll like outdoor climbing because you can latch on to anything. I, on the other hand, am not convinced. ;)
I would like to know about your outdoor climbing experience...Do you think that I'll like it?
Anything one does indoors is much better outdoors!
ReplyDeleteMy climbing experience is about 32 years ago, so I'm probably not a good source of information. I've never climbed indoors, I don't think they even had that option then. Obviously outdoors is a less controlled environment, hence more risk and also more reward. Also rocks are very rough and scratchy; I don't think I ever saw anyone climb in shorts. The snooty people climbed in white pants, to show at the end that their knees were clean (apparently using knees is a newbie thing).
Gingersnapper,
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that when I was swimming outside for the first time last summer, it was absolutely amazing. Loved looking at the clear blue sky and such.
Re: the snooty people, I did read in one of the rock climbing books that sometimes people do stuff like falsely grade routes to *trick* other climbers who then feel bad that they couldn’t climb at a level that they thought they were at which is so juvenile and unnecessary...
Also reminds me of when I rode horses - the big faux pas was to grab the saddle horn. Hey, if it keeps you from falling off a freaking horse, then grab the saddle horn!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I think I will make that my motto.
Gingersnapper,
ReplyDeleteI have yet to ride a horse but I like the motto. :)