Progress of a sort
May. 6th, 2010 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieAs I mentioned in a post back in February, I decided to give indoor rock climbing a try. Not because I thought it would be fun, or that I would have any aptitude for it (trust me, I don't). I did it because I'm afraid of heights, and I don't like having my hindbrain telling me what I can't do. And a little bit because I was curious to see if me and my very gimpy knee and entirely wimpy upper-body could manage it at all.
Well, that was about two and a half months ago now. And in that time I have made occasional trips to the climbing gym. I'm not a member - you'd have to go at least six times a month to break even on the monthly dues, and the gym is NOT close by. But I did get a pre-paid punch card. And I even got a pair of shoes (largely thanks to a fabulous deal I almost literally tripped over on an expedition to the local REI). And I have done my best to keep at it and try to improve.
One of the things hampering me in my efforts (aside from the aforementioned complete lack of talent and obnoxious fear of heights that tries to paralyze my brain) has been a lack of routes easy enough for me to do, but challenging enough to actually teach me something. The gym has two baby routes more or less permanently installed, one rated 5.3 (the easiest one in the gym) and one 5.4, both on the slopiest of the slope walls. And even as a complete novice dunno-what-I'm-doing climber, I managed both of those fairly soon.
Unfortunately, there were no 5.5 routes in the gym, and only a few 5.6s. I did the best that I could with the 5.6es and "rainbowing" up walls (each route has a different color that marks the holds you're supposed to use; rainbowing means you're basically using anything regardless of its color). I even made it up to the top of a few 5.6es without cheating, but they were more flukes than anything else. I really needed a 5.5 or two. And I kept getting the freak-out acrophobia response on the walls. At least there was some improvement in that; I used to freak out at about 10 feet up. Now it's more like 15, maybe 20. So I was accomplishing something, maybe.
Well, they change routes at the gym fairly often. And today when I came in, there was a new route. An honest-to-goodness 5.5. Hurrah! Finally a route at my level!
Only, y'know, not. Because apparently I have improved past the level of a 5.5, or at least this 5.5. I went up it twice today, once first thing, once the last climb of the day, and I zipped right up it, both times. Almost like I knew what I was doing.
It figures. Right when they give me a 5.5, I'm better than that. And up until recently, there have been several 5.6es in the gym...but right now there is exactly and only one, on the less-slopy-but-still-a-slope wall.
Sigh.
So I rainbowed several 5.7's, trying to mostly follow the holds, at least with my hands. And I also climbed the 5.6, and the 5.5 twice. I attempted six climbs.
And I made it to the top of the wall each time. Not well, not gracefully, not without a lot of sweating and swearing and falling or almost-falling, but I did it. And I didn't even freak out at the height issue more than five or seven times. Compared to where I started, that's practically nothing.
I'm still not a rock climber, or have any pretentions to becoming one, but I'm better than I was, and that feels pretty good, actually.
Well, that was about two and a half months ago now. And in that time I have made occasional trips to the climbing gym. I'm not a member - you'd have to go at least six times a month to break even on the monthly dues, and the gym is NOT close by. But I did get a pre-paid punch card. And I even got a pair of shoes (largely thanks to a fabulous deal I almost literally tripped over on an expedition to the local REI). And I have done my best to keep at it and try to improve.
One of the things hampering me in my efforts (aside from the aforementioned complete lack of talent and obnoxious fear of heights that tries to paralyze my brain) has been a lack of routes easy enough for me to do, but challenging enough to actually teach me something. The gym has two baby routes more or less permanently installed, one rated 5.3 (the easiest one in the gym) and one 5.4, both on the slopiest of the slope walls. And even as a complete novice dunno-what-I'm-doing climber, I managed both of those fairly soon.
Unfortunately, there were no 5.5 routes in the gym, and only a few 5.6s. I did the best that I could with the 5.6es and "rainbowing" up walls (each route has a different color that marks the holds you're supposed to use; rainbowing means you're basically using anything regardless of its color). I even made it up to the top of a few 5.6es without cheating, but they were more flukes than anything else. I really needed a 5.5 or two. And I kept getting the freak-out acrophobia response on the walls. At least there was some improvement in that; I used to freak out at about 10 feet up. Now it's more like 15, maybe 20. So I was accomplishing something, maybe.
Well, they change routes at the gym fairly often. And today when I came in, there was a new route. An honest-to-goodness 5.5. Hurrah! Finally a route at my level!
Only, y'know, not. Because apparently I have improved past the level of a 5.5, or at least this 5.5. I went up it twice today, once first thing, once the last climb of the day, and I zipped right up it, both times. Almost like I knew what I was doing.
It figures. Right when they give me a 5.5, I'm better than that. And up until recently, there have been several 5.6es in the gym...but right now there is exactly and only one, on the less-slopy-but-still-a-slope wall.
Sigh.
So I rainbowed several 5.7's, trying to mostly follow the holds, at least with my hands. And I also climbed the 5.6, and the 5.5 twice. I attempted six climbs.
And I made it to the top of the wall each time. Not well, not gracefully, not without a lot of sweating and swearing and falling or almost-falling, but I did it. And I didn't even freak out at the height issue more than five or seven times. Compared to where I started, that's practically nothing.
I'm still not a rock climber, or have any pretentions to becoming one, but I'm better than I was, and that feels pretty good, actually.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-07 02:30 pm (UTC)There's a lot of climbing out here (which is kind of weird, if you think about it...) and I have a few friends who climb, but I haven't done more than dabble at it yet. I can tell that my body would love it - and I can not figure out how to work it in without having it come out of my training time, and Shifu, and Shigong, and Chen Laoshi would all be sad. (Well, okay, Dan Shigong would probably think it was cool. Actually Shifu and Chen Laoshi would think it was cool too, but not at the expense of my training.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-10 04:41 am (UTC)I think you would love it, yes. There's a ton of looking up, though, which might not do your neck and shoulders many favors. (I'm having to be careful how I manage craning my neck back when belaying someone else. The next time you're out here, if you want to go for a climb, let me know. :-)