I sent Fruit Stripe yesterday!
On my first go I fell because I missed the blind-slot-deadpoint. In an unconscious effort to make my failure as spectacular as possible, I caught my foot in the rope on the way off the wall, flipped upside-down and caught my own fall with my own ankle. Ouch! Surprisingly I don't think I even have rope burn. Hooray! Anyway, I rested a bit, tied back in, and snapped it's neck.
It is crazy how hard a route can feel until you send it. It is also crazy how quickly you can develop endurance and the ability to recover (compared to strength at least). Two weeks ago I was getting pumped at the 3rd bolt, couldn't recover at any of the "rests", and couldn't link through the resistance crux. Then yesterday, I didn't start to get pumped until the second to last move (by which time the route was over), I recovered quickly at the rests, and cruised through the resistance section with enough energy left over to to nearly lock-off the blind-slot-deadpoint. So cool, climbing is great!
As for the grade of Fruit Stripe...this has been the source of great debate :) It flip-floped between .13+ and .14- for a while. Though after sending it and after climbing on the other routes we bolted (which are all harder than Fruit Stripe), I'll call it .13d. As much as I wanted it to be .14-, it's just not that hard.
Today is the last day of the trip. We are headed back up to the crag to clean up what is left of our fixed lines and draws. Oh yeah, and Ben is going to (he better!) put down the last of the Zebra Wall projects. The Double Bubble aka: Pool Shark project. He fell off the move to the finish hold yesterday, so I'm pretty confident he'll smash it this afternoon.
I was hoping to have some cool climbing pictures for ya'll but, it hasn't worked out. So here is a cool picture of Ben jugging up to clean up the Pool Shark project.
As for me?
LET BOULDERING/TRAINING SEASON BEGIN!
p.s. we saw two little brown bear cubs and their mom in town last night, 30ft away. We didn't get eaten. Nice.
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