Bird droppings

I posted videos of myself and chirik climbing last night.

I had quite a good night there, last night. I've been continuing to do my stamina training, and it really paid off. I did 4 runs up a 5.10a climb in a row. Guessing that the route was about 50 ft. tall, that's 200 ft. of climbing with only small breaks every 50 ft. And I didn't fall once! I've never done anything like that before!

I followed that up with doing 3 laps on a 5.10b. I did fall on each of the last two laps, but only once each, so it was still pretty awesome.

I ended my night with the lead climb I did up the 5.9, as shown in the video over on the other entry. I felt really secure and safe the whole way. It was my first lead where I felt strong enough to be able to handle it without having to worry about losing my grip and falling.

So that's 8 climbs in a single night, 6 of which were perfect, 1 of which was a lead.

It's a bit hard to believe that I'm actually doing this well at climbing. That I've actually got the stamina to hold onto the wall in these situations as long as I am. All of this training I'm doing is really paying off!

I took the test today.

With all of my practice and such over the past week, I decided to give both the climbing and belaying portions of the lead test a go.

I'd been thinking about just trying to do the test, regardless of my experience in the class. I've been able to do a couple mock leads without falling in a row, so I took one that I had a lot of practice on and just ran with it for the test.

I passed!

I am now lead certified at Planet Granite! I can lead belay *AND* I can lead climb!

Hooray! Woohoo! I did it!

My belay/climbing partner chirik was beautiful up there as well! She did a great job of catching me in my test-required fall, and did a great job climbing.

Hooray for us!

Well... I spent a fair bit of change this weekend.

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I went fake rock climbing for the first time today! It's at a place near where I work called Planet Granite. One of my coworkers is a member and goes constantly. It is so much fun! Once I am able to belay other people, I'm definitely going to have to bring some of my friends along. It's so crazy awesome!

I only panicked twice during the climb. The first time was on my first climb. I got about half-way up the wall, and then started to feel scared. My belayer offered to let me fall a little so that I could see how it worked. When I did so, I felt a lot better about the whole thing, and my panic subsided.

The second time was on my last climb of the day. It was my third climb of the day, and by far the most difficult. The climb was rated a 5.6 and was comprised of very small foot and hand-holds, much longer stretches, and moved over two different rock faces, slanted in opposite directions. It's still a pretty easy climb, but for my first time out, that was a hard one! I was almost to the top, stretched out pretty far to grab the tiny hand and foot holds nearby. My right side was on one rock face, and my left side was on the other. Something about that just totally broke my brain and I lost my shit. I was practically crying, I was so terrified. I was only a single step away from the top, too. I think I'm going to make that one my first climb next time, to try to get over that.

Even with the panic attacks, I had an absolute blast. It was so exhilarating to be climbing rock faces 30 feet into the air! It was quite a workout as well. I don't think I've ever even used those muscles before. Well... I have when I've done more minor bits of climbing in the past. However, those climbs were always up much gentler slopes. These climbs were more completely vertical.

Discovered an interesting thing about the way I process vision. My coworker and his friend were trying to show me how to tie the knot, and I discovered that I simply could not understand what he was showing me or talking about. It made no sense to me. But then he guided my hands through the motions, and I figured it out in just a few tries. By the end of the day, I could tie my rope correctly all by myself. Apparently, I can't understand the shapes of things, but I can quite easily grasp the motion of things once I've done it with my own hands. I guess that makes me a kinesthetic learner or something?

Anyways, I had a ball and totally intend to go back many more times.