Sprain, sprain, go away

You know how in my last post, I waxed poetic about subverting the climbing gods by not hurting myself on the one-year anniversary of my tragic Rocktown ankle sprain? Jinxed it.

Elaine, Caroline, and I rode to Rocktown on Saturday with one of the Chrises in spite of the fact that like, eight people had bailed on the trip on account of a cold, cold forecast. (I believe the high was going to be 34? 35? I keep trying to check Facebook and then forgetting what I am doing there and getting lost in engagement photos and something about Nancy Grace.)

It was indeed very cold. Like, 19 degrees when we arrived around 9. NINETEEN DEGREES. But we persevered because we love rocks, and we drove three hours to reach them, and we were probably too prideful to accept that everyone else had been wiser and we should've stayed home. At least, that's kinda how I felt. Also, I was a little afraid that if we began really voicing our misery we might start feeding off each other and collapse into a sobbing puddle of suffering.

On the bright side, we ran into a lot of friends! Including Atlas, our favorite climbing toddler. Apparently a bunch of groups from Athens (and not-Athens) had decided to forge through the cold. One group had even camped, which sounds just ugh, but good for them and their dedication...

I had really been wanting to get Caroline on Soap On A Rope (V4), so after numbing/burning our fingers a bit on the warmup Orb boulders, the three of us ladies got right to it (this was around the time when Chris found a supa strong bro squad to project with. Bye, Chris!). But we really couldn't feign enthusiasm in that cold, and soon we kinda gave up on seriously projecting it. It was a bit discouraging, but soon the sun came out and the temps rapidly rose.

So we went to Golden Showers (V5)! This is going to be my first five, I just know it. This time around, I finally stuck the sloper that had been SO HARD the previous weekend. Everyone humored me on it for a while, but once I started digressing, we packed up for The Hobbit (V5, aka Diamond in the Rough). This is a really cool problem with a slight incline and sloper jugs and fun beta you can make as swingy or as static as you want. Elaine is about to finish this guy, I progressed a few moves, and Caroline got farther on her first burn than I did during my first session. But eventually we all started to tucker out, so we decided to rest for a bit and move on.

Caroline on The Hobbit

We ended up at Screaming Church Girls (V4), Caroline's long-term project and the bane of my climbing experience. Seriously, this problem incorporates all of my least-favorite things about climbing: a high-feet sit-start, scrunchy static movement, and crimps that hurt — right before a long move to topout jugs that would ordinarily be no problem for me. This problem makes me feel like a giant frog with a giant frog butt and unusually long frog legs. It's one of those climbs I'll try twice on every trip and then scoff at.

But Caroline has been working on it for a year and a half, and she was determined to send. And between my grumbling, half-hearted attempts at the horrid thing, SHE DID!!!

It was a proud moment for us all <3

So then I tried a little harder and discovered some start beta with lower feet that worked for me. And I didn't send, but I got through all the scrunchy moves that had been so hard for me before tiring out at the big move, which was also exciting but still frustrating, so now I feel like I haaave to try it again... *grumble grumble*

So go Caroline!! After that success, we checked out a V4 none of us had tried before called Serendipity. It is weird-looking with a curved crack and — well, the beginning looks like this:

It goes up and left to this ball-y thing and is pretty high. Elaine eventually sent it (yay Elaine!), but I was still daydreaming about Golden Showers and didn't even get on this one. Instead, I headed back to that beautiful boulder, knowing somebody would have pads under it.

Actually, a lot of somebodies did. There was a crew working the adjacent V10, Golden Harvest, and another on my proj. So I hopped on, and lo and behold — I stuck the sloper and the undercling! Now I was getting excited — I just had to throw for the big slopers and top the thing out.

In retrospect, I definitely should have rested longer between burns. But I didn't, and I got tired, then sloppy, and then I fell going for the undercling — not even the slopers — and then I rolled my ankle.

It hurt. I swore. I took deep breaths and had a mental freakout waiting for shock symptoms to wash over me like last time, but they never did — my first good sign. Then I could kinda-sorta put a teensy bit of weight on it at just the right angle, another good sign. It still needed tape, though, and I was fumbling. This guy who had been working Harvest came up to me and was like, "Have you ever taped an ankle before?" "Um, not really," I admitted. "Me neither, but I'm really drunk right now," he said. I think he was kidding? The tape job looked pretty bad but served its purpose well. Thanks, possibly drunk ankle-taping man!

The whole thing was pretty embarrassing, but at least it was toward the end of the day. Chris found Elaine and Caroline, and we had a leisurely walk (hobble) back via the main trail. I was super bummed at first because this is the first weekend I've had off in a long time, and Evan and I had been planning a camping trip. But I've been icing it all week, so I'm hoping I can climb on it a *little* tomorrow. It is still a little swollen and kind of painful at times, and I will definitely wear a brace, but I've been walking almost normally the last few days without one. I've been calling it a "minor sprain" and drinking lots of turmeric. I'm just gonna take it *mostly* easy tomorrow.

In other news, Taylor and I have already failed on the 30-day yoga front. We decided we will start over in February. So maybe it will be 28 days of yoga? I dunno. Still better than no days of yoga!

And I am taking weight training! It's one of my PE classes this semester, and I am learning a lot. My deltoids and triceps have been sore this week, so I hope that means I will be stronger tomorrow. Because I am definitely going to Rocktown, and I am getting on Golden Showers, and it might be a bad idea, but this time I will bring my first-aid kit and an ice pack.

Summertime Radness: A sunny day at Rocktown

Remember how in my last post, I declared Little Rock City “my second-favorite bouldering spot?” Well, my first-favorite is Rocktown*. And after shredding my fingertips and ego bouldering at LRC, I was aching to get back to Lafayette**.

So on Thursday, I posted this Facebook status:

I didn’t expect it to work; most people seem to prefer air-conditioned gym climbing to summer bouldering. But I just had to go, and I hoped against hope to entice a carful of others dying to slide on slimy slopers in the Georgia heat.

And I did! Five folks wanted in on the foolishness, and although two of them backed out to nurse injuries (:(), at 5 a.m. on Sunday, my workweek dreams came true.

And this time, I wasn’t the only girl! Sitting with me in the backseat of Elliot’s car, listening to NPR’s Radiolab and also enduring the poorly prepared coffee struggle, was Lucy, Active Climbing’s favorite 13-year-old. It was her second outdoor trip ever, and I was psyched for her to try out some of the South’s finest sandstone.

Read Lucy’s take on the trip here!

After my Pancake Mantle meltdown at LRC, I went into this trip knowing it wasn’t a day to throw myself at anything. Psych was high, but expectations were low — the right balance of attitudes for a humid day of sloper-slipping.

Still, I couldn’t just walk past my projects! So we got on Trouble (V3), Isle of Beautiful Women (V4), Screaming Church Girls (V4), and Golden Showers (V5). Lucy made quick work of Trouble, and I alllmost topped it out like, nine times, but nothing else was gonna go. So we goofed off on 1s and 2s (some of which were still not gonna go) until our tips were raw. And it was so fun! Supastrong Chris even lead the way, finding easy climbs in my (brand new!) guidebook and seeking them out.

Chris worked a V7 for a while too. That's probably kind of like us working 2s?

It was weird seeing Rocktown so empty. We ran into just two other climbing groups, and only one dog, a sweet golden retriever named Veda. I took Lucy over to the Super Mario boulder, wanting to get her on its eponymous V3 (and try out Luigi and Yoshi myself), but the area had turned into fire ant territory, and there were cobwebs all up in dem holds.

Real life desertion.

So we played on jugs some more, destroyed our tips, and left for Athens. Now Lucy and I have a girls’ trip in the works with Caroline & co., and I can’t wait to use my newly purchased group pass when the friction gets good.

Oh, and also — my hair looked awesome on Monday. Remember how I gave up shampoo in July? Well, I think my hair is finally pulling through the adjustment period. I’m active enough that I have to do the baking soda and vinegar thing pretty often, but Sunday night, I didn’t even do that because a.) my fingers hurt too much and b.) it looked...fine. And even the following night, after only a rinse in 36 very active hours and a five-hour deli shift at work, it was shiny and voluminous and not gross at all. No 'poo for the win!

*~*~Footnotes~*~*

*First-favorite of the places I’ve been, that is; I’ve been told Horsepens 40 is magical, and I can’t wait to see it this fall.

**Pronounced “Luh-FAY-it;” #southernswag

V2 Tears: My pancake lament

Unrelated Soddy-Daisy sky shot

I hate Pancake Mantle.

If you haven't heard of it, Pancake Mantle is a V2 at Little Rock City (aka Stone Fort), my second-favorite bouldering spot. It is this goofy climb that requires you to pull yourself up onto this pancakey piece of rock and mantle/thigh-scum/desperately butt-hop to the top-out. It's like, three moves, and everybody thinks it's oh so funny and is like, "Have you tried Pancake Mantle LOL it's so funny right OMG you should do it right now DO IIIT" every time I'm at LRC.

Oh, yes. I've tried the insidious 'cake.

I'm gonna call myself a solid V3/V4 climber, but I cannot do Pancake Mantle. I've tried on four occasions, and I simply can't pull myself onto the pancake. Which I suppose isn't that surprising because I can't do a pullup on a bar either, but like, it's a V2, man. IT'S A V2.

So when I made an impromptu trip to LRC on Sunday with Evan and our friend Matt, I maybe should have passed Ole Cakey and just kept walking. But instead, I turned back to confront the enemy. And then I attacked it for thirty minutes, scraped my arm up, didn't send, and started to cry.

That's right. I cried at Pancake Mantle. "BUT IT'S A VEE TEWWW," I shudder-wept at Evan. I compared it to the myriad V3s and V4s I've worked that are "S-SO MUCH EASIER. IT'S NOT FUH-AIR. HOW IS THIS A VEE TEWWW?" I wavered between accusing the surely burly dude who probably graded this problem of taking his upper body strength for granted and not really knowing the life of a V2 climber and lamenting that I should be able to do any 2, 'cause I've been climbing for a year, man, and 2s are a thing of last July. After sitting on a rock and pouting/sniffling/breathing deeply for a while, I reluctantly moved to where the guys were working some V5 dyno and pouted over there instead. I felt better after sending Rib Cage (V3), which I'd projected before, but the feeling of Pancake Failure stayed with me.

But you know what? I need to get over it. Pancake Mantle is obviously not my style, and there are lots of problems that throwing myself at would actually be fun and productive. And although my pullup inability is definitely an obstacle to be overcome, the only reason this problem is so upsetting to me is because of that silly number.

'Cause really, in some ways the numbers are silly, and pretty subjective. Sure, V points are a good way to measure your general progress, but there's a lot more to climbing than grade-hopping. Here are some things I can do now that I couldn't do before I started climbing:

- open doors on campus with one arm instead of my entire body weight (gonna call this a V1 move)

- pour sugar with one hand on the bag and no spillage (V2)

- pick up industrial-sized bean cans with one hand (def V2)

- make it to the Kroger checkout without trading my produce basket for a buggy (V1/V2, depending on what's in season)

et cetera.

Also, some projects I will probably send before I get Pancake Mantle ('cause I will get it someday):

- Two Can Sam (V3, LRC)

- Swingers (V4, LRC)

- Super Mario (V4, LRC)

- Trouble (V3, Rocktown)

- Screaming Church Girls (V4, Rocktown)

- Isle of Beautiful Women (V4, Rocktown)

- Golden Showers (V5, Rocktown — I mean, maybe.)

Text break!

The rest of the day was pretty nice in spite of my breakdown and the 92-degree heat. The guys had a better attitude than I did and climbed fun stuff below their grades after working Red House (V7) for a bit. The coolest part for me, though, was all the critters that were out! We saw so many caterpillars. Also, salamanders (I think), but they were camera shy.

Anyway, next time I'm at Little Rock City, I'm heading straight to my projects. I may give Pancake Mantle a few courtesy tries, but if the send isn't imminent, I'll shrug it off and move on to Super Mario.

Pictures!

Same photo, different bro. #sorrynotsorry

Oh, yeah! And I changed the blog name to Eat & Climb, because well duh. And now I'm domain-name legit.