After work yesterday I cycled over to a fairly busy Lindfield Rocks to hook up with Viv for one of our now-traditional mid-week bouldering sessions. Though initially I wasn't feeling overly strong (having cycled to work and then from there up the big-ass hill to Lindy), I managed to crack a new-tick V4 on Orange Face (steep wall near Corals), after warming up properly, that is.
Memo to self: warming up on V4s not good idea. Warm up on V2s or lower!
After a few little problems in that area (Small Blank Wall, stuff around the Corals area), we headed for Walkdown Wall and First Wall for a crack at a few things. Viv wandered off at around six and I was left to crank out the hard-for-V4 traverse of First Wall, then head over to the highball area One Hold Wall, where I onsighted a direct V4 problem sans-mat. It felt soft for the grade, but I was climbing quite smoothly by this time. This left me with a nice feeling of accomplishment when Esther turned up to whisk us off to the Mona Vale Hotel, to see The Violent Femmes live. Excellent day.
I'm now up to a score of 5330 on 8a.nu, which is as high as I've been since joining. My former life would have put me up in the 8000-ish mark, I suspect, so there's a point to aim for. Green Traverse at Stanage rates about 700 8a points, for instance, and that was a many-ascents benchmark problem in my UK days. Need to get strong. And light. Again. And less pasty (that's coming along at least)
This afternoon, off to Lindfield again, this time with sketchpad and an extra spotter, hopefully to finish my ground-up affair with Blank Wall, which has been going on altogether too long, and if my tips hold up, perhaps a V5 or two. Wish me luck.
Postscript: as a public service, I've started adding Lindfield bouldering to the ACA website. I'm such a great guy, honestly, doing all this work for the benefit of others.
posted @ Thursday, February 15, 2007 11:04 AM