Wow. Sportclimbing. It’s a been a while. I can count the days I’ve tied into a rope on one hand. I’ve pretty much been bouldering for the last year, but holy shit does it make you strong. Today I climbed in Chek with a strong crew: JJ Mah, Simon Parton, and Vikki Weldon. Everyone was psyched for different reasons. JJ because he’s been away from Squamish (in Europe) for the last 3 months, Simon because he’s found a new project (Down System), Vikki because she’s close to becoming the first female to climb Division Bell, 5.13d, and me because well… I’m always psyched to climb.
Watching Vikki session The Bell is freaking awesome. She gets through the crux with a crazy drop-knee and lots of body tension. Today we watched her get to the top of the route in only 2 hangs – definitely inspirational. Now I’m not 100% positive that no other female has climbed this route, so if anyone can clarify that one way or the other, that’d be great. I’m not even sure how many other Canadian girls, except for the exceptional Jola Sandford, have climbed 13d.
My big accomplishment for today was sending the first three routes established on the Big Show Wall: Free Will, 13c; Division Bell, 13d; and Pulse, 14a. After warming up, I jumped on Pulse and managed to do it first try. Like I said, bouldering makes you strong and today the crux felt piss easy. However, I was definitely heaving by the time I got to the top. My heart was throwing down a drum and bass track at 180 bpm. After some rest I got on Free Will, desperately made it through the cruxy finger-lock section, almost fell at the upper crux then clipped the chains. Nice. Two down, Division Bell to go. Because I know this climb so well I saved it for last. It was a good strategy because it worked. Even though i was feeling a little powered out, I manged to tick it off.
So not bad for a guy who’s been bouldering all summer. I’m feeling pretty good about it. Also, I guess I probably shouldn’t leave out the fact that I attempted this same feat last weekened when I climbed at Chek for the first time in 5 months – it’s not like this was off the couch or anything. The Pan-American Championships are coming up in December, so I guess this kind of thing is good endurance training.
Even with all this sport climbing funness, I’m psyched to boulder tomorrow. I have a tentative date with strongman, Sonnie Trotter. There’s no doubt it will be a great day! See you all in the forest!
Entries (RSS)