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July 5, 2009

i'm still here

I haven't been blogging much lately. Facebook is the new blog I guess. I've been meaning for ages to follow up on my last post - the stellar weekend that ended with wale watching. The Saturday saw a new rock climbing personal best. A grade 21 called Girly Germs in the Blue Mountains. Those of you paying attention will know I've been talking about recent grade 22 climbs that I've done so why is Girly Germs a PB? Well it's the first 21 I've climbing in an 'on sight' style - that is to say I did it on my first attempt with absolutely no 'beta' - tips or prior knowledge of how to climb it - or even seeing someone climb it. I walked up to, climbed, and that was it.

I spent the rest of the day falling off of long (25 meter) harder climbs (22 and 23) and realized that my endurance needs some serious work.

The weekends since have been cold, wet and/or windy - I've been spending a lot of time at the climbing gyms. I say gyms because there's a second gym - a bit further from home - that I'm spending more time at. Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym is taller than my local, Climb Fit. And since I'm working on endurance... a taller gym is a good thing.

In addition to having longer routes the Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym also grades a lot of their routes. I don't know why Climb Fit doesn't do this but they just don't I guess. I'm working on a long term goal to climb grade 24 - gym climb 24s don't count - but today, at the SICG I did a 24 on top rope. It only took two attempts and it was very hard work. Now, I don't count that for the long term goal - that's for outdoor climbs on lead but what is interesting is that this is the first climb marked 24 (or 7a+ or 5.12a) in any gym I've done. Good for the confidence that is :D

Posted by yankinoz at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)