Weekend Update
This weekend was A+ and not just because it contained nearly 10 hours of rock climbing.
Saturday I hit up the rock gym with Mechanical Pete and Simon the German. My arms were miserably sore from a Friday workout, but my hands were steel traps. I attempted a few 12’s, but didn’t have nearly as much success as last Thursday. I did come to a major realization regarding the 5.12 with which I have been struggling.
There is one particular move which is so perfectly awkward that it’s nearly impossible to do slowly. I’ve found that the discomfort level increases rapidly, almost to an asymptote, at that one move. See red line on graph:
The only way I can get through the crux is if I ride the comfort momentum and swing through the moment of difficulty, not unlike bridging the current spike on a MosFet. Note the blue line on the graph above. With this realization, I expect little difficulty in the future.
Saturday night I checked out Big Shot (a billy joel cover band) at the bar Rookies in Cromwell. I wasn’t entirely impressed with the bar, but the band was top notch. Their sound was so perfectly full. The singer sounded exactly like Billy Joel and the bassist had the most unbelievable look of apathy for most of the show.
Sunday, I zipped over to Main Cliff at Ragged Mountain and played with the routes Y.M.C. and Carey’s Corner. Devin, Irene, Mechanical Pete, Tony, Paulette, and Nick were there. It was a climbing party.
Carey’s Corner is a route that follows two unpleasent offwidths. An offwidth is a crack that is just a little too big to use a hand jam. Instead, you kind of have to stick half your body into the crack and torque your body to push against each side. Then you inch your way to victory any way you can.
It was a great weekend.
Offwidths, or AWFULWIDTHS, or just plain “OW! this hurts” are big enough to get your arms and legs in, but usually not passed the first joint. They are too big for “fist jams” not hand jams, and they can easily be bypassed if you are REALLY strong, like Mike D. Most “Real Climbers(tm)” skip offwidths.
I got pwned by said offwidth. I quickly discovered that offwidths = really akward climbing for me. Seriously, it must have been a show for onlookers. I will conquer that climb in a graceful way one of these days!
If ya’ll like the OWs, then we need to climb Tower Crack one of these days. You could pretty much skip the offwidth on Carey Corner, but on Tower Crack, you HAVE to use it.
I don’t know if it’s possible to climb an offwidth gracefully. Devin, was your lead up Carey Corner graceful? If it was anything like your attempt to pull Irene off the wall at the gym, it’s probably safe to say it was completely ungraceful.
ask Tony and Paulette
They saw the whole thing.
And I was leading, and since you seem hell bent on getting into it, I will teach you rule #1:
The Leader can do whatever he/she wants, without being subject to any ridicule/whining