and it was a very good day

after completing my post talking about feeling insecure and overwelmed, yesterday turned out to be a very good day. john was able to get us reservations to get into the park, which was a pleasent surprise. i will always be surprised when i get to climb here, due to the limited access.

we met a group of people at the warm up boulder, and they were talking about going to go do a problem that i had heard john talking about. i asked if we could join them so we all went to the next area together. after burning out on baby martini, we mentioned going to another area and a few of the guys asked if they could join us. our group of four ventured over to work on sign of the cross.
this problem is really good, but really illustrated how off i am my first day in a new place. for starters, i couldn't reach the starting holds without 4 pads (two pads and one folded). once i was on, i was getting through the first few moves but couldn't commit to toss to the next hold. my muscles and my brain just weren't getting along.

the guys sent the problem one by one and it was only me left. by now the rest of the group of nice people had returned, and were sitting around the problem amphitheatre style. oh boy. i tried the problem "one more time" and stuck the move! i was so excited i screamed and everyone else screamed... i went for the next hold, didn't quite make it and hit an intermediate. eek! as soon as i hit the wrong hold with my left hand, i felt my right hand expire. oh boy. i am all the way up there, one move away... no, mere inches away from the first of the finishing jugs and my right hand has gone on strike. i fell off and crawled away laughing so hard. what a rush. i laughed like i haven't laughed for a long long time. it felt so great to have a good support group and great spotters. i just can't believe that i've lost my ability to crimp after almost two months on slopey sandstone. i laughed and laughed, i used to really like crimpers and now they feel so foreign. what was really great though was the support i got from the group, even though the problems i was working were exponentially easier than what they were working.

so i like it here. people are nice... the way i see it, even if they climb v10, they're still human, and i'm not going to cower in fear rather than talk to them. when we left that area, i told them thanks for the support and one guy, who was on a rest day, said "hey, thanks for climbing something since we can't today."

adam (above) and eric (below) scoring the top out on "no one gets out of here alive"

john bearing down on "the sign of the cross"

jessica showing that caves really are dark, working towards the crux on "baby martini"