Climbing 2022

It’s been a pretty good spring / summer, for climbing at least. A summary:

• December 2021 – Signed up for a lead class at RO – did the first half and then waited for lockdown to end, lol
• January 2022 – Lockdown. Worked out a bit. Did a lot of overtime at work. Read some books and read about indoor lead climbing from vdiff. Also read about outdoor sport climbing, anchor building, rapelling, etc. It was so damn cold I could only practice inside at home. It was too cold in the garage. Got some used shoes (Evolv Shaman). They were pretty decent.
• February – Finally finished the lead climbing course. Led in the gym, finally.
• March – Practiced outdoor skills in the garage. Still way too much snow. Worked out some more.
• 4 April – Visited Turtle. Snowy and wet. Built a quad at the practice anchor. Practiced some more in the garage and at the cargo net.
• 22 April – Rattlesnake. Outdoor climbing, finally. Flashed some routes; cleaned them. Climbed over several sessions.
• May – Rattlesnake, Buffalo, Turtle. Many more sessions.
• June – Bottle Glass, more Rattlesnake, Squamish: Murrin, Apron. Granite. Real rock. Lots of amazing hiking, etc. north of the city, Bowen Island, too. Have to go back.
• July – The entire month was hot as hell. Did lead solo for the first time at Rattlesnake, Turtle (shhhh), Bottle Glass. Top rope solo as well. Thanks, Petzl sale / Andy Kirkpatrick. Practiced with a buddy at the cargo net first before doing it at the crag. More climbing, harder climbing, finally flashed and redpointed 10a. Hey, take it easy, I’m new. Good partner(s). Metcalfe. Good shade, lots of deerflies. Started measuring and adding bolt data to familiar Milton routes. Halfway Log Dump, “secret spot” for some easy, safe bouldering.
• August – More Rattlesnake and Bottle Glass, still hot as hell. My RO membership is also good at Up the Bloc and Joe’s as well, so I started going to those gyms. Went to Psicobloc Open Montreal. What a fun time. The (women’s) route was like a really long overhanging 10a. The pro women were doing it in under 25s. I fell on the first attempt, which was easily the highest freefall I’ve ever had in my life. Maybe over 12m? The water smacked me hard. Topped it on my second attempt somewhere under 2m30. I was getting crazy pumped out and every subsequent ascent ended up in a fall only a few metres from the top. But hey, free drinks!
• September – Did a lot more TRS last week. To me, Excalibur (5.10c) is easier or more obvious than The Spider (5.10b). You can cheat a bit off-route on Gerard’s Route or Cobwebs, respectively. It’ll be nice to return to these later on this month, as well as So Good (5.10a) / Be a Hoot, Don’t Noise Pollute (5.10a).