I've been cooped up climbing mostly in the gym due to bad weather and lots of work. In fact, I don't think I got outside once in the month of February! The weather is changing though and I have some fun climbing coming up in the near future.
Last weekend the weather finally was nice and I got out to Clear Creek Canyon for a day of climbing at the Wall of the 90s. I wasn't feeling super energized, but threw myself at one of the classics of the wall "Interstellar Overdrive" 5.13d. It took a bit to figure out the moves on the first go but after a while I had a sequence figured out. I lowered down to the midway rest and then TRed to the top clean. After some lunch and a long rest, I gave it a redpoint burn. I was somewhat pumped in the middle and not very optimistic, still I kept climbing through the crux moves. My fingers went numb, but I kept going move to move and I found myself at the end of the crux on a decent hold. Unfortunately, I was completely pumped and I couldn't feel my fingers. I had finished all the hard moves, but I couldn't hold on any longer and fell after my feet cut right before trying the last move. Couldn't have been closer. It was a bit of a bummer to fall so high. Still I was psyched that I got that far because I wasn't expecting much. Hopefully I'll get out soon to wrap up that project.
The big news is that spring break is in a week and a half. This means that I've got a good solid 10 days of outdoor climbing ahead of me. I've been training a bit in the gym and feel pretty strong. The plan is to go to Joe's Valley, but I've heard that the left fork is covered in snow. If it looks unclimbable there, I'll probably hit up Moe's Valley instead. Either way, I'll find some place to crank. Joe's would be the best because there are lots of new problems there I'm psyched to try. I especially want to try Masterpiece V13. This problem looks cool, hard, and a bit scary. Lots of others too. Can't wait, but I have to because I've got lots of work to do between now and then... work that I should be doing instead of writing this blog post.
Check out this site that has a lot of motivating photos and info about Joe's:
http://www.atxarteclimbing.com/
Here's a video of Masterpiece. This looks like the beta I'll use though I may see if a heel hook is possible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGwdAjqbzI
Also, I got my first round of new threads from Mountain Hardware and am really psyched on them so far. Lots of nice stuff.
