Weekend

Exhaustion.

This past weekend I was finally able to get out and have a good full weekend of climbing! My buddy Mike and I headed up to Jackson Falls in So. Ill. on Saturday morning and proceeded to see that most of everything at Jackson was still soaked from the light showers we got Friday. However, the falls were raging and gorgeous, and all of the freestanding boulders were pretty dry so on Saturday we pretty much chilled at Spleef Peak.

I can't particularly say that it was a great days worth of climbing for me, because it was such a huge readjustment from the climbing that I have come to know at Kings, but things weren't too bad. I did get completely shut down on "Master Marley" a pretty classic 10.a at Jackson and it was pretty humbling. However, immediately after that I TR'd the nose var. (11.a) and could have red pointed it pretty easily it seemed. Later Mike and I went over to the back side of Spleef and set up TR on a super hard 12.d and totally got worked. The line starts out with a sweet lie back section that proceeds disappears into really thin face climbing up the rest of the route. It's great for me to get on these things I feel because it really enables me to push my limits and see the areas where I'm weak and really need to improve.

Sunday, Andrew, Kevin, Katelyn, Alex, and Christine came up and we all headed back out to Spleef for a quick warm-up or two. After that Mike and I jetted pretty quickly from the group because we wanted to work on Lovely Arete (11.a). I led it up first taking my time to figure out the moves and really only took one fall while I got pretty sloppy. After that I flew up the rest and was actually ready for a red point go. BUT, first I wanted to give Hidden Treasure, a super-classic 12.b a go on TR. I made quick work of the lower section then got into some trouble on the upper part where you traverse on tiny crimps with thin feet. I made it through that with only 2 falls I believe and then sank the huge dead point to another tiny crimp. Thinning skin however wasn't liking the dead point and I popped a small flapper on my right index finger that bled all over the place. After cleaning that up and taping it up we went on to have a pretty good rest of the day. I got back on Lovely, but just on TR to clean it up and then we went to Pricker peak and set up on some cool routes that were moderate and a great way to cap the day off!

King's

Well I finally made it back outside to do some climbing for the first time since spring break. I have been training a lot at home though, which really feels like has been making quite a big difference in my climbing. I can definitely tell that my contact strength is getting a little better which is good because I want to be in the best shape as possible for this summer. Yesterday, since everything was pretty much soaking wet we really only climbed on easy stuff.

However, we did get on some 10's and I flashed a cool 10.a called "The Process." It was a fun route and the crux kind of revolves around a lock off move on a big flake to a left hand crimp, moving the right hand up to a moderate crimp and then getting your feet again to make a long reach to a pocketyish ledge. A good fun route and it was definitely nice to tick something like this on lead. I also got the chance to get back on "Ritz Bitz'' a really fun 10.c that I've really felt comfortable on since my first time and I think I might give it a shot on lead the next time down to King's. Post climbing, Andrew cruised over and we did some campusing and pull-ups and to I'm pretty good and sore now.

He got some shots of the climb and who knows if it's convertible to dvd I just might be able to post it on here!