After I’d put La Serpiente to bed, and woken up myself with a numbed left arm, I headed up to Half Moon Bouldering, the climbing gym that’s just opened near us. It’s full of insanely difficult problems; nothing is easy there, and more frustratingly, a lot of problems look like they should be easy, until you get close and see that what appears to be a nice big juggy hold is nothing of the sort. Even the bottom grade stuff has some unwelcome surprises.
I went to Seattle Bouldering Project a few days ago, and managed about twenty minutes because I was too tired. I did an hour tonight and tried to remind myself of a few fundamentals:
Arms like a monkey, feet like a ballerina. Ideally you’re always crouching, up on tip toes, with your arms straight, so you’re relying on your thigh and calf muscles, and not stressing your biceps, which are weak in comparison.
Further, being on tip toe makes your feet more manoeuvrable so you can turn your foot around, rather than be jammed against the wall.
Be light footed. You should be placing your feet delicately and quietly, not banging into the wall
Further, it’s easy to focus on your hands, but your toes are at least as important. With poor foot placement, everything else goes wrong
I managed to do a few things I couldn’t do last time, which was encouraging, and I helped somebody else out, which always feels good. Now I’m exhausted again and have a crazy set of meetings tomorrow, so it’s to bed, to scheme and plan anew…