Sunday Sunday Sunday!

The weekends seem to be the only time I have been able to get outside. It took two Sundays to get out. I haven't been out a ton because of the location I am residing in, but none the less, my psyche has returned.

Fruit Loops and coffee: breakfast of champs

This past Sunday was one of the best climbing days this year. My friends Jeff, Nina, and I ventured once more to RMNP for some more bouldering action. It was Jeff's birthday and first time back outside since recovering from injury. Jeff climbed well; sending Tiger Stripes and The Kind seemed to be the perfect come back for him. Both of them really get me psyched to climb and try. It wasn't hard to see the infectiousness of psyche that Nina has for climbing. Sending Mr. Wimpy, Tiger Stripes, Gang Bang, and Handicaps (the later two being 1st try of the day and 3rd try of the day respectively) was pretty damn cool.

"it's an awfully long walk" to get to these boulders

She spurred me on to do  Mr. Wimpy sit, Mr. Wimpy, Tiger Stripes, and the Kind while we climbed down at Emerald Lake. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Our skin just stuck to the rock like Velcro. The downside was warming up our fingers numbed out. But it's not a big problem when you prepared and pack a down jacket to keep you warm. Yes, it's summer. So why do you need a down jacket when you're climbing in the summer? It's the mountains, for starters. Weather changes, wind picks up. In short: always be prepared.

After our time at Emerald Lake, we decided to hike up to Lower Chaos to finish the day. We had to stop a bit to let an elk pass off the trail (a big one too) before continuing on up the trail. The hike isn't that bad to get there. It's 45 minutes to an hour hike (depending on your fitness level). Jeff was just excited to be back out and since it was his birthday (Happy Birthday!) we went to The Centaur boulder to finish the day off. Both of tried Gang Bang Arete. You can do harder climbs, and yet still get spanked on low balls. Both of us made small progress but came away empty handed. I tried to hide the frustration, but being spit off the same move repeatedly doesn't help. After Nina made quick work of Gang Bang AND Handicaps, I opted out of going to Deep Puddle Dynamics in hopes I would come closer to sending. Insanity had set in.

What is insanity?
Insanity (n)

1. Madness
2. Extreme foolishness or irrationality

Justin Alarcon in Rocky

It being apparent that I was doing the same thing over and over expecting different results every time. Sounds foolish in hindsight. The problem has taught me that compression climbing is a weakness of mine. I cannot squeeze hard on rock. The rock gods said "Not today son," (quote by Joe Czerwinski) for Gang Bang. Behind the problem is a shorter problem called Taurus. Three moves leads you to a mantle with no other holds after the lip holds. Flash potential…if you can keep your feet on the rock and not hitting the ground. It was a good problem to burn off the frustration and madness. It's not worth it to ruin a day with anger over a boulder problem. Sometimes you have to walk away from a problem or route for a while. If you don't want to do it and fool your self with some false hope that you do, you won't do it. 

Small progress and learning things like that are what make it all worth my time and effort. 

Thanks for reading!