go.vertical

karl and i climbed, and david was a wuss and just bouldered. they didn't even give us a belay test, like they are no doubt supposed to. we just showed up and blinded them with our preparedness (i had printed out the waivers at work and they were already signed and stuff) and they forgot to ask. well, actually, they did ask, but that's all (do you know how to belay? yup. mm hmmm. sure do.). so i gave karl a quick lesson and off we went. it's not hard, of course, and he did fine.

climbing is tiring, especially if you're not used to it, because it uses all sorts of muscles that aren't normally supposed to be sore. i mean, everyone knows that if you do something silly like lift heavy weights, the muscles that did the work will be all unhappy and sore the next day, and you will make old person grunts when you do such previously easy things as sit on the toilet. but you may not know that after you climb, you will be in pain everytime you do such ridiculously simple things as type on a keyboard or grasp a cup of coffee.

it's like being a kid again, climbing is. there you are, holding on to brightly-colored, funny-shaped knobs on a brightly-colored, very tall wall. you have maneuvered your body into some contorted position because the bright green knob under your left foot is not part of the route you are trying to climb, but the orangeyswirly one three feet to your right is, and there's no way you're going to reach that tiny mauve one above your head unless you put your foot on that one over to the right. [note here: holds in rock gyms are labeled with colored tape to mark pre-set routes up the wall. the routes have been rated for difficulty (see the rating scale here), and you're supPOSED to follow the routes. if you want to challenge yourself technically, that is. which you may or may not want to do, given your climbing ability and life philosophy.] when you get to the top, you get to look all around and generally feel very high in the air, then you get to fall off the wall and be lowered to the ground at a rate depending on the whims of your belayer.

the gym we went to, go vertical is good. heated, well lit, free parking (a major bonus in the city, i tell you what). though, if i had to make one minor complaint, it would be that there are no slab walls (slab refers to a wall that slopes ever-so-slightly away from you as it rises. then there's vertical, then overhung, which slopes (sometimes gently, sometimes extremely) toward you as it rises. check out this photo, of a woman climbing an overhang.). there are a few vertical ones, and the rest are overhung to various degrees. overhangs are hard to climb. they require more strength than to slabs and verticals. i have no such strength. nor do i have the technique that would substitute for strength. so i'm screwed, basically, and get tired really fast.

anyway, it was fun, and i think karl had fun too, though i haven't actually asked him. we'll see if he ever wants to do this again.