Monday, February 14, 2011

My New Challenge

Aside from my love of travel, those who know me in person know how much I love a good challenge. I can be goaded into almost anything in the guise of a challenge. I say "almost anything" because I dohave some limits. Heh.

SM challenged me to see who can travel the most this year, and while we have decided upon very, very subjective criteria to decide who has the "coolest" trip, it promises to be a very fun one. (I hate to brag, but while SM has taken an early lead with a trip to Mexico, I am shortly on my way to Key West, and then to Portland Oregon. If you're reading this, SM, you're goin' down!)

This is not, however, the challenge Im talking about.

My latest challenge is to really learn how to rock climb. Im not talking about just going up any ol' route. Im talking being able to pick a route, stick to it, and use technique to get up to the top. Ive been doing some low-key bouldering for a while now, but Ive decided that it's time to kick it up a bit. Im looking to take a class on technique.

HB loves to climb on belay. I am not a belay type of person. I lost a piercing when my parachute deployed, and it was so painful and traumatic that I resist wearing a harness when I climb at all costs. I prefer the bouldering wall, where gravity is your worst enemy, and you know you're going to fall flat on your back. Hopefully you hit a mat, and not an unsupervised child running over your mat. (More on that some other day.)

Ive been climbing V0s for the last two weeks. Im getting progressively better, which is nice. I am not quite able to climb V1s yet, which is disappointing because theyre the next level up. Something to work at I guess. I need V0.5 so that I can improve a little without the frustration.

So far, its been a fun experiment. Ive been unable to open doors for the last few weeks, but thats how that works sometimes...

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