Crimpy Crimpy Long Bitch
... or
I love bouldering. And I hate it.
As a little background, there are three major types of climbing: Top Roping (that's where a rope is set up at a point above you and you climb up to that point and belay down), Lead Climbing (where there are clips in the wall and as you climb, you clip the rope into the wall, bringing the rope up with you), and Bouldering (where you don't use a rope or a harness and you typically climb about 10 or 15 feet high). Both of the comps I've participated in were bouldering comps, and so is the upcoming Gravity Brawl.
I really started bouldering at the end of last year when my climbing partner Val hurt her ankle. I didn't have a regular partner to climb with, and bouldering you can do on your own. Then after I got my tattoo, I couldn't wear a harness for a month (as the harness laid right on top of my healing tattoo) so bouldering was my only option if I wanted to continue to climb while I healed. My climbing technique improved a LOT after forcing myself to boulder for a month. And I do mean force. I find bouldering very frustrating and sometimes intimidating.
Bouldering is frustrating because its hard. I'll work on a difficult problem, fall off, get back on, try again, fall off, repeat. They're called bouldering "problems" because half of the challenge is figuring out how you need to balance your body, arrange your feet or move your hands. Its frustrating when you work on the same problem for an hour and don't progress to the next move. But DAMN it feels nice when you get it.
Bouldering can be intimidating because you are often working on a problem with a bunch of other climbers either working on the same problem, or on a different one on the same wall. I get a bit stage fright sometimes. Its stupid, I know, but that's how it is. I don't want to fall, I don't want to make a bad move, and I don't want someone to see that I can't do it. But I push through it. The only way I'm going to get better is by climbing more. The only way I'll improve is by challenging myself on more difficult problems. And the only way I can work on more difficult problems is if I do it in front of the peanut gallery. So I do.
Tonight I wandered off to the back corner of the gym and found a new nameless V2 that Kathleen put up. Its long, and its crimpy, and its a bitch. Almost all the holds only use your finger tips, and there's one hold in the middle where you have to match your hands (i.e. put both of your hands on the same hold). Its crimpy and I can only hold onto it long enough to touch the next hold with my left hand before I fall off. I'll get it... once my fingers aren't as raw and my forearms aren't as pumped.
I like having a project to work on -- a tough bouldering problem that I think I can do, and its something for me to play on and work towards. Kathleen just put it up last week, so that gives me almost 2 months to figure it out. I'll get it.