dagibbs | climbing at the gym

Went climbing with someone from the customer site. He used to climb back in his college days, but hasn't in years -- still had shoes & harness, though. (He's about my age.) Got to climb a bunch of the routes at the gym -- they're ratings seem about like what I'm used to. I could do most to all of the 5.9s, and some of the easier 5.10s. On the harder ones, sometimes I could make progress, sometimes not -- but many felt that if I had time to work them, I could finish them. (Fred climbed pretty well for not having climbed in a long time. His technique was ok, and while I think I had better hand/grip strength, he did better on overall strength, especially in being able to do pull-ups on the pullup bar even after we were done. But, I could hang my bodyweight of holds on that bar (slopey or fingery) that he just couldn't hold on to. Actually, I was kind of surprised that I could hold on to those holds, too. I don't think I used to be able to.)

And, plans have changed for the rest of the week -- climbing outside both tomorrow and Thursday, then dinner with Robin on Friday. The weekend will definitely have to be no-climbing, to recover from the 3 days in a row this week. But the chance to climb a different (real rock) wall in the greenbelt here on Wednesday was an added bonus I just couldn't pass up.

I also picked up a new type of climbing injury -- rope burn on my arm from falling and sliding along my rope.