Thursday, 6 January 2011

Critical Addendum


Apparently a few people actually read this blog, because I've had a couple of comments that my last post was unduly focused on negative aspects of my climbing trip. This is neither the intention nor the case, as it was focused on how I can improve, and on that trip there were a couple of things to learn from slightly unusual mistakes. Nevertheless I take the point that it is equally wise to learn from what one did right (I'm sure I've posted as much in the past), so here's some things I did right:

  • Training well for the trip beforehand via gym, routes, and bouldering. This helped me feel good physically.

  • Resting well when I had gayflu, so although I was still recovering, I had enough energy to climb well.

  • Good choice of warm-up routes. I chose routes to the level I felt happy with that day, and chose ones that would not tire me out too much.

  • Having the right inspiration. I stuck to routes that inspired me the most, so was prepared to put more effort in, rather than just climbing for the sake of it.

  • Resting well between routes at the crag.

  • En-route resting. I made good use out of milking rests and shakeouts.

  • Waiting for the right conditions. A couple of times I waited for shade and took advantage of cooler conditions.

  • Confidence doing moves. I generally felt okay going for it and not too bothered about short slumps on the rope.

  • Pulling quite hard. I noticed myself, when the holds were positive enough, cranking quite hard.

  • Exploring different options when a crux seemed unfeasible. This got me up a couple of routes that could have gone awry otherwise.


There you go :)

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