Today's Climb

Zelda bought one adult and one kids 10-pack to this climbing gym. I've been once before and had a hard time trusting the auto rappel thing.

Neve just loves the place. Today Zelda wasn't feeling well so I went with Neve. It's a blast because she DIGS IT so much. The little girl who freaks at a Daddy Long Legs, rappels from 40 feet with no fear.

It's also cool because she is better than me.



Tried to buy some shoes today but the store I went to was out of my size. My crappy sneakers are crappy.

Will probably go again though.

Two thumbs up Harv.  Nice thread starter.  

look at those guns!

My favorite Colorado climber gets a little Welcome to the Gunks on Jackie, a 2 star classic in the grey Dick.

ml242 wrote

My favorite Colorado climber gets a little Welcome to the Gunks on Jackie, a 2 star classic in the grey Dick.

Jackie
Try Classic sometime too, the next climb over.  Highly recommended.  I think it's a 7 in Grey Dick but feels pretty comparable to Jackie.

The biggest problem in the gunks is that there's too much to do in one.... lifetime! Going to definitely give Classic a try soon, I need to stay away from the Guide Wall, the traffic over there pisses me off even on a weekday.

To the guys who climb on real rocks, potential question time...

...it seems like the handholds on the walls are a little too easy to grab and hold. (Except for a few that are designed to be hard).  How often are you stopped (or do you have to turn around) because there is just nothing to hold on to?

Harvey wrote

How often are you stopped (or do you have to turn around) because there is just nothing to hold on to?

All the time.  Usually in a panic 15' feet above the last pro.

Most common thing a belayer hears:  "It's blank!  There's nothing here! F me!"

Adk Jeff wrote

Most common thing a belayer hears:  "It's blank!  There's nothing here! F me!"

THAT'S what I want to read or hear about. Fascinating scary.

I also wonder about the depth of the holds in the real world.  Half of the holds/grips (what do you call them?) bolted to the wall have deep places to grab. That seems a little unrealistic for real rock.

Also you see real climbers putting "opposite pressure" (what do you call it?) on a crack to get up.  Why don't they have any cracks in the gym>

I'm having fun indoors. I love the way your arms feel after you climbed up a few times. Looking forward to seeing how the right shoes would help.

Kathy's Crack, named after this first ascent in the gym a couple months after it opened.

No pics, but one of the big gyms in SLC area has quite a few cracks through it. They're much harder to make than bolting something to the wall.

Harvey wrote

I also wonder about the depth of the holds in the real world.  Half of the holds/grips (what do you call them?) bolted to the wall have deep places to grab. That seems a little unrealistic for real rock.

That is the beauty of climbing on real rock, Harv. It is all different and you have to figure it out. To put your question in the context of skiing, it would be like someone who learned to ski on the indoor slopes of Dubai asking, "how deep is real snow?"

Sick Bird Rider wrote

That is the beauty of climbing on real rock, Harv. It is all different and you have to figure it out. To put your question in the context of skiing, it would be like someone who learned to ski on the indoor slopes of Dubai asking, "how deep is real snow?"

Or to expand on this - it's would be like somebody who skis Mountain Creek passing judgement on skiing deep pow.

Today was the first time Zelda, Neve and I climbed together.  On the way to the gym I hit EMS and bought a pair of shoes, half a size bigger than my shoe size.  They still feel too small.  They did seem to help.

After maybe 8 or 10 times up, my feet were pretty sore so I decided to hang it up. Put my sneakers back on and for the hell of it climbed up one of the easier routes. Seemed like I was better even with my sneaks on, like maybe my confidence was boosted or something. The climbing shoes shine on the tiny footholds where the sneaker are worthless.

One thing today I noticed was that my forearms seems to be getting more of a workout vs other times it was my bicep (? top part of the arm). Not sure if that means I'm doing something wrong or if it means anything.

Hope you bought leather shoes.

Leather will stretch and mold to your feet after half a dozen uses, synthetic has no give.

Your forearms will get a workout. Try to minimize this by keeping your arms long and climbing "like a monky". The more weight that is on your skeleton, the less on your muscles. This allows for rest.

Master first the art of getting on your toes to extend your reach and then "flagging" to keep balanced as you go for trickier holds.

Smearing gets you up the wall by utilizing your feet for a boost where there's only wall/rock.

There are really only a half dozen things to learn and incorporate into your climbing until you'll be well on your way, and you'll always hear the same advice. Kind of like how in skiing, you never get totally beyond knees apart, shoulders squared downhill.

You are going to be much happier in climbing shoes in the long run. Nice picture, too, but I'd love to get you guys in touch with a guide for a day out in the gunks for #rocktober!

Turns out my shoes are leather. They def feel better today.

Also I learned that humming Bob Marley seems to help me get up.

Good one today.

Harvey wrote

Also I learned that humming Bob Marley seems to help me get up.

How much better would you do humming Peter Tosh's "Steppin' Razor?"

I only climbed a handful of times (including 6 or 7 times one winter ago). My forearms were killing me the first few times.

The best advice I received was to try to keep your hips close to the wall. ml is right, you have to try to use your skeleton more and your muscles less if you want to have longevity. To really work out the climbing muscles, apparently you can do a thing called "laps", where you go up and down and up and down an easy route.

I still don't know anything about climbing, but I thought I'd pass on what I've heard.

I love the forearm feeling. Then again I do 10 pitches (or whatever you call it in a gym) and I'm done.

Didn't seem to get the aerobics yesterday.  Love it when the heart pounds.

Been workin on keeping my body closer to the wall and trying to use my legs more.  Shoes feel better still, but I can see how wearing those things regularly would do a number on your feet.

There are two pros at my gym every week. I love watching them climb. Ashima always crushes but lately it's Sasha that seems to have really jumped up her game. Most of the time, these people are just training, which isn't much to look at, but every once in awhile they just start doing things that make your jaw drop. And they make it look so easy.

It's nice when all of the hard work pays off and you catch a clip of a new route they just put up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWdj-8Z0Otg

Anyway, since Sardinia is in the East.... Climb the East totally counts!