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music |
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Gillian Welch - Acony Bell |
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So I had carrot cake and milk for dinner (what? It's veggies!) and I am having bourbon and tea for dessert. Being a grownup has its advantages.
I did indeed attempt that (unrated, but ptobably a 5.8) route on the skywall tonight--twice; the second time I got two holds higher than the first. But I failed to unclip the pro without pumping out and losing my grip, and once you're off this sucker you ain't getting back on. I think I can do it, though--I made it up the overhung part and started the transition to the vertical, and this particular route goes up the corner rather than across the roof, which is much, MUCH more doable.
Monday we try again.
As warmup for that, I did the easist 5.6 I could find (really did not want to get pumped) and then I went out back and did a moderately overhung 5.8, though not the one on the big wall (which I really need tocome back to). I finished the night on the slab, because I fell twice on the crux on that second 5.8 (turned out the trick was to stop messing around with the feet and just go big on the left foot left hand, because the right foot I was trying to step up on was useless except to balance against) and the second time I fell I almost stuck it... which is, of course, how you hurt yourself.
Anyway, I tried a pink route that Jeff suggested (It's not rated yet, and I had been avoiding it because it looked sketchy and out of my price range) and I sent it. Not without falls, and I did not do the headwall with elegance, but I sent it. Then I dropped down the headwall and kept working on that move on the yellow route on the same rope that still defeats me... and was defeated by it.
However, when I went over to check the "how do you rate this?" wall, it turns out that more than 50% of respondants were calling the pink one a 5.10-... which means, if the rating sticks, it will be my first 5.10.
Here are some photos of the skywall, by the way, so you can see what a beast it is. This is the front room's old paint job: it's much prettier now, having been done in red rock murals some time back. That horrible thing you can see off right in the second photo (the one taken from an elevation--which is to say, the stairs up to the bouldering cave) is the barrel vault, famed in song and bitching. The part you can see in this photo, where it bulges out there, is on top of ten feet of steep overhang.
The red route I have been talking about, the balancy one that's all splits and stemming, is in that back right corner there.
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The route I am working on goes up the vertical wall on the right of the Sky Wall, crosses the overhang at the top (there where it's in shadow), goes up that corner alongside the roof, and then straight up the vertical.
I may be figuring out this climbing thing. I am pretty pleased with me tonight.
 
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