Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
My gym has a very long cave-like section for bouldering that I have been getting better at navigating over the past few months. These kinds of problems involve careful foot placement, holding in your core, being able to move dynamically to catch large holds, and being comfortable climbing on your back the whole way. Cave…
Tonight on the spur of the moment I decided to head to Ocean Beach to try my hand at outdoor bouldering for the first time. I read last night about a couple of spots in San Francisco for bouldering, one of which was very near me. So I decided to check it out. There was…
I was bouldering yesterday with my friend Susan when we saw this dude top a pretty challenging V3. “Good job!” Susan called up to him. Cause that is the kind of human that Susan is. When he came down we chatted a bit. He admitted that this was the first time in a year that…
This morning I finally topped a difficult V4+ boulder route at my gym, after three weeks of effort. I wanted to share some of my process for beating this route, and videos showing my progress over the last 9-10 sessions. Just getting through the first set of holds was a big challenge for me. Finally,…
About a year ago I added rock climbing to my regular workout regime. After going on a few sessions with my co-worker Jeff, I bit the bullet last September and signed up for a regular membership at my local climbing gym Planet Granite. That was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long…
At the end of the remarkable rock climbing film The Dawn Wall, pro-climber Tommy Caldwell, described what it was like planning his legendary free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan (my rough paraphrase): “For ten years I mapped out what I hoped was a climbable route up the Dawn Wall, never really sure…
I just remembered today that I had been outdoor rock climbing once, several years ago. And it was kind of a disaster. I was in my late twenties living in New York City. One summer, I had met a lovely woman at a Quaker gathering who took a shine to me. She invited me over…
I’m so excited to see the documentary Free Solo in a couple of weeks, the story of how legendary climber Alex Honnold ascended Yosemite’s El Capitan with no rope, no harness, just his chalk bag and balls of steel. In the meanwhile, this 360 video showing a bit of Alex free soloing El Cap will…
Had a surprisingly good climbing day today. Without really intending to, I managed to scend my first V4 problem! I also made some good progress on this V5.
As a newbie climber, I can fall into the trap of continually comparing myself to other, more experienced climbers. From this perspective, other climbers are the competition, and their successes make me look like a worse climber in comparison. I’d see someone scend a hard route and think, “I will never be that good.” Not…