B
Blinky
Guest
Er, maybe indoor rock climbing was always like this and I just never knew about since I've generally avoided rock gyms. I'm trying it now cuz junior is into it and wants to go regularly.
I met a bunch of folks from meetups.com at a local gym for a few hours and Bryce and I mainly just climbed by ourselves. I was super disappointed at my finger strength, it's shit compared to the old days, but other than that it was great fun. 9000 square feet of gym with a thickly padded floor. They let you get your feet 15' of the deck without a rope so we fell and jumped and had a good time.
Then, I went to a different gym with the same group but no Bryce... there are some hot chicks in this group... a couple of'em approaching my age even. So they check me out on belay and I start climbing with the main guy who's only been climbing a few years... but he's supposed to be badass. I flashed every route he did and several he couldn't top out. I never even came off until I was on a 'yellow' route which was the gym's hardest level. This stuff was no higher than thirty feet so if you go fast there's no way you wear out. So, I thought that was a little odd but maybe he was having a bad day and I was having a good one.
Then we go for chow after and I get to talking to these guys. Most had climbed outdoors only once or twice. The red hot young guy (who was better than anybody else there) has lead but never placed his own pro... I think they call that 'Trad' now. WTF?!!
Man, when I started climbing I couldn't wait to get on lead. Now it's as if lead on regular rock is some exalted thing only for the most intrepid of souls.
You shoulda seen them when I showed the guy how to footlock. Suddenly we were surrounded by almost everybody in the gym. I could've charged for lessons!
Truly it was a fun experience, especially since I got to impress chicks and stuff but man, it's sooo different from the dirt bag days.
I met a bunch of folks from meetups.com at a local gym for a few hours and Bryce and I mainly just climbed by ourselves. I was super disappointed at my finger strength, it's shit compared to the old days, but other than that it was great fun. 9000 square feet of gym with a thickly padded floor. They let you get your feet 15' of the deck without a rope so we fell and jumped and had a good time.
Then, I went to a different gym with the same group but no Bryce... there are some hot chicks in this group... a couple of'em approaching my age even. So they check me out on belay and I start climbing with the main guy who's only been climbing a few years... but he's supposed to be badass. I flashed every route he did and several he couldn't top out. I never even came off until I was on a 'yellow' route which was the gym's hardest level. This stuff was no higher than thirty feet so if you go fast there's no way you wear out. So, I thought that was a little odd but maybe he was having a bad day and I was having a good one.
Then we go for chow after and I get to talking to these guys. Most had climbed outdoors only once or twice. The red hot young guy (who was better than anybody else there) has lead but never placed his own pro... I think they call that 'Trad' now. WTF?!!
Man, when I started climbing I couldn't wait to get on lead. Now it's as if lead on regular rock is some exalted thing only for the most intrepid of souls.
You shoulda seen them when I showed the guy how to footlock. Suddenly we were surrounded by almost everybody in the gym. I could've charged for lessons!
Truly it was a fun experience, especially since I got to impress chicks and stuff but man, it's sooo different from the dirt bag days.
I thought you were sick.....
I personally cannot believe the freakin skill and power it takes to do modern hard climbing. I ran into this guy on Half Dome( Hanging from rope) and he is Dean Potter your typical professional rock climber. He was trying out some futuristic project at the time and I checked it out.. Way hard as I could not even see any handholds. Anyways you probably could not have found a better place to pick up chicks than a gym where you are able to dominate but climbing has gotten WAY harder difficulty wise than it used to. Happy climbing
