Saturday climb with le David

I felt pretty bad last week. I've signed up at the climbing gym for 3 months and was planning to go like, 2x a week so I can get a lot of out of, but it's gone from 2x to 1x a week and last week I almost didn't go. That's bad. I still want to climb, that isn't the issue, but I can see that if I get lazy and not go on my usual schedule I'll just end up not going because.. well.. I dunno why, my brain is weird. I swear sometimes I'd rather not do something I enjoy just so I don't have to make the effort to get there.

So yeah, I hadn't gone for 5 days or something and wasn't planning to on the Saturday until David rang up and asked if I wanted to go with him. I said sure! It's a lot easier to say yes when you know you're going to go with someone instead of by yourself. And what did I learn?

Not a lot.

Sorry.

However, I did complete a route I've been trying to do for weeks - That's progress for you. All you need is pateince and time, and suddenly something that seems hard at first isn't actually all that hard after all. Although I'm still stuck on that motherfucking yellow. Oh, which reminds me, I got another compliment *although it wasn't meant for me to hear* from some guy who is a lot better at climbing than me. I was tryign to do the yellow, and I asked him if he could. Eventually he did complete it, but not before trying several times and while watching me, turning to his buddy and saying "I'm beeing shown up by a new starter" because I'm getting so close to completing it, and was closer than him to doing it at the start.

So yeah anyway, ego boosts come thick and fast from fellow climbers it seems.

Trust your feet, dudes.

Smelly Yoghurt

This is very much unrelated to climbing, but my workmate is eating a yoghurt. In my experience yoghurt shouldn't really have a strong smell, you know? I know it smells, but it's not the kind of smell that travels, and yet I'm sitting here about a foot away from him and I can smell it. It's not a bad smell, don't get me wrong, it's just a bit strange. Yoghurt shouldn't be smelly from over a foot away.

It's weird. I'm weirded out by it. I wish he would hurry up and finish his yoghurt.

Elbow Lock

I don't really know what to call this. I'm sure there's some other climbing term that describes it better, but it's a useful technique that I'm just getting to grips with.
Excuse the pun.
Actually no, I won't apologise for it because I found it hilarious.
So yeah, a novice like myself tends to hold close to the wall via bicep strength. If there's a good hold in front of me with a lot of grip, I'll use SO much of my strength to keep myself on the wall and keep my arm bent and tensed up. Imagine walking around a supermarket holding your basket up by your hip instead of letting it hang by your thigh. In a very short amount of time, your arm is going to start to hurt, get weak, and then ultimately just fail on you. When you just let your basket hang and rely on your grip to keep the basket off the floor, you can hold it for a lot longer.
I know this seems like a very simple concept, and in reality it is, but it feels sort of unnatural when you first get on a wall. When you're worried about falling off, your muscles tense and you use more energy. When you're not worried about falling off and you know your grip will hold, you just straighten your arm so you're not using any bicep strength and just let your grip hold you against the wall. Sometimes the hold is high above your head so you can hang on it like a monkey. Sometimes it's a little bit lower so your body sort of hangs away from the wall but you do learn that your hands are stronger than you realise. If the grip is low in your center of gravity, your feet should be taking your weight and your hand/arm should just be there for a little of the support, not a lot of it.
This technique becomes more advanced when you start to use it on the horizontal rather than the vertical. When you're using it horizontal, you need a lot more refined balance and weight management, and also more forethought for the next move. You can't just do a chin-up for the next hold. I've yet to do a climb that requires this, although I have seen it done and it looks pretty cool.

My list of Things I Have Learnt is starting to dwindle now. There is a lot more stuff I'm sure, but I've got to learn them first. Most of this stuff I have written about was learnt by looking and trying out techniques myself, but I reckon I'm coming to a plateau. This means I've got to practice what I've already learnt and hopefully hang around the right people who can show me some cool shit.

Next time: Barn Door (seriously)

Wednesday

I did actually go climbing last week, but have been so busy at work and home that I haven't written anything about it. But, to be honest, it was quite uneventful. I was late getting to the wall because there's a game on the Xbox I've been playing too much of, so it was mostly about the two routes I was trying to crack. I got pretty far, I'm getting more confident on the v3 yellow I've been trying to do. Actually, there was another climber trying to do the same route. He's far more advanced than I am and he said it's the route giving him the most trouble too, so I don't feel too bad. In fact I think got a little bit further than him. It's a weird route that requires a lot of balance stretch in an awkward position. He introduced me to a v4 he says is a lot of fun - I can barely to the sit-start :<

Another route I did had me stumped for a good 10 minutes. I was standing there looking at it not knowing how to start, the positioning was so strange for the holds. I also don't know when I can use the wall and when I can't, I just figured if I'm not using the holds I'm not doing the climb properly but I don't think that's the case. I asked a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing to help me out, to show me how to start. After some consideration he showed me how to use the arette to start. But he got to a point half way up the route that he couldn't do so he jumped off. After he showed me how to start, I breezed up it straight away and found it quite easy. That gave me a bunch of confidence, doings something a more experienced climber couldn't do - he was showing his mate how to climb too, bet it wasn't too fun for him. Shucks.

Ngh

Well fuck me, I feel like I haven't been climbing in ages. Thinking about going tonight but I really need to wash some clothes -_- I can't do both, and I'm not going to the cinema tomorrow for the usual Orange Wednesdays. So, that means, I could go home tonight and do my washing and then go climbing on Wednesday. And, then, I'm working on Saturday which means not getting pissed up on Friday night, which means I can climb instead. Besides, getting pissed up is off the cards because it's Save Money Month.
I feel like I'm putting climbing off and I feel guilty for it. Not sure why. I want to go do those V3's I was trying last week.
I shall climb tomorrow. Tonight is washing night. Get it out of the way!

Ok, decided.

Hobo

I literally, 100% guaranteed got chased by two homeless people tonight. I have no idea where I was, but I ran incase one of them stabbed me with a needle carrying HIV. Somewhere along the line i got a taxi home,travelling south of the river, for about 40 quid. I would be upset about the expense but at the end of the day I dont have aids. £40 seems a small price to pay. London is a fucked up but interesting place. And through all of that, my taxi driver was a legend.

Happy travels, Londoners.

Rick

ps, bend your fucking knees.

"Crimpy" holds

Crimpy holds are the kind of holds you get your fingertips involved in. Instead of being able to use the whole palm of your hand like you're holding onto a large outcrop of rock, you're restricted. These, as a beginner, are the types of holds I dreaded because I had an idea in my head that my fingers weren't strong enough to pull up my body weight. I wasn't wrong - I can't pull my whole bodyweight up using just my fingertips on a tiny slither of outcropped rock. Apart from them not staying locked in place under 12st of weight, it really really hurts. The edge of the rock will start to dig into your skin and, well, it ain't pleasant. However, I was going into these climbs with a: the wrong mindset and b: the wrong technique.
First off, don't try and pull your whole body up with just your hands on a crimpy hold when you're a beginner. One of the climbs I did in Font taught me just that. I used one leg with my bodyweight shifted over that foot to push myself up the rock, while my hands took maybe 40% of the weight just to aid the the move. When I first started the route my ass was pointing out so I could look at my feet (no idea why I wanted to see my feet), my fingers were trying to grip crimp with my arms bent and my leg pushing me off the wall instead of up the wall. It's kinda hard to explain, but there are a few golden rules to follow.

1: Keep your ass in - the closer you are to the wall the less effort your arms have to make to keep you on it. Keep your bodyweight as vertical as possible. If your face is close to the wall, and your feet are on the wall, and your ass is out so you look a bit like this symbol: < then your fingers/hands/arms are going to really struggle to keep your weight. If your body looks more like this symbol: | then your fingers are only used to keep you on the wall, and the bigger and stronger muscles in your legs can do the lions share of the pushing while your arms just keep you in and your fingers are just anchors.

2: Slow and steady - Sometimes it just makes sense to go slow. If you're on a precarious piece of the route and all it will take is the lightest of zephyrs to unbalance you, go sllooowww. It's more effective than I thought it would be. I surprised myself that I can actually push and pull my weight up slowly, I don't have to explode upwards, and I think other beginners will be surprised by this too. Shifting weight, keeping your grip and being poised will improve over time (I hope) but until then, slow and steady wins the race. Completing some routes has come down to how fast I try and stand up on a foothold. If I go fast I get unbalanced and my hands rip away from the wall and I blame my strength, when really all I did to complete it was slowly move and carefully shift my weight so that my fingers weren't put under too much strain and voila. The sense of achievement is amazing.

3: Get your nails involved - I learnt this last week at Font. Stop being a pussy, stop assuming you're not strong enough, and just get your nails involved if you need to. Find that little bit extra. Take the pain! You won't regret it. It's unlikely you'll break the skin, and it's unlikely your nails will rip away from your fingers and leave you bleeding and squealing in pain. Man up! One wall I did, David nailed it first time. I couldn't understand how he got such purchase on his fingertips. I gritted my teeth, turned my hands into claws and forced them downwards into a gap until I could feel my nails gripping and then tried the ascent again using my legs to push up 80% of my weight and using my arms to pull up 20%, and voila. It was easy to get up that first stage that was previously hard for me when I wasn't trusting my fingertips and using my nails. So, do it. *nod*

4: Use your face - Ok this isn't strictly something you should do, but I have used my face to get up a route in the past and I plan to in the future until I don't need it any more. Just use anything you can to get yourself up. It feels so good in the end to stand on top of a boulder.

5a: Trust your grip - A lot of the time I've jumped from a route because I think my foot is going to slip off. It feels like I'm being held up by my arms alone and the very tip of my shoe won't stay on the rock if I put some weight on it. It feels that it's going to slip. Just trust your grip, you'll be amazed what your shoes will stick to. Sometimes I feel like my toes aren't even on the rock and it's a little bit of rubber holding me up, but that's fine. Your shoes are so tight that it might as well be part of your body. Even shifting 10% more weight onto your foot can mean the different between success and failure. If your foot does slip you can just keep your body arms length away from the wall as you fall and land on a crash mat. Simples.

5b: Bend your legs - As you land on a crashmat

5c: Exit Strategy - I have not come off a wall yet that I didn't expect to. That means, I haven't been climbing and confident of staying on the wall and then suddenly fallen off it. I've always known I was going to come off, and prepared for it. Had an exit strategy in my mind. This way it's all expected, I know where my body will shift, I know which hold is likely to come off first etc. I bend my legs. I keep myself away from the wall so I don't hit it with my face. I enjoy climbing.

6: Heroism - If you don't wanna do it, don't do it. Don't be a hero, you'll only be hurting yourself. Confidence is a massive part of climbing - If you try something really scary, fail and hurt yourself, you'll take more than just a physical knock. Easy routes are fun, and if you're on the harder routes, have an exit strategy from the wall. If it goes too high and you're not confident, just jump off - you can always go back. If you don't like the top out, jump off before it, the top-out is the highest point of the climb. Especially with crimpy holds because you can't trust sheer brute strength, it's more about finesse and skills that pay the bills

7: Clean your shoes - Sand, water, foliage, anything on the bottom of your shoes will mean less grip, so make sure they're clean!

Yet another wall of text. I thought my posts would be shorter after the first ones, how wrong was I. More of what I've learnt later.
Peace out fellow beginners!

Rick