Bouldering

Justin and I have been rock climbing a lot the past couple of months.  Justin started the beginning of February and I had to join in on the fun the following month.  Since it is almost impossible for us to climb together during the week we have stayed clear of rope climbing for the time being and have focused more on Bouldering.  Bouldering is rock climbing but not nearly as high and so ropes are not needed, instead pads are used in case of a fall.  A simple rating system is used to indicate the difficulty of a given route.  Ratings range from V0 up to V16 which is currently the hardest boulder problem in the world.  We really enjoy climbing and love the thrill of pushing ourselves to become better climbers.  When I first started at the beginning of March I climbed the easy routes starting with V0's, and some V1's.  After a few weeks my hands toughened up and my technique improved to where I could do a V2.  That was a very exciting day for me when I climbed my first V2.  I have continued to work and improve and have slowly gotten a little stronger.  I am still not very good at overhangs but that is to be expected from such a weakling like me.  Most of my time is spent on straighter walls and possibly little overhangs that don't wear me out too much.  Because I'm not the strongest I have focused recently on the little holds.  I have gotten pretty good at holding my body with just the tips of my fingers.  Because of that I was able to do my first V3 last week.  I have done a handful since then and it's making me crazy because I WANT TO DO MORE!  I want to excel and be able to do moves that I never thought possible.  

I made this little video to show some of the stuff I've been doing.  All the routes are V2's (I'll have to show off some of my new V3's later).  While watching me climb these routes I've become more aware of moves that I made that could have been better, making the route easier and saving me some strength.  I still have a lot to learn, but I'll get there.

Justin is all around a better climber than me.  Besides the obvious muscles, he also took the beginning bouldering class and the following month took the advanced movement class.  He is pretty awesome about making sure his technique is good and lucky me he has been a great teacher.  He is better than me when it comes to training.  I just want to climb but he will literally spend all morning climbing all over the wall, up and down, side to side, just to make sure he is doing a move correctly.  Unfortunately I only have one video of Justin climbing.  It's a V4 and an overhang =/ .  My camera ran out of memory as he was reaching the top so I missed the awesome final grab, oh well.  He still looks awesome and makes it look so easy (trust me, it's not). 

Don't be surprised if you see more pictures and videos of us climbing.  We are addicted!