Thursday, March 25, 2010

Joe's Valley

As many of you know, I tore a ligament in my ring finger last October while trying to complete a project in Joe's Valley. I was very close, falling on the last hard move on the previous attempt.

Driving back to Joe's Valley, I had more or less a single goal, to complete this problem I hurt myself on last fall. Its normal for me to obsess like this, but usually I am not so nervous about a climb. Not knowing whether my finger was ready was worse than knowing it wasn't.

My first day in Joe's, I got warmed up and went strait to the problem. I pulled on and did the initial campus move into the slot pinch. I felt good and not out of shape. I adjusted the pinch to get ready for the crux move. I started to pull, but felt a little pain in my ring finger. I hesitated for a second, telling myself everything was fine, but I knew better. The finger wasn't ready and the consequences of continuing would be severe. I dropped off, and put the project on hold again.

Being unable to do this climb right now, I'm turning my focus to other climbs. Climbs which I had neglected so I could climb on, or rest for my project. I was able to do a cool mono crimp problem (Hydrogenated Oil) that I first tried after my injury, since I pretty much only need my pointer fingers. This is an interesting problem and very difficult to grade. Consensus seems to be about v11, yet I know of at least a couple of strong climbers that find it very difficult. Yet there are also a couple of climbers that find it quite easy, including one that can do the crux moves in his approach shoes while talking to me about how easy it is :) Thats bouldering for you.

Also this past week I have done a number of very good problems up to around v9. Its been a lot of fun climbing and hanging out with friends, and I'm looking forward to my remaining couple of weeks here. Almost I have forgotten about the project... almost.

No photos to share yet due to the camera situation, but I was able to take some photos with a friends camera which may yield some decent photos in the near future. For now I have a video of a very cool climb I did yesterday called Playmate of the Year v9. Aptly named. Enjoy!

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