Climbing Week 3

Climbing last night was sooooooo good! I was a little worried because I did so badly the previous week but I think I may have had some kind of bug because I kept going lightheaded even when I was standing around doing nothing, so it wasn’t ideal!

This week my energy levels were up, I was feeling confident and determined to succeed! I clambered up a grade 3 climb in seconds so spent the rest of the evening attacking grade 4-6 climbs which offered a bit more of a challenge. I discovered I’m rubbish at smearing (sticking your foot flat against the wall and pushing yourself up) so will have to practice a bit more in that department, but really got to grips with shifting my weight around for optimum manoeuvrability, keeping my arms straight taking less weight on my muscles and more on my old bones, and managed to use some ridiculously small nooks and crannies to cling onto – at one point I was balancing on 1 big toe whilst reaching for a decent hand-hold! Ethan Hunt eat your heart out! ;o)

For the last 10 minutes of our class time we took to the bouldering walls where we were able to clamber around without ropes and harness. The bouldering area has a really deep squishy crash mat for a floor, so if you do happen to fall off it absorbs some of the impact and you won’t hurt yourself as much! As our instructor pointed out though, it isn’t completely hazard free – if you land on a funny angle injuries can still occur, so it’s always best to exercise a little caution and not fling yourself around with wanton abandon! It was whilst bouldering that I received my first climbing injury – I grazed the back of my hand and an elbow – extremely minor but in my mind, a momentous occasion as it marked the beginning of a whole string of dings I’ll receive having fun on the walls!

Unfortunately one of the members of our little posse had a mountain biking accident earlier in the week and wasn’t able to join us for our final class so the night wasn’t quite as good as it should have been, but we all did really well on our climbs and all felt a massive sense of achievement. We all passed our assessments and are now fully fledged members of the Harrogate Climbing Centre – yey us!

Our plan now is to carry on practicing for a few weeks, do the leading course and then take to the great outdoors!