Great Day On the Wall... — Cultivating Mental Silence

Today I warmed up with the White 5.7 route upstairs on the 25ft wall. This is my go to warm up route because it is easy and allows me to work on technique like using my toes to initiate lifting myself up from my legs. After my warm up I went downstairs, to the 45ft walls, to take on…

The Green 10b in the Chimney…

After a shaky start I was able to climb this route with only 2 takes. It was challenging in that I had to use all 3 walls to create a path to the top. I did need the large Red hold 1/2 way up to put my feet on but that was the only time I used another color. Next it was on to the Orange 10c and Red 10b.

Orange 10c is on the far right, with the overhang. Red 10b is to its left.

The Orange 10c presented a problem I had yet to explore; an overhang. The overhang would require significant arm strength to get through. Did I have the strength in me to pull it off? Yes! Words cannot describe the feeling I had as I navigated that overhang. I kept saying to myself, “I am actually doing this.” My friends cheering me on was a huge motivator as well. In the end I only needed 2 takes (one where I swung left to right pretty significantly AND that did NOT bother me) before getting to the orange holds that are just to the right of the large Green hold before I came down. My belayer thought that it would be a good idea to stop there due to the distance between the Orange route and the Green route, which is where the lines for the route are…safety first. I felt proud and strong getting though the overhang.

The last route I tried was the Red 10b. I was concerned about the section where the white “1/2 moon” hold was. I wasn’t sure what the red holds would be like. I also wasn’t sure that I had the stamina to “send” the route after the energy I had expended on the Orange 10c. After a 5 minute break I decided to give it a try. When I got to what I thought was going to be the crux I realized that the holds weren’t 1/2 as bad as I thought. All that finger work with the Metolius wooden block must be paying off. I actually cruised through the route with only 2 takes.

3 routes 10b or higher, no more than 2 takes per route, and I flashed all 3. Today was a great day on the wall.